Even without a psychology (心理学) degree, Bella’s natural talents made her an excellent therapist (治疗师): She is calm and has the patience to listen to endless questions. From the Mountain Horse Farm in the Finger Lakes region of New York, 3-year-old Bella and 2-year-old Bonne provide animal-based therapy in a bed-and-breakfast (民宿).

Cow hugging is a practice known as inviting people to interact with farm animals by brushing, petting or having heartfelt conversation with the animals. The cows lie down in the grass, allowing humans to join them on the ground and offering a warm hug.

The bed-and-breakfast is owned by Suzanne and Rudi Vullers. The pair came across “cow hugging” in Netherlands, on a return visit to their homeland in 2018. In parts of the country, cow hugs are offered as part of a half-day visit as part of a larger movement to connect people to country life. So in May, they bought Bella and Bonnie for their gentle personalities and the lack of horns (牛角). “A lot of cows are not suited for it,” Mr. Vullers said. “They can drive you out of the field.”

On a recent Saturday, a mother and daughter from New York, had come to hug some cows. For the mother, 57, it was a wish coming true, a reminder of fond memories of visiting her grandmother’s farm. Leading the two excited women onto the field, Ms. Vullers offered guidance on a successful approach before showing the methods herself. “Round the body! That appears less harmless. Walk up to the cow’s shoulders rather than its haunches (臀胯部).”

“Clothing is important,” said Mr. Vullers. “They might spit (吐口水) on you.” “Respect them and their world and what they want to do and what they want to give you,” Suzanne added. “Remain calm. The more relaxed you are, the better it will be for you and them,” she said.

For the final surprise of the day, the farmers invited the visitors to hand - feed the cows, which many participants described as their favorite activity.

Two young giant-panda twins born in the United States have returned home to China, but are straggling to adapt to the language and food.

The 3-year-old sisters, Mei Lun and Mei Huan, wens the first surviving panda twins to be born in the United States, and were returned to China from Zoo Atlanta on Nov. 5. But the pair still understand English belter than Chinese, and prefer American biscuits to Chinese bread.

A zoo-keeper said that his main concern is that the pair are so addicted to American biscuits that everything they eat — from bamboos to apples — has to be mixed with biscuits. They even want to snack on (零食) biscuits when drinking water.

The zoo -keeper is trying to wean them off their biscuit habit, gradually replacing the American food with Chinese bread. Mei Huan is adapting, but Mei Lun doesn’t want to touch the unfamiliar bread.

Mei Lun is the livelier of the two, often jumping onto the roof and hanging upside down from a rail, but her slightly younger sister Mei Huan is calmer, preferring to sit still, observe her new environment and occasionally snack on bamboo.

A language barrier is also reported. While the pair respond to their own names, and understand some English phrases such as “come here,” they don’t understand the Sichuan dialect of Chinese.

The news caused some laughter on Chinese social media, with some users commenting that the pandas would soon get used to Sichuan’s famously spicy cuisine.

Not all birds sing, but those that do—some several thousand species—do it a lot.

Iris Adam, a scientist at the University of Southern Denmark says, birds have “a drive to sing”. This means hours every day for some species, and that takes a lot of energy. However, singing can be dangerous. “As soon as you sing, you show yourself, for example, where you are and that you even exist—all of that immediately is out in the open for predators (捕食性动物) , for everybody,” she says.

In a new study published in the journal Nature Communications, Adam and her colleagues offer a new explanation for why birds take that risk and whether the muscles (肌肉) that produce birdsong require daily exercise. Adam designed an experiment on zebra finches—little Australian songbirds. Her experiment included keeping male birds in the dark to sever the connection between their brains and-their singing muscles, which prevented them from singing.

After a week, the birds’ singing muscles lost half of their strength. Three weeks later, they were back to the same level when they were juveniles (幼鸟) and never had sung before. When Adam played one of the male’s songs for: a group of female birds, six out of nine preferred the song that came from a male who had been using his singing muscles daily.

Adam’s conclusion (结论) is that songbirds need to exercise their singing muscles to produce top-performance song. If they don’t sing, they lose performance, and their songs get less attractive to females, which is bad.

“What they stress is that you need a lot of practice to improve what you’re doing,” says Ana Amador, a scientist at the University of Buenos Aires. It’s a good rule to live by, whether you’re a bird or a human—practice makes perfect, at least when it comes to singing one’s heart out.