The Dog and the Joey

Leonie Allan lives in an area of Australia where people often find wildlife in their yards. One spring morning, Leonie took her dog Rex for a walk as usual. The walk was casual, but Rex was acting strangely afterward. As Leonie worked in the yard, Rex kept looking down on the road where they had taken their walk. Then he began standing very still, with his nose pointing toward what he wanted Leonie to notice.

Rex, a mixed breed (血统), is part “pointer”. Pointers are dogs that naturally stand very still and point with their entire body in the direction of wildlife they see or smell. They are trained not to hunt animals but simply to point to where they are. They are excellent in tracking and finding animals.

Leonie became worried when Rex left to investigate (调查). She thought he might have found something dangerous. She called the dog back. But when Rex returned, in his mouth he had a joey, a baby kangaroo about four months old. Picking up an animal was unusual behavior for Rex, since he hadn’t been trained to do so. Leonie was surprised that Rex had taken the joey gently by the neck and brought it to her. The baby joey didn’t appear to be afraid at all.

“He obviously sensed the baby kangaroo was still alive,” Leonie said, “and somehow had gently took it by the neck and brought it to me.”

Rex and the joey, which Leonie named Rex Jr., spent the afternoon playing together. “The joey was snuggling (依偎) up to him, jumping to him, and Rex was sniffing and licking him — it was quite sweet,” Leonie told the newspaper reporter.

Rex Jr. was bottle-fed and raised at a wildlife sanctuary (庇护所). A year and a half later, he was released back into the wild in an area where he could be monitored. Now Rex Jr. is part of a group of kangaroos, living a normal kangaroo life — thanks to Rex, a gentle dog that knows how to point.

Why Walking Your Dog Is Great Exercise

Having trouble sticking to an exercise program? Research shows that dogs are actually nature's perfect personal trainers-loyal, hard-working, energetic and enthusiastic.Your friends may skip an exercise session because of appointments,extra chores or bad weather.【小题1】

Is dog walking really effective exercise? Many people are becoming interested in exercise to help lose excess weight.【小题2】Dog owner-ship and obesity were evaluated in Seattle, Wash., and Baltimore, Md., in a study published in the journal Preventive Medicine in September 2008. Dog owners who reported walking their dogs were almost 25 percent less likely to be obese than people without dogs.

What are the benefits of regular exercise? Dr. Joanna Kruk reviewed medical literature describing the health benefits of exercise. Her research showed that the risk of developing a number of serious health problems is reduced by physical activity and exercise.

【小题3】It's easy to forget about healthy walking plans, so set the stage for a successful program: Establish a walking schedule; plan to walk 30 minutes total each day. This might include a 10-minute neighborhood walk in the morning and a 20-minute romp at the dog park after work. Or maybe three 10-minule walks or one 30-minute walk fit in better with your day.

If dog walking is "scheduled" each day, you'll feel more responsible for sticking with your program.【小题4】Most importantly, daily walking your dog will keep it fit and give it an opportunity to utilize their senses while also engaging their mind.

So, grab a leash, whistle to the pup, and go for a walk-today and every day! Take action!【小题5】

I fell in love with rhinos when I worked in a zoo in the 80s, and spent much of the next 20 years as the keeper of the largest captive (圈养的) group of rare black rhinos

There’s a popular misconception that rhinos are aggressive and stupid, but I found them sensitive and affectionate animals. Weighing over a ton, black rhinos are unexpectedly agile (敏捷的) and have an unpredictable nature — but, given reassurance, they tend to believe people. In the past few decades, their numbers have dropped dramatically. In recent years, I’ve helped look after rhinos being moved to the reserve so they can form new populations in countries that have few left. Last year, I helped on a project to fly five black rhinos from a private reserve in South Africa to the Serengeti National Park. Once there, the animals had to be kept captive for a few weeks to adapt to the new environment, in which time they lived in “bomas” — wooden enclosures with “bedrooms”, designed to create a calm space.

A couple of weeks before their planned release, the sky was filled with smoke. Watching the flames rushing through the bush toward the bomas, I froze. Terrified that it would catch fire, my instinct was to release the rhinos, but they hadn’t yet been fitted with transmitters (发信器). If I let them out into a bushfire and they were injured, we’d have great difficulty tracking them down. So I dashed back to the bomas and called the rhinos to the bedrooms. Sensing the tear in my voices, they moved without hesitation and remained astonishingly calm. It was crucial the rhinos didn’t panic — they can easily hurt each other if they do.

Meanwhile, the rangers managed to beat the closest flames away. At last, after half an hour, the wind changed direction and the fire began to recede. That we and the rhinos had escaped uninjured was a miracle. The teamwork of everybody there played a large part, and the rhinos were very much a part of that team. The relationships we’d built with them had proved crucial — had they or we panicked, all our work would have been in vain. Instead, two weeks later, they were released into the wild, ready to found part of a new population in the Serengeti.