【推荐1】Matt Kauffman is a wildlife researcher at the University of Wyoming. He leads the Wyoming Migration Initiative, which studies the migratory (迁徙的) paths of animals like deer and elk (驼鹿) in the American state of Wyoming.

In 2019, Kauffman and other scientists were talking at a conference in Italy. He began learning that wildlife around the world had the same difficulties faced by Wyoming’s migratory deer and elk. “We just naturally got together, and nine or ten of us are working on migrations around the world,” Kauffman told Jackson Hole News & Guide. “We realized that a lot of the same things we were trying to address by mapping migrations in Wyoming were applicable globally.”

Their talk in 2019 was the beginning of an international effort that now includes 92 scientists and environmentalists. Their effort is called the Global Initiative on Ungulate (有蹄类动物) Migration. The aim is to gather information on the seasonal movements of gazelles in Mongolia and Norwegian reindeer. The hundreds of paths would then be presented in an electronic migration map. The researchers wrote a report that recently appeared in the publication Science.

The report describes how animal movements over long distances to get food and other resources are not doing so well. The main reason for the struggles comes from land development by humans. Roads and fences create barriers for the animals, restricting their movement. And the warming of the planet has also unsettled environmental systems.

Joe Ogutu studies migratory east African wildebeest, zebra and Thomson's gazelle for the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart, Germany. Since 2015, he has watched the ungulate migration called Mara-Loita in southwestern Kenya stop working because of fence-building and sharing land space with hundreds of thousands of sheep and goats. Ogutu hopes that the Global Initiative on Ungulate Migration will bring attention to the Mara-Loita migration and other at-risk paths. “Publicity and attention,” he said, “will hopefully lead to its restoration and protection.”

【推荐2】The tickbird and the giraffe have a connection relationship that some scientists describe as win-win relationship and some as parasitism (寄生). This interspecies partnership is imbalanced in favor of the giraffe because it can live without the tickbird, while the tickbird is dependent on the giraffe for food resource.

The giraffe is a large mammal that lives in Africa along with other large grass-eaters. All these and many others host the tickbird. This bird has long been thought to remove ticks (扁虱) from its host, to the benefit of both—the bird eats the ticks, and the host is relieved of blood-sucking, disease-carrying insects—but recent studies reveal that this process is less than good. A secondary benefit to a host from the tickbirds’ presence is a sort of early warning system, since the birds make a loud sound if they sight an enemy. This is of less benefit to the giraffe than to other hosts because the giraffe has the advantage of great height and keen eyesight and is fully capable of spotting predators without the bird’s assistance. The tickbird is likely of greater benefit in this capacity to the nearsighted rhino.

They cross through the host’s hair looking for insects as their food. According to the researcher Paul Weeks, reporting in the journal Behavioral Ecology, tickbirds can and do enlarge tick bites and other wounds on their host body to seek for food resource, making the host-tickbird relationship unfair. The host, like the giraffe, however, would have a hard time keeping tickbirds off itself. So they tolerate the birds who cling to their bodies and chow down selectively at the buffet on the giraffe’s body.

【推荐3】The narwhal is a mysterious resident of the remote Arctic. The species, a relatively small whale is known for growing a spiral tusk （螺旋长牙）that resembles the historical description of a unicorn's horn.

Experts have long speculated why narwhals have this strange long tooth. Some think that the tusk is a tool for survival, as they could possibly use it to break up ice or spear fish for meals. However, the vast majority of female narwhals don't have tusks, and females tend to live longer than males. Most scientists now think the tusk provides no advantage for survival, but rather acts as a sex characteristic and determines the social rank. But the tusk may also have another purpose. A 2014 study found the narwhal's tusk is full of sensitive nerve endings that allow the whale to detect changes in the environment, such as changes in temperature and salinity. The finding suggests that the tusk might also be a sensory organ.

Narwhals are an important subsistence resource （生存资源）for high Arctic communities. They provide the humans with high-calorie fat, protein and nutrients, vital and hard to come by in the harsh northern winters. Narwhal tusks were carved into artworks and sold to support families with few job opportunities.

Narwhal tusk is protected now. But similar to all other Arctic wildlife, narwhals are likely to struggle in the face of climate change. Warm temperatures in the Arctic have caused sea ice to disappear at an alarming rate. New shipping channels have become accessible, threatening narwhals and other marine mammals. Researches suggest that narwhals are the most vulnerable （易受伤害的）marine mammals to human activities in the Arctic because these isolated creatures are highly sensitive to ship activities. Their response to changing conditions near the pole could provide insight into larger changes in Earth's future.

【推荐1】A Guangzhou-based company that runs the world's largest factory of mosquitoes used to control the species signed agreements Tuesday to control mosquitoes in Beitun, Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

Guangzhou Wolbaki Biotech Co will help Beitun city in Xinjiang's Altay prefecture(地区) fight mosquitoes. The Altay region is one of the world's four places with the largest mosquito population, said Xu Longquan, deputy mayor of Beitun.

In spring and summer, when the snow on the Altay Mountains melts, water from reservoirs (水库)runs into forests and meadows（草地）and forms swarms(沼泽) and pools that become breeding grounds for mosquitoes, Xu said.

Between May and August, which is a local tourism peak season, the number of mosquitoes soars（激增）, annoying local residents and tourists, he said.

Although efforts are made every year to control mosquitoes, it is hard to tackle the problem at the root.

Guangzhou Wolbaki chairman Xi Zhiyong, who is also director of the Laboratory of Tropical Disease Control and Prevention at Guangzhou-based Sun Yat-sen University, has led the research on using mosquitoes to eliminate mosquitoes.

In the research, male mosquitoes are infected with Wolbachia, a bacterium that exists widely in many insects, including mosquitoes.The eggs produced by female mosquitoes that mate with Wolbachia-infected male are infertile(不能生殖的) and that helps lead to reduced mosquito numbers.

Xi also said :“ The company will apply this kind of method to the control of mosquitoes in Beitun, hopefully, we will help improve the life of locals and tourists’experience.”

【推荐3】As celebrated in the United States, the holiday of Thanksgiving usually centers on a big meal. Typical dishes include bread stuffing, potatoes, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, and above all, turkey. How did turkey become the centerpiece (最重要的菜) of this meal?

It is often assumed that today’s Thanksgiving menu originated in an event commonly considered as the “first Thanksgiving”. There is indeed evidence of a meal shared between Pilgrim settlers and Wampanoag people in late 1621, but historians think it’s not sure that turkey was served. They believe that the Pilgrims provided wild fowl (飞禽), while the Wampanoag brought deer for meat. Passenger pigeons, ducks, and other birds may have been the main course. Turkey, if present, was likely a side dish.

In 1789, George Washington issued a Thanksgiving Proclamation (正式公告), marking the first official celebration of Thanksgiving in the US. However, turkeys were not yet related to Thanksgiving. About 38 years later, the writer Sarah Josepha described a New England Thanksgiving, with a roasted turkey placed at the head of the table in her novel Northwood. In 1863, after President Abraham Lincoln announced Thanksgiving a national holiday, and turkey has since become a cherished tradition in Thanksgiving celebrations.

At that time, Americans didn’t have access to supermarkets. But large numbers of wild turkeys lived on many people’s land, making them easy to get for the big meal. Compared to more expensive meats, turkey also provided a much lower price and could feed larger groups of people because it weighed more. These made turkey a practical and appealing choice, contributing to its long-lasting popularity as a centerpiece for Thanksgiving feasts.

Today, turkey continues to stand as the star of the Thanksgiving feast, symbolizing tradition, warmth, and the cherished moments shared with loved ones around the table.