Wild animals are our friends, but many of them are getting fewer and fewer. We should try to protect them. The four animals below are now in danger.

Tibetan Antelopes

Tibetan antelopes are medium - sized animals. They mainly feed on grass. They are usually found in groups of about 20. They are killed for their wool, which is warm, soft and fine and can be made into expensive clothes. Although people can get the wool without killing the animals, people simply kill them before taking the wool. The number of them is dropping year by year. There are less than 75,000 Tibetan antelopes left in the world, down from a million 50 years ago.

Golden Monkeys

Golden monkeys are mainly found in Sichuan, Gansu, Shanxi provinces and Shengnongjia mountainous area of Hubei Province. Golden monkeys have golden - orange fur. They move around in the daytime, usually in groups of as many as 100 to 200 heads, or 20 to 30 heads. They feed on fruits and young leaves of bamboos. But people are destroying the environment where they live. Trees and bamboos are disappearing, so golden monkeys have less and less to eat.

Elephants

Elephants are very big and strong. They are bigger than any other animals on land. They are grey and have long trunks and tusks. They have poor eyesight, but very good hearing and smell. They can lift heavy things and break down branches with their trunks. Elephants are very friendly towards each other and towards their neighbours. Normally, they live in a group for many years. Young male elephants do not leave the group until they are about 12 years old. Now, there are very few elephants in the world. The number of them is becoming smaller and smaller because their living areas are used for fanning. Also, people hunt them for their tusks.

Wolves

Wolves are not very big. They have grey fur. Solves have very good eyesight, hearing and smell. Wolves’ food is various. They eat animals, insects and snails. They are friendly to each other and never attack people. They do not kill for fun. Wolves are in danger, too. They are losing their living areas because people cut down forests. Soon they will have no home or food.

Gravy started working as a comfort dog at Grand Ledge High School in Michigan in September. She showed off tricks in the hallways with her handler (驯兽员), Capra, and made students laugh aloud. When students learned that Gravy’s first birthday fell just before Thanksgiving break, they asked Capra if they could throw a party. Capra said sure, thinking there wouldn’t be many people interested. However, on the big day, there were several hundred students in this gym.

The pandemic (大流行病) has been hard on students across the United States. Many young people experienced loneliness and the loss of loved ones. To solve the problem, schools have hired social workers and increased the number of their social-emotional learning classes.In some cases, they bought dogs.

Undoubtedly, the dogs make kids happy.“He’s kind of like a rock star; when the kids see him coming, they smile,“ said Traci Souva, an art teacher at North Huron Schools who trains Chipper, another comfort dog. “A lot of times the kids will tell Chipper what’s wrong rather than adults, and that’s pretty amazing.”

There are possible blemishes of having dogs in school. These include cleanliness, and student fears. But school officials say these are all manageable. The dogs are highly trained and always with a handler, so no student is forced to communicate with the dogs if they don’t want to.

Since the pandemic, demand for trained dogs in schools“has just increased,“ said Nikki Brown, a dog trainer and the director of Canines for Change, a nonprofit that trains dogs for work in schools. Over the last year, her organization has provided dogs to at least seven areas in Michigan, including Grand Ledge. “The dogs are highly trained to be in a school environment,” she added.“They are trained to work with kids with emotional problems. They sense stress. By the dogs’ behaviour they might warn a teacher of a kid who is struggling emotionally.“

The microplastics(微型塑料) problem in the oceans has made its way to sea turtles in a big way. A new study has found microplastics in the stomach of every single turtle they tested—a total of 102 sea turtles.

The researchers tested more than 100 sea turtles from all seven kinds and three different oceans, and they were looking for man-made things less than 5 mm long. The most things the team found were fibers, which most likely came from clothing and fishing equipment.

“The influence of these particles on turtles is unknown,” said Emily Duncan. “Their small size means they can pass through the stomach without causing a problem, as is frequently reported with larger plastic pieces.”

The researchers found more than 800 man-made particles in the turtles, but since they only tested part of the stomach, they believe the total number of particles could be 20 times higher. They don’t know how the turtles take in the particles, but they think they are from polluted seawater and polluted plants.

Professor Brendan Godley said that eating microplastics isn’t the biggest problem to sea turtles at the moment, but it is a clear sign that we need to do a better job watching global waste.

This turtle study shows that we need to reduce the amount of plastic waste, so we can keep clean and healthy oceans for future people.