Science

Buildings were weaving in and out. The street pitched like a stormy sea. Bricks were raining down all around him. The ground shook with such violence that Jacob thought the world had come to an end.

Born on a crocodile farm in Zambia's untamed South Luangwa Valley, the puppy seemed different from his littermates. Too quiet. Unresponsive. Terriers are usually full of energy and bouncing off walls. But not this one. Nobody wanted him. Enter Anna and Steve Tolan-former police officers who had left behind their life in England to live in the African bush. People thought the Tolans were a bit different, too. The peculiar puppy suited them perfectly. They named him Bulu, or "wild dog" in the local Nyanja language.

Meet rufa red knot B95. Scientists call him the Moonbird because, in the course of his astoundingly long lifetime, this robin-sized shorebird has flown the distance to the moon — and halfway back! Each February he joins a flock that lifts off from Tierra del Fuego, headed for breeding grounds in the Canadian Arctic, nine thousand miles away. Late in the summer, he begins the return journey. B95 can fly for days, but eventually he must descend to refuel and rest.