【推荐1】Five years ago, French navy officer Chardon was listening to a radio program about the journey of the bar-tailed godwit (斑尾塍鹬) , a bird that flies 14,000 kilometers between New Zealand and Alaska. Chardon understood how dangerous the journey would be, as heavy storms frequently hit Pacific island communities. Yet, somehow, bar-tailed godwits routinely pass through the area uninjured. Chardon wondered whether learning how godwits navigate (导航) could help coastal communities avoid disasters. Could tracking birds help save lives?

This past January, a team began experiments designed to test Chardon’s idea. Researchers led by Jiguet equipped 56 birds of five species with cutting-edge animal tracking technology. The team were transported to remote islands in French Polynesia, where they attached tags (追踪器). These tags send the birds’ locations to the International Space Station, which sends the data back to scientists on Earth who can then follow the birds — all the while waiting to see how the birds respond to natural disasters.

The project is focusing on birds’ ability to hear infrasound, the low-frequency sound humans cannot hear. Researchers believe it’s the most likely signal birds would use to sense storms and tsunamis. In a 2014 study, scientists tracking golden-winged warblers in the central and southeastern US founded the birds flew up to 1,500 kilometers to escape from the outbreak of tornadoes that killed 35 people. This showed they’d heard the storm system in advance.

The team plan on tagging more birds across the Pacific to prepare for a potential tsunami. “I think if there’s one wave that spreads across islands, we should get data from different species at different locations,” says Jiguet. “That’d definitely show it’s worth continuing to tag birds and to develop local systems to better analyze this.”

Even if the attempt to develop a bird-based tsunami early warning system fails, the project will still help scientists protect birds. In that sense, the research will have already gained results by that time. Jiguet says their first season’s tracking data shows Hawaii is an important stepping stone for the birds they tagged — a useful clue to the protection of these species above rising seas.

【推荐2】Back in 2001，Pen Hadow and I traveled to the North Pole.One morning we’d just taken down our tent and started skiing. Pen was in front，and I was following him.Suddenly I got a strange feeling that something was behind us. I stopped，looked back and saw a polar bear, walking towards us.

Pen and I planned to stay where we were, try and look big, and frighten it away. Pen had a shotgun that we’d bought in Russia.That was his job. My job was to look big and to take off my skis, hold the skis in the air, make lots of noise，and frighten away the bear. Pen raised the gun and fired into the air. However, it jammed and failed to work.

The bear was walking towards us. Pen tried again, but again it didn’t work.Then he walked towards the bear, and I thought，“Wow，Pen’s gone completely mad. He’s going to get eaten.What should I do?”

I thought maybe I could throw a ski at it or stab(刺) it with a ski pole or something.Suddenly, the bear stopped. Pen stopped. Bang! The gun went off in the air. There was a big cloud of smoke that I thought surprised Pen and me more than it surprised the bear.The animal looked up, looked down, turned around and walked off. Pen turned round and said, “Quick，get the camera and take a photograph,” and that was when suddenly I felt really nervous. I couldn’t even undo the zip on our bag.

That was the morning of the second day of this journey. We were out there for two months—fifty-nine days, but we never saw another bear that close.