Each year, the Arctic tern leaves its breeding grounds near the North Pole to spend the southern summer in Antarctica, then returns: about 70,000 km of zigzagging over the oceans. Over a lifespan of some thirty years, that adds up to around 2.4 million kilometers. It is the longest migration known, and no animal sees more daylight.
In 2022, a young tagged bar-tailed godwit flew from Alaska to Tasmania in about 11 days of nonstop flight, covering 13,560 km without eating, drinking or landing. Before departure, these birds pile on huge fat reserves and shrink their digestive organs, which are useless during the journey.
To escape rivals, a dung beetle rolls its ball of dung in a straight line. At night, it holds its course using the glowing band of the Milky Way. In a planetarium, researchers showed that beetles rolled straight under a starry sky but wandered aimlessly when the galaxy was switched off. It was the first animal known to navigate this way.