According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, 33 percent of coral reefs (珊瑚礁) are in danger. One of the victims is the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, the world’s largest coral reef system.

A team of British and Australian scientists banded and came up with a solution to revive one of the world’s seven natural wonders. They used underwater loudspeakers to attract fishes to the dead coral reefs to help them restore. The groundbreaking process is known as “acoustic (声音的) enrichment”.

Loudspeakers are placed on patches of dead corals in the Great Barrier Reef. After careful observation, researchers discovered a favorable result-nearly twice as many fish arrived-and stayed, as compared to parts where there was no sound from speakers.

“Healthy coral reefs are remarkably noisy places-the crackle of snapping shrimp and the whoop of fish combine to form a biological soundscape. Young fish home in on these sounds when they’re looking for a place to settle.” said Professor Steve Simpson at the University of Exeter.

Reefs become quiet when they are decarded(退化), as the shrimps and fish disappear. “By using loudspeakers to restore this lost soundscape, we can attract young fish back again,” Simpson added. “Fish are crucial for coral reefs to function as healthy ecosystems…Boosting fish populations in this way could help kick-start natural recovery processes, counteracting(抵消) the damage we’re seeing on many coral reefs around the world.” he said.

Despite this groundbreaking discovery, we still have our work cut out for the preservation of coral reefs. The average water temperatures are rising, and problems such as overfishing and pollution are still among the pressing issues at hand. Also, further research is still needed to understand how loudspeakers influence the behavior of aquatic(水中)creatures fully.

Nevertheless, hope is still visible for the degraded coral reefs. The authors of the acoustic enrichment study remain to be optimistic in the power of music and sound to restore the reef’s abundant marine population.

A group of wandering wild elephants have become an overnight Internet focus in China and global. The group first captured the attention of the locals in March 2020. after they suddenly left their home in the Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve.

While the original group was made of 16, two of which decided to return home after a week. The rest have continued their journey northward, stopping only for a short break in November 2020 to allow a newly born calf (幼兽) and its mother to rest.

Since leaving the reserve, the elephants have walked over 310 miles. Along the way, they have got into farms for food and water, walked through urban streets, and even paid a visit to a car shop and a retirement home. Thanks to the alarming eye of the government officials no animals or people have been hurt. However, they have destroyed more than $1 million worth.

Researchers are not sure why the elephants decided to leave or where they are headed. While elephants are known to leave their habitats in search of food, this is the longest moving of wild elephants recorded in China. Because of the extreme distance traveled, some doubt that the elephants may be lost. However, other scientists think the elephants were forced to move due to deforestation. Successful protection efforts have almost doubled the elephant population in the Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve and the surrounding regions. However, their natural habitat has been continuously reduced to make room for agricultural development.

We’ve seen elephants expanding their range for decades now, as their populations increase, and they search for more food for the growing group, Becky Shu Chen, a scientist at the Zoological Society of London, told The Washington Post.

The wandering elephants’ search for a suitable home has not gone unnoticed by the millions of locals that eagerly follow their daily movements on social media Adam Chang, assigned to deliver food to the elephants, says, “Before this meeting, I just felt curious about animals. Now, I think I would volunteer in animal rights groups to preserve those giant creatures.

Vampire bats live in the warmer areas of Central and South America. They are the only warm-blooded animals with a blood-only diet. They live in groups that can number from the tens to thousands of individuals.

Most people would not think of friendship and cooperation(合作)when considering vampire bats. But experts say maybe we should. New research shows that vampire bats have deeper social relationship with one another than scientists had thought. The study shows that vampire bats form friendships and meet at feeding time to hunt together.

Researchers attached small devices to 50 vampire bats in Panama to follow their path as they feed at night. The bats drink blood from wounds they cause on cows in open fields. Female bats were chosen in the study, as researchers believe they have stronger social relationships than males.

Twenty-three bats born in the wild had been caught and studied for about two years for related research into bat social behavior. Social connections had already been observed among some of them. They live together in trees, clean each other and share meals. The scientists used tiny sensor devices on the flying bats to learn whether their hunting behavior was also social. The sensor data showed that the bats would often join a “friend” while searching for food.

Gerald Carter is a scientist with the Ohio State University and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. He led the research published in the journal PLOS Biology. “This study opens up an exciting new window into the social lives of these animals.” he said, “Each bat maintains its own network of close cooperative social connections.”

The researchers guess that the bats join their friends during the hunt to help each other. They think the bats might exchange information about prey(猎物)position or access to an open wound for feeding.

Simon