Please don’t feel singled out, special, or view yourself as a chosen one. She bites everyone. This is just the nature of the beast. There is absolutely no truth to the persistent myths that mosquitoes fancy females over males, that they prefer blondes and redheads over those with darker hair or that the darker or rougher your skin, the safer you are from her bite. It is true, however, that she does play favorites and feasts on some more than others.

Blood type O seems to be the choice over types A and B or AB. People with blood type O get bitten twice as often as those with type A, with type B falling somewhere in between.

Those who have higher natural levels of certain chemicals in their skin, particularly lactic acid (乳酸), also seem to be more attractive. From these elements, she can analyze which blood type you are. These are the same chemicals that determine an individual’s level of skin bacteria and unique body smell.

Mosquitoes are also attracted by perfumes, soaps, and other applied fragrances. While this may seem unfair to many of you, she also has a desire for beer drinkers.

Wearing bright colors is also not a wise choice, since she hunts by both sight and smell, the latter depending chiefly on the amount of carbon dioxide sent out by the potential target. So she can smell carbon dioxide from over 200 feet away. When you exercise, for example, you emit more carbon dioxide through both breath and output. You also sweat, releasing those appetizing chemicals, primarily lactic acid, that invites the mosquito’s attention.

Lastly, your body temperature rises, which is an easily identifiable heat signature. On average, pregnant women suffer twice as many bites, as they have a slightly raised body temperature.

Please don’t go on a shower, exercise or give up your beloved beer and bright T-shirts just yet. Unfortunately, 85% of what makes you attractive to mosquitoes is fixed in advance in your genetic circuit board (电路板). At the end of the day, she will find blood from any exposed target of opportunity.

Do Dogs Dream?

Unlike cartoon images, real dogs don’t speak and describe their sleep. So you may wonder: do dogs dream like their owners?

A scientific research conducted at MIT found that during sleep, brains of humans and dogs function in a similar manner. When you or your dog first falls asleep, you experience SWS—slow wave sleep—when the brain waves are slow but muscles are still active. Later, a deeper stage of sleep occurs. This stage is called REM sleep—rapid eye movements sleep. During REM, muscles are more relaxed but the mind is more active. It was proved that both humans and dogs experience these two stages of the sleep cycle. Since we know that humans dream, it is safe to conclude that dogs dream too.

Scientists found that as a dog falls asleep, his breathing becomes deeper and more regular.After about 20 minutes in REM sleep, dreams usually begin for average dogs. While dreaming, the dog’s breathing may become shallow and irregular, and his eyes move about behind the closed lids(眼睑) as if the dog is looking at something. By comparing brain wave patterns, researchers suggested that during REM, dogs are visualizing (呈现) dream images much like humans do during this stage of sleep.

Besides, it’s also found that during REM, the sleeping brain functions much like it does when awake, so both man and dogs dream about things that happen during their waking hours. Information gathered during the day is processed at night and may be relived in dreams. So your dog may “sleep run” as he runs after a cat or fetches a ball.

Studies also show that some dogs dream more than others, and the frequency and length of dreams are different according to the age and sizes of dogs. Young puppies usually experience more dreams than adult dogs. One possible reason is that puppies acquire huge amounts of new information daily and have much to process at night. Among dogs of the same age, smaller dogs seem to have more dreams than their bigger friends, but their dreams may last shorter. Dream length and frequency are also related to the amount of sleep required. A dog that has an active day outside may sleep more soundly than usual and experience longer periods of REM sleep, giving him more time to dream.

Finding a California condor in the wild would be the most unusual treat. perhaps even more unusual than finding a wolf in Yellowstone National Park. In fact, the wolf was what opened my eyes to the fact that humans could bring an animal back to the place where it had disappeared.

In 1987, there were only 27 California condors left, none of which were in the wild, only in captive breeding programs, It was those breeding programs that contributed to their population rise, enough that by 1991 some of them could be freed into the wild.

Still, the hope of seeing a California condor, which remains an endangered species, is very low, let alone getting a photo of one. California condor population dropped mostly due to human factors, such as poaching and living areas destruction-these are challenges California condors still face today.

Although this is just a bird’s-eye view of the challenges California condors face and there are many others, it is part of why the opportunity to work with the US Fish and Wildlife Service team and their partners helping their recovery is so special to me as a photographer. I am not only able to photograph the birds in their wild living areas, but also understand and record how difficult the work is of those people on the front lines of the protection.

I am grateful for the work of the team, and my hope is that California condor population will continue to rise allowing future generations an opportunity I never had when I first got here-to look to the sky and see one flying around.