As a nation of animal lovers, Britain has been rocked by a study that at least ten million pets suffer mental or physical stress.

Two million dogs are left alone daily for longer than recommended and 750,000 rabbits are fed too little grass, at least three million dogs and cats have never been vaccinated(接种疫苗), the research indicates. Shocked animal welfare campaigners are calling on owners to give their pets urgent attention.

A spokesman for animal charity said, “We know that owners love their pets, but many do not understand what their pets need.”

The charity’s survey is the first to measure the well-being of Britain’s 12 million cats, eight million dogs and 1.7 million pet rabbits. It found that five million cats, four million dogs and more than 700000 rabbits would be suffering mental or physical stress because their owners do not look after them properly. About 2.4 million dogs are mainly fed on leftovers(剩饭), rather than nutritionally balanced dog food.

About 1.9 million dogs are left alone each day for more than four hours, even though vets say four hours should be the maximum. Around 15 percent of owners believe it is acceptable to leave a dog for eight hours without attention while four percent say dogs can be abandoned for more than ten hours without suffering.

The survey also showed the Britain’s cats are overfed, with more than half of owners admitting their cats are overweight. Rabbits are also neglected. In the wild they live in large groups, but 67 percent of pet rabbits live on their own, which creates the risk of boredom and stress.

Another spokesman said, “Our report reveals that there is much work to do to raise awareness of what pets need to live healthy and happy lives.”

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.

New animals

In northern Vietnam, in thick forests in the North Annamite Mountains, there is a wildlife park called Vu Quang. In 1986, the area was made an official forest reserve. In 2002, 550 square kilometers of the area were declared a National Park. 【小题1】. It is in an area that is hard to get to, for one thing. And it’s an area that’s difficult to walk through because the rocks are covered with algae and are very slippery.

【小题2】. In the last twenty years, several new species of animals that have never been seen anywhere in the world before have been discovered there. Some of them are so new that scientists haven’t given them official names yet!

The new animals discovered at the park include the Vu Quang ox or Saola, a “slow” deer, a giant muntjac (the world’s largest, in fact), a black deer and a “holy” goat. 【小题3】, as well as two species of amphibians and 15 species of reptiles.

The Saola was the first new species of large mammal to be discovered in more than fifty years, so it caused a lot of excitement in the scientific world. It is a strange goat-like creature that looks as if it is somehow related to cattle. It has horns that can be between one and two feet long, and that seem to come out of the animal’s head at slightly different angles. 【小题4】.

The creature had hidden safely for generations in the Vu Quang area. But once it was discovered, it was in danger. 【小题5】. Sadly, the Saola is now being hunted and may well end up as another endangered species.