1 . Gorillas (大猩猩) in films such as King Kong and Tarzan are wildly beating their chests when under threat. Researchers have tried to find out what the behavior might mean, and they doubt that the gorillas exhibit this behavior not to start fights, but to prevent themselves — and chest-beating could be used to advertise their body size to other gorillas.

Scientists observed 25 wild male mountain gorillas for over 3,000 hours. The research team used audio (音频) equipment to record the sound frequency, rate, duration, and amount of chest beats. To determine each gorilla’s size, the researchers used cameras to photograph and measure each gorilla’s back.

Although the rate, duration, and amount of beats did not correlate with the size of the gorillas, sound frequency did , the researchers report. The team also noticed that larger gorillas produced deeper-tone chest drumming. Previous research has shown that a gorilla’s larger body size is linked to reproductive success and social rank. The chest-beating could be a way for the gorillas to advertise their size to others and, in turn, avoid fights that could result in serious injury or death.

Though gorillas can obviously observe size just by getting a good look at others, the researchers suggest chest beating is copper-bottomed when trying to communicate through a thick forest. The sounds gorillas created by beating their chests are powerful enough to travel long distance through thick forests and signal others their size and fighting ability.

Animal expert Anna Nekaris says it would be interesting to see if smaller gorillas can imitate the deep tones of larger ones in future studies. Nekaris says, “For now, the researchers will continue to study chest-beating to see if the action can pass on other information, such as dominance rank, sex, and individual identity, to nearby gorillas.”

2 . In habitats across the planet, animals periodically drop everything to walk, fly or swim to a new place. Wildlife such as whales and geese learn migration paths by following their parents. Others, including small songbirds, gain the distance and direction of their migration within their genetic code. And some animals use a combination of genetics and culture to guide their migration.

Another group of migrators does not quite fit either model, and researchers have only recently started to figure out how they find their way. Take the Cory’s shearwater, an oceangoing sea bird that migrates over the Atlantic every year. The young do not migrate with their parents, so culture cannot explain their journeys. And the exact paths vary wildly from individual to individual, making genetics equally unlikely.

Cory’s shearwaters are long-lived, rarely producing young successfully before age nine. This leaves an opening for learning and practice to develop their migration patterns. Researchers call this the “exploration-refinement”, and until now it has been hypothetical (假设的) because of difficulties in tracking migratory animals’ movements.

But a team of researchers has done that by attaching small geolocators to more than 150 of the birds aged four to nine. They found that younger birds traveled longer distances, for longer periods, and had more diverse paths than older birds. “We finally have evidence of the ‘exploration-refinement’ for migratory birds,” says Letizia Campioni, who led the study. Younger Cory’s shearwaters are able to fly just as fast as the adults—but they do not, suggesting that the young do more exploring, which gradually fades as they mature and settle into a preferred course.

Although it may seem less efficient than other strategies, “exploration refinement could be beneficial to birds and other organisms in a rapidly changing world due to unpredictable man-made changes,” says Barbara Frei. “It might be safer to repeat a behavior that was recently successful than to rely on patterns that were perfected long ago but might no longer be safe.”

3 . We all love butterflies. Their beautiful wings attract us, and their presence lights up our garden. Well, that’s our view of butterflies, but have you ever wondered what plants think of them?

The butterflies’ eggs lie on the underside of the leaves. The eggs themselves don’t damage plants. However, upon coming into contact with the eggs, the plants become oversensitive. It means that once a plant recognizes a pest, it will cause death in the contacted plant part. When these dead leaves or partial leaf parts break away from the plant, the eggs on them fall off. Along with the hypersensitivity response, plants also produce something special, which can attract animals to eat the eggs, thus preventing damage in the future.

After the baby butterflies come out of their eggs, the caterpillar (毛虫) stage begins. Most caterpillars feed on the leaves of the plants, damaging some of the plants in your own garden. Incredibly, they are major plant pests that bring about major losses to farmers. The next stage is pupa (蛹). The caterpillars begin their change into an adult. They don’t depend on the energy that the leaves provide. Finally, they become adult butterflies that have wings and move from one plant to the other. They feed on the sweet liquid produced by flowers.

While on their search for food, the butterflies carry pollen (花粉) on their body. They are key pollinators that place pollen from one flower to another in ecosystem. Plants that have flowers will create some special features to draw these pollinators’ attention. Certain plants have flowers giving off smells that can charm butterflies when they are looking for a mate. Some plants even have flat flowers to assist butterflies when landing.

