Have you ever wanted to know why zebras are black and white? Surely, the zebra is not the animal that only has one color, but it is black and white striped (有条纹的). Why? It’s a question that scientists have been researching for a long time. And the following reasons may make sense.

Zebras use the stripes to protect themselves from lions. The horse-like animal has lots of enemies who feed on them, and the lion is one of them. Luckily, lions are color blind. So the black and white stripes help zebras hide in the grass so that the lions can hardly find them.

Stripes can keep both big animals and little insects away from zebras. Flies usually like to lay their eggs in water. It is said that they prefer to lay their eggs on black things too, as black reflects (反射) the light in the same direction as water. In a certain way, white stripes save the zebras.

According to scientists, stripes can also be a symbol of the zebra. Just like humans, we can find people of the same kind from their eyes, hair or language. Zebras can easily find their own kind from others by the stripes. No other animals have the same stripes like them.

This year’s Dongting Lake Bird Watching Festival was held from February 18th to February 20th around Dongting Lake, China’s second largest freshwater lake. It was the 12th annual festival and attracted more than 200 teams from 30 countries to take part in. It also provided a visual feast (视觉盛宴) for bird lovers on the Internet. The goal of this event was to bring humans closer to nature and protect birds and the environment.

As a wetland(湿地) of global(全球的) importance, Dongting Lake is home to about 500 kinds of birds, accounting for one-third of the country’s total. In order to protect the diversity(多样性) of migratory birds(候鸟), China has set up wetland nature reserves totaling 3,076 square km around the lake. Each year, millions of birds can make stop-overs at Dongting Lake for winter migration(冬季迁徙). Between 2017 and 2023, the number of migratory birds of the lake area has increased from 184,000 to 298,000. Birds choose places with a pleasant environment for winter, the continued increases shows Dongting Lake is their best and safest home.

Great Ants (蚂蚁)

Ants are everywhere! We usually feel angry about them. However, these little ones also teach us something.

Never give up

Have you noticed (注意) that when something is in front of ants, they do not sit down or become sad? They just keep (保持) going.

One day, I watched a small ant taking a bug back to its nest (巢穴). A leaf in the way was a big problem, but the ant was not giving up. It tried very hard to work out a way. Finally, the ant got that bug over the leaf and into the nest.

Ask for help

Think about it, have you ever seen an ant move something too big by itself? That never happens. When a load (负荷) is too big, the ant signals (发信号) to the others for help.

 Why don't we do more of this? Sometimes, we are just too afraid to ask someone to share the load. Sharing can make our life much easier.

Think winter in summer

Ants know there are seasons. They collect food and build the nest all through the summer even when they still have enough to eat. So when the cold days of winter come, the ants can stay in their warm nest and never worry about being hungry. They plan for their life!

How great the ants are!

People always say the sloth（树懒）is lazy. Is it true? Well, the sloth really doesn’t like moving. The sloth can only walk about 1.8 to 2.4 meters a minute. It’s the slowest animal in the world.

Sloths live in the rainforest (热带雨林) and trees are their homes. They like eating leaves and fruit on trees. They sleep in trees, too. They like sleeping and they usually sleep for about 20 hours a day. The mother sloth even gives birth to a baby in trees! They only come down from trees for one thing — pooping (排便).

They poop every 4 to 8 days. That’s because sloths move slowly and some scary animals will kill them under the trees. But sloths are good swimmers. They move fast in water.

Usually sloths have brown fur (皮毛), but you can always see them in green. That’s because there are some green algae (藻类) on their fur. With the green algae, it’s not easy for those scary animals to find them. But some people cut down many trees in the rainforest so sloths are losing their homes and they are in danger. We must do something to save them.

Lucy, a nine-year-old little girl, grew up in a small village near a forest. She liked feeding birds bread and knew a lot about them.

One summer morning, she was listening to birds’ joyful singing when she heard a sharp whistle （哨声） not far away. It wasn’t a friendly bird’s whistle but a whistle of a person.

“Hello, little girl,” a young man greeted cheerfully. Lucy looked up into a face of a tall young man carrying a gun. Then the young man explained that he was a scientist, who collected birds.

“Do you put them in a cage?” Lucy asked. “No,” he answered slowly, “I shoot them and keep them with special chemicals （药剂）. I have over 100 different kinds of birds from all over the United States at home.” Lucy felt surprised to hear that. “I have been looking for a heron （苍鹭） not far from here. It’s a tall, white, strange bird with long thin legs. It often lives at the top of a tall tree. Have you seen it? I will give ＄10 to the person who shows me where the white bird is.” said the man.

Lucy’s heart began to beat fast. She knew that strange white bird! She had seen it on the other side of the forest. She remembered how the white bird came flying through the golden air every morning. But Lucy decided not to speak a word. She would not tell the bird’s secret and give its life away. They were good friends. So Lucy shook her head and the young man had to go away disappointedly.

There are many stories about bats (蝙蝠). People in Europe once feared bats. They feared them maybe because they looked scary. Or maybe it was because they only came out at night. But people in Persia and China weren’t afraid of bats. To them, bats meant good luck, long life and happiness.

People used to think that bats were birds. Today we know that bats are mammals (哺乳动物). They are the only mammals that fly. Like all mammals, bats are warm-blooded. They feed their babies milk. Bats live all over the world, except where it is very cold. Most bats live near the equator (赤道).

There are over 900 kinds of bats. Both the largest and the smallest bats live in Asia. The largest bat is the flying fox. It weighs about two pounds. The smallest bat weighs less than 2g. Most bats are just big enough to fit into your hand.

Most bats eat insects. In fact, they eat millions of insects a year. This makes them very helpful to humans. Some bats eat fish, birds, frogs and small mammals. Some eat fruit and drink nectar (花蜜). These bats often carry their food to their homes. Along the way they drop seeds. This helps spread plants to new areas.

The vampire bat (吸血蝠) is perhaps the most famous bat, but it doesn’t attack (攻击) people. It drinks the blood of some animals. This bat is found only in Mexico and Central and South America.