What do you do when you are cold? Your may wrap yourself in a warm blanket and sip a cup of steaming cocoa. All animals have different ways of responding to the cold. Some animals, such as Canada geese, migrate（迁徙）to warmer climates. Others sleep for the whole winter. But the wood frog does something unusual. It freezes!

The wood frog's ability to freeze its body is vital to its survival. The wood frog can live in extreme climates from the Appalachian Mountains, across much of Canada, and into Alaska. When temperatures are cold, a wood frog digs down a few inches beneath the leaves on the forest floor. As the outdoor temperature decreases, the frog' s skin freezes. For a human this would result in cold injury, or the freezing of body tissues, but the wood frog has a natural defense against the cold that is remarkable.

Special proteins inside the frog's body freeze the water in the frog's blood. Water forced out of the frog's other cells freezes as well. But a special solution produced inside the frog acts like antifreeze in a car, protecting the cells.

In cold temperatures the frog's heartbeat, breathing, and brain activity stop. Because the organs are surrounded by ice, they do not rot away（腐烂：烂掉）and do not require oxygen or nutrients. In fact, about 65% of the frog freezes. The frog, however, is still alive.

The wood frog can freeze for a few days or several months at a time. It can survive temperatures as low as 18°F without damage to its body. When the temperature outside increases, the frog thaws（变暖）along with its surroundings. Water and blood begin circulating in its body again. Within a few hours its heart starts beating again. Over the next several hours, the frog slowly regains use of its legs—and hops away!

Scientists are extremely interested in the wood frog's ability to freeze. For years they have sought ways to freeze body tissue without damaging it. They hope that in studying wood frogs they may learn better ways of preserving human organs for transplants and other medical procedures. Whether these frogs can be used to help humans or not, they certainly are amazing.

A biologist once criticized for stealing eggs from the nests of the rarest bird in the world has been awarded the “Nobel Prize” of conservation after his methods saved nine species from extinction.

Professor Carl Jones won the 2016 Indianapolis Prize --- the highest accolade in the field of animal conservation --- for his 40 years of work in Mauritius, where he saved an endangered kestrel from becoming the next Great Auk.

When the 61-year-old first travelled to the east African island in the 1970s, he was told to close down a project to save the Mauritius kestrel. At the time there were just four left in the wild, making it the rarest bird on Earth. However, he stayed, using the techniques of captive breeding (人工繁殖), which involved snatching eggs from the birds’ nests and hatching（孵化）them under incubators, prompting the mothers to lay another set of eggs in the wild.

A decade later, the number of Mauritius kestrels had soared to over 300 and today there are around 400 in the wild. The biologist has also been necessary in efforts to bring other rare species back from the edge of extinction, including the pink pigeon, echo parakeet and Rodrigues warbler.

Prof Jones was awarded the $250,000 (£172,000) prize at a ceremony in London.

“As a young man in my 20s, I certainly didn’t enjoy the stress and the tension of the criticism I received,” reflecting on the start of his career, he said the Maurutius kestrel project had been seen as a “dead loss” at the time. In the 1970s there was fierce opposition to the captive breeding techniques, with critics arguing that they were too risky and took the emphasis off breeding in the wild.

Prof Jones has devoted his whole life to his work, only becoming a father for the first time eight years ago, at 53. He said receiving the prize was particularly important to him, because it proved that his work to save birds was right.

Many ocean birds fly long distances to avoid severe storms. But not the streaked shearwaters (条纹鹱) ! A new study led by Professor Ken Yoda of Japan’s Nagoya University states that the brave seabirds often fly right into the eye of the storm to survive. This strange behavior — not reported in any other bird species—might help streaked shearwaters survive strong storms.

The scientists analyzed 11 years of data collected from GPS trackers attached to the wings of 401 shearwaters nesting on Japan’s Awashima Island. By combining this information with data on wind speeds during typhoons, scientists discovered that shearwaters that were caught out in the open ocean when a storm blew in would ride tailwinds (顺风) around the edges of the storm. However, others that found themselves sandwiched between land and the eye of a strong hurricane would sometimes change their usual flight patterns and head toward the center of the storm. Scientists found that 75 birds chose to fly during ten typhoons or tropical storms. Some even chased the storm’s eye for up to 8 hours!

The researchers say shearwaters can survive fierce storms. The strong winds over water enable the birds to glide (滑翔) for long distances without flapping their wings too much, saving energy. While skilled in flight, shearwaters are clumsy on land. The birds have a hard time taking off, leaving them at risk of predators like crows and cats. These may explain why some shearwaters prefer flying into the storm to survive. But to do that, the birds need to know where the land is so they can avoid it. The adult shearwaters seem to have developed a mental map to guide them in the right direction.

While this is the first time this behavior has been spotted in any bird species, flying with the winds could be a common strategy for preserving energy during hurricanes, says Andrew Farnsworth, an ornithologist at Cornell University who was not involved in the study. “It might be contrary to common sense,” he says. “But from the perspective of bird behavior, it makes a lot of sense.”