【推荐1】Rabbits are a courageous little species able to live on every continent, except Antarctica. Alongside the beginning of 2023, the new Year of the Rabbit has started!     1    

Cultural image of rabbits in China

Rabbits are instinctively quiet but agile (敏捷),which suits traditional Chinese aesthetic values of being gentle and cultivated. There is a view of rabbits in Chinese culture as being smart and gentle.     2     , a Chinese idiom praising people who are smart and agile like a rabbit.

Legend has it that there is a Jade Rabbit living on the moon which is the pet of Chang’e, a goddess widely known in China. This can explain why rabbits are regarded as an auspicious sign.

Also, in ancient China, it was common sense that the more children you had, the luckier and happier you would be. This belief made the rabbit a popular sign of good fortune.     3    

Cultural image of rabbits in the West

Similarly in the West, rabbits are full of vitality and fertile in nature, with populations growing to enormous sizes in short amounts of time. Rabbits are also considered to be incredibly lucky in the West, with several traditions illustrating how to gain the animal’s good luck for yourself.

A hunter being able to catch a rabbit in the first place is also a sign of good luck. Another tradition for good luck found in North America and the UKKis to say the word “rabbit” on the first morning of every month.

    4     It is a rabbit that Alice follows in the story of Alice in Wonderland to escape the normal world and helps to begin her adventure. Rabbits are also related to Easter, with the Easter bunny being thought to be in some way related to the chocolate eggs eaten at this time of year: While the animal appears in many different places, it is always seen as an animal to be welcomed.

So, now it is the lucky animal’s turn on the Chinese zodiac.     5    

【推荐2】The last known eggs of the Great Bustard (鸨) were taken in 1832, and the bird was nearly extinct by the end of the 19th century, a victim of hunters. In 2004, the endangered species was reintroduced to Salisbury Plain, with the aim of establishing a self-sustaining population here.

The Great Bustard Group (GBG), the charity behind the release, was set up in 1997 and it has now been 16 years since the initial 10-year trial began. Long-term volunteers Fred and Rona Andrews have been involved from the start and, working as part of a team, have helped raise over 200 chicks from eggs sourced abroad.

“For the first week the chick needs to have food placed in its bill, so we use a feeding puppet to imitate the behavior of the parent,” explains Fred. “It is quite hard when the bustards are young because they need feeding every hour and it takes a long time to feed one.”

Great Bustards reach maturity at about five years old. “Seeing the first wild bred chick out on Salisbury Plain in 2009, shortly after it hatched, was a proud moment for me,” says Rona. On average, 12 chicks are released each year on to Salisbury Plain and in 2018 the survival rate was 100 percent.

“The aim has been to reach a population of 100 birds,” says GBG executive officer David Waters. “Now we have that number, and we are hoping the population will continue to grow by natural reproduction.”

“Being involved with the world’s heaviest bird alive today that can fly has given us both a greater knowledge of birds, conservation and farming,” states Rona. “We are contributing to an important conservation project that also benefits other species.”

【推荐3】Connie Thanasoulis-Cerrachio says everyone in her home has been happier and healthier since getting their dog, Sophie. “We all started to get physical exercise,” she told CBS News. “We walk her four to six times a day.”

Connie and her husband welcomed Sophie into their home five years ago at a difficult time in their lives—Connie's parents had died just a few months before. She says Sophie helped her feel better.

“It just brought me out of that sadness,” she said. “It's added a lot of happiness to our home and we couldn't imagine life without her here.”

The family may be onto something when it comes to getting a pet to improve health and well-being (幸福).

A new report from Harvard Medical School found that having a dog can reduce a person's blood pressure and help people lose weight and keep healthy. Research shows dog owners are more likely to get the two and a half hours of exercise each week that experts recommend.

Report author, Dr. Elizabeth Frates, says owning a dog can also have many other benefits, such as reducing loneliness and stress. “When a dog owner looks into a dog's eyes and pets the dog, the owner will feel good,” she told CBS News.

The new report supports past research that found pet ownership, particularly dog ownership, associated with a lower risk of heart disease. The American Heart Association once reviewed previous research on how pets affect human health and found that owning a pet was good for people's health. The study was published in the journal, Circulation.

Dr. Frates said if you are not currently very active and are thinking about getting a dog, it’s best to work up to it slowly. She suggests walking for 10 minutes a day a few times a week to start and then build up to more walking time.