The vast majority of research in the neurosciences (over 75%) focuses on 3 species, the rat, mouse and human (or ~0.0001% of known nervous systems), in an effort to discover answers to problems in human mental health; however, this translational paradigm has not been particularly successful in improving human health and curing diseases. Throughout my career I have consciously chosen to examine the brains and behaviour of much lesser studied mammal species, with no translational agenda in mind (curiosity-driven science). In this presentation I will show two examples from my curiosity-driven comparative neuroscience research that have the potential to lead to very important translational outcomes, for both human health (improving sleep) and health of the planet (conservation of biodiversity and mitigation of human-induced climate change).