Arctic Tern
Arctic terns make the longest known migration of any animal; tracked birds have flown around 70,000–90,000 km in a year, following winding routes between the Arctic and Antarctic.
Worldwide
Barn Owl
A barn owl can catch prey in complete darkness using hearing alone, thanks to ears set at different heights on its head.
Barn Swallow
Barn swallows breeding in Britain spend the winter in South Africa, flying about 10,000 km each way.
Bumblebee
Bumblebees can ‘buzz pollinate’, vibrating their flight muscles to shake pollen out of flowers such as tomatoes and blueberries.
Dragonfly
Dragonflies are among the most successful hunters on Earth, catching their prey in flight in up to about 95 percent of attempts.
Dung Beetle
Some African dung beetles use the Milky Way to navigate at night, the first animals known to orient by our galaxy.
Earthworm
Charles Darwin’s last book was about earthworms, and he estimated they bring many tonnes of soil to the surface on every acre of land each year.
Firefly
In the Great Smoky Mountains, thousands of fireflies of one species flash in unison for a few weeks each summer, so popular that viewing is managed by a lottery.
Great Egret
In the late 1800s, great egrets were hunted almost to extinction for their breeding plumes, and outrage over the trade helped launch the modern bird conservation movement.
Honey Bee
A honey bee tells its nest-mates where to find flowers by performing a ‘waggle dance’ that encodes the direction and distance of the food.
House Sparrow
House sparrows have lived alongside people for about 10,000 years, since the beginning of farming, and are now among the most widespread birds on Earth.
Jumping Spider
Jumping spiders have some of the sharpest eyesight of any animal their size, and some species plan detours to reach prey they cannot see directly.
Ladybird
A single ladybird can eat several thousand aphids in its lifetime, making it a gardener’s best friend.
Mallard
Mallards can sleep with one eye open and half of their brain awake, and ducks at the edge of a group do this more often to watch for predators.
Mosquito
Mosquitoes are the deadliest animals to humans, because they spread diseases such as malaria, which kills around 600,000 people a year.
Osprey
The osprey is the only raptor that plunges feet-first into water to catch fish, sometimes disappearing completely below the surface.
Peregrine Falcon
In a hunting dive, the peregrine falcon is the fastest animal on Earth, with speeds recorded above 300 km/h.
Praying Mantis
Praying mantises are the only insects proven to have 3D vision: scientists tested this by fitting them with tiny 3D glasses.
Stick Insect
The longest insect ever recorded is a Chinese stick insect about 62 cm long, including its outstretched legs.
Tardigrade
When dried out, tardigrades enter a state called a tun and can survive extreme cold, heat, radiation and even the vacuum of space.
Termite
Some termite mounds are so well ventilated that engineers copied their design to cool a building in Zimbabwe without conventional air conditioning.