One night, Pilar was in a deep sleep when she was woken by her cat Inti. Inti was meowing wildly outside Pilar’s bedroom and throwing himself against the closed bedroom door. When Pilar opened her eyes, she saw that her bedroom was filled with smoke. As she escaped her house with Inti in her arms, she saw that a fire was burning in her kitchen. Pilar could easily have lost her life, but Inti would not let that happen. Even though Inti could have escaped the house through a cat door, he wouldn’t leave Pilar.

As amazing as this story is, it is not as uncommon as you may think. Take the example of Charlotte Lee and her horse, Thunder. One summer night, the whole family was asleep with the windows open. It was normally very quiet where they lived. Suddenly, there was a loud noise. Charlotte woke up from her sweet dream, and the noise continued. Then she heard a horse running fast towards the house. The next thing she saw was Thunder standing outside her window, neighing and shaking his head. She knew something was wrong. Charlotte quickly got everyone out of the house before the earthquake hit. Thunder has saved her life.

There are also stories of animals coming to the rescue of humans. One animal known to be a friend of humans is the dolphin. Once, Todd Endris was surfing with his friends when he was attacked by a 13-foot (4-meter) shark. In the middle of the attack, a group of dolphins came to his rescue by forming a protective ring around Todd until he could get safely to the shore. Without the help of the dolphins, there is little chance that Todd could have escaped.

No one is sure why animals have so often come to our rescue. However, it is clear that humans and animals enjoy a close relationship. It is important that we care for them as much as we can.

For months, their adventure through China’s south-western Yunnan province had gone almost unnoticed. But last week, when images of a group of 15 Asian elephants walking through a residential(居民的) area appeared on social media, it immediately seized the imagination of the nation, stirring up considerable media interest and questions as to what caused their unusual journey.

The movement was so unusual that authorities sent as many as 360 people with 76 cars and nine drones(无人机) to track it. State TV has spent days following their every footstep. Chinese wildlife authorities have been struggling to understand why the elephants left their natural habitat last year. According to Xinhua, a group of 16 wild elephants began the journey in March 2020 to the north. In November, they arrived in Pu’er in Yunnan, where a female elephant gave birth to a baby, and settled there for five months. They then continued the walk on 16 April. A week later, two left the group, leaving 15 to continue their odyssey.

The appearance of the animals has not been warmly received by residents in Yunnan. Along the way, they have caused much destruction, eating whole fields of corn and ruining farm buildings. State broadcaster CCTV has estimated the damage to be at least 6.8m yuan ($1.07m). Fortunately, no human death has been reported so far.

Chinese experts said there had been other reports of elephants wandering into villages and harming crops in recent years. “Large-scale human engineering developments have changed the ‘islanding’ of elephant habitats,” said Zhang Li, a professor from Beijing Normal University. “The traditional zones between humans and elephants are gradually disappearing, and the chances of elephants’ facing humans naturally increase greatly.”

The wild elephant population in Yunnan is about 300, up from 170 in 1980, but the habitat area has decreased from 2,084 square km in 1976 to less than 500 square km in recent years.

One of the most critical roles forests play is relieving climate change. Trees suck enormous amounts of carbon dioxide out of the air and fix the carbon in their wood and the soil. A recent study found that planting new trees over an area the size of the US could suck away two thirds of all the carbon dioxide discharge that humans have pumped into the atmosphere.

“Without animals, it is harder for forests to absorb carbon, as tree species (种类) important for protecting the climate could be lost without animals", Susanne Winter, a program director said at the WWF.

In Africa, many of the tree species that absorb the most carbon rely on large birds and primates (灵长类动物) to eat their fruits and spread their large seeds, according to the report. Without them, those trees would have difficulty reproducing and forests would lose their best carbon-storing trees.

“Forests are our greatest natural ally in the fight against global warming, ”Winter said.“If we want to hold back the worldwide decline in biodiversity and prevent the climate crisis,s we need to protect the forests and the species living there.

Forests also filter (过滤) water-- as water makes its way to lakes or groundwater reserves, the roots and soil separate it from deposits and pollution that it collects along the way. What' s more, forests regulate the global water cycle, since trees' leaves, branches, and roots store or send out water vapor.

Climate models show that forest-cutting down in Central Africa could lead to a 15% drop in rainfall in the US Midwest, and Amazon deforestation (森林滥伐) could cut Texas rainfall by 25%.

Humans also get food, wood, and medicine from the abundance of plants and animals in forests. Worldwide, 1.6 billion people rely on forests for their livings, according to the United Nations. About 300 million people live in forests, according to WWF.