Butterflies aid in pollination during their final adult stage. Thus, they change into beneficial insects to plants. This change makes butterflies an important friend of plants, despite being a hated enemy in previous life cycle stages!

4 . Capybaras (水豚) are group animals, so they do not like being alone. In fact, leaving a capybara alone is not only uncomfortable for the animal, but it can be harmful to their physical health, as well as their mental happiness. Capybaras love to talk to each other throughout the day. Groups of capybaras spend their days sun bathing along the edge of rivers, where they enjoy swimming together in the water. They spend half of their lives in the water.

Since they spend so much time around water, it makes sense that capybaras would come into contact with different kinds of other animals who stop in for a drink. Capybaras are gentle and peaceful river animals who enjoy a short sleep along the water’s edge — and often do so with other animal species as well. You can find pictures all over the Internet of these lovely animals lying beside turtles, birds, ducks, rats, and even monkeys as they enjoy a nap by the water.

Capybaras are also known to be excellent and friendly taxis in the animal world. Birds and monkeys commonly stand on the back of a capybara for a ride as capybaras search for grass to eat. Sometimes capybaras even serve as boats for other animals, letting them sit on their heads as they swim through the water.

However, if you see a capybara lying on its side with a yellow-headed caracara (长腿秃鹰) on its body, don’t panic just yet. Most likely the copybara is enjoying a nice spa day. Birds often make friends with capybaras and provide a natural cleaning service, picking off insects that live in the capybara’s fur. It’s a relationship that benefits each other, since the yellow-headed caracara also gets to enjoy eating those tasty insects. Yet, such lovely capybaras are not free of human influences and even face extinction now.

The conch (海螺)     1     (consider) as the national dish of the Bahamas. Queen conch is the most important food species and can live for 30 years.

Conch can be very costly in the US and other     2     (place). But it is so common in the Bahamas that it can often be found in meals     3     (cost) less than $10. That is less than the price of many meats on the island. Nearly two-fifths of the population in the countryside of the Bahamas eats conch     4     (week).

The country with a population of about 400,000 is home     5     9000 conch fishers around two percent of the population. This number appears to be holding steady (稳定的) even as conches decrease (减少) in number. The meat of the conch     6     (be) worth millions of dollars per year, and it also helps increase tourism to the islands.

Fishers usually catch the conch by hand. They often use simple equipment. Sometimes fishers can take home as many as 1,000 conches in a single trip. Many fishers fish for other species too, but they view     7     (they) as conch fishers first. And for many, fishing is both a family tradition     8     a path to middle class life on the islands,     9     the cost of living is higher than in the US.

Conch is one example of the threat overfishing presents to     10     (tradition) foods around the world.

8 . Why do we find ugly animals so attractive? And what makes odd-looking creatures so cute?

Evolution plays a role. According to Austrian zoologist Konrad Lorenz, human attraction to infantile (婴儿的) features, such as big eyes, large heads and soft bodies, is an evolutionary adaptation that helps ensure that adults care for their children, guaranteeing the survival of their species. Strange-looking animals such as blobfish, pugs, aye-ayes and bulldogs all share these infantile qualities that cause an affectionate response among humans and an innate instinct to nurture and protect. And these infantile characteristics increase a person’s “protective behavior, attention and willingness to care” for the individual and reduce the “likelihood of aggression towards an infant”, says Marta Borgi, a researcher.

Ugly animals often have other value—some, like the blobfish or the naked mole rat, live in extreme environments that they have adapted to in remarkable ways. Scientists are keen to study these animals to understand whether their biology might provide fresh insights that could lead to treatments for human health conditions such as cancer, heart disease and neurodegenerative diseases.

But while many ugly creatures are exquisitely adapted to their life in the wild and can provide enormous benefits to the ecosystems they live in, they often still don’t get as much attention as more traditionally cute and cuddly animals. This can result in a bias (偏见) which leads to many of the less attractive species being overlooked in terms of research.

There are culture-led other factors that also drive our obsession (痴迷) with ugly-cute animals. “The ugly-cute thing is very fashionable,” says Rowena Packer, a lecturer of animal behavior. This is partly driven by social media, with many celebrities (名人) and influencers showing off pet pugs and French bulldogs on Instagram, she says.

But there are some serious welfare concerns around this trend. Vets are urging people not to choose a flat-faced dog breed, because they suffer from serious health problems. Pugs and French bulldogs which have been selectively bred experience breathing difficulties, repeated skin infections and eye diseases. So while goofy features such as bulging eyes and wrinkly faces may make us smile, we might want to reconsider our obsession with “ugly-cute” pets.