Earth’s tallest animal is in deep trouble. Wild giraffe populations are falling rapidly, with recent survey data showing its numbers have fallen more than 40 percent. And unlike the well-known plight (困境) of gorillas, elephants, rhinos, and other disappearing African animals, the decline of these giants has gone largely unnoticed.

Giraffes that are extreme high — adult males can stand nearly 6 meters tall — still live in 21 countries in Africa, but their habitat is being repurposed for human use, especially agriculture. Even in places where their native grasslands remain excellent, small and separate habitat caused by development elsewhere can restrict their range and prevent genetic diversity. And climate change can encourage lengthy droughts, which lead desperate giraffes to feed on farmers’ crops, making them seem like pests to local communities.

Illegal hunting also contributes to the decline of the animals. Humans have a long history of hunting giraffes, seeking food as well as thick skin to make clothing and other items. But a belief that giraffes’ brains and bones can cure HIV has gained wide attention in Tanzania, reportedly pushing prices for giraffes’ heads and bones are as high as $140 per piece. Usually, with a single gunshot, a giraffe can be hunted. So they’ve become an extra income among Africa’s growing groups of elephant hunters.

When humans try something risky to hunt for giraffes, however, there’s evidence that they can improve the animals’ fortunes. The West African giraffe, for example, was pushed to the edge of extinction in the 1990s. Down to just 50 in 1996, the subspecies won legal protection from the government of Niger, helping it grow to 250 in 2010. Conservationists have also worked with villages in Niger and planted 5,300 acacia(相思) trees since 2012, reducing the need for the giraffes to destroy crops.

That their number grows in recent years suggests that there is still time to save other giraffes, too. “ This stresses the value of making positive giraffe conservation and management efforts to protect critical populations across the continent,” says Arthur Muneza, East Africa speaker for the GEF. “It is high time that we increased our efforts.”

In 2006, an alarm sounded concerning the health of honeybees in the United States when a Florida beekeeper found 400 of his hives were empty. 【小题1】 Home gardeners can play an important role in supporting bees, in particular, by offering food, water, and shelter for them.

Food. Grow a variety of plants to supply nectar (花蜜) and pollen (花粉) throughout the growing season. Bees like plants native to their habitats. 【小题2】 Choose a sunny location and set plants in groups.

Water. Although we rarely see them taking a drink, bees appreciate gardens with a source of water. It can be as simple as filling a shallow water dish with small stones and branches so bees can land and rest while drinking. A birdbath (水盘) also offers a dependable destination for bees. 【小题3】

Shelter. 【小题4】 These bees don’t live in hives like honeybees but in logs, dead tree branches, even in holes in the ground. You can build a bee shelter by drilling holes in an untreated wood block. The holes should be three to five inches deep and a quarter inch in diameter. 【小题5】 Choose a site protected from wind and rain for your nest — under the eaves of a shed, for example.

By creating an environment with shelter, water, and bee-friendly plants, soon your local bees will be buzzing.

Have you ever seen an “ugly” oyster(牡蛎)? That is the term oyster farmers use for the sea animals whose shells get too large to sell to seafood restaurants. Each year, farmers grow oysters to just the right size so people at restaurants will enjoy eating them. If they get too big, restaurants no longer want to buy them.

So last year, when many seafood restaurants in the U.S. closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic(流行病), oyster farmers lost the chance to sell their products. Eventually, they had a lot of “uglies” and didn’t know what to do with them.

That was a big problem until a conservation program came to the rescue. The program is called Supporting Oyster Aquaculture and Restoration, or SOAR. It is buying more than 5 million oysters at the cost of about $2 million from farmers on the east coast of the U.S. and in Washington State.

Farmers take living oysters that are too big to sell and send them to places like the Great Bay in the northeastern state of New Hampshire. Oysters are placed in special locations called reefs(暗礁). Once they attach to the structures in the water, they can live for a number of years. They help create a good environment for other sea life. The hope is that the oysters will help clean the water and also have babies.

Lisa Calvo runs Sweet Amalia Oyster Farm in southern New Jersey. She said the program helped her business get through the pandemic and “stay afloat”.

Calvo started her farm about 20 years ago. She sells her oysters to restaurants close to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and those in the towns along the ocean in New Jersey. Oysters are ready to sell when they are about two years old. When all the restaurants started closing, she said she was “in a panic”.

She was able to earn about half the usual amount of money by selling her oysters to the program. That was better than nothing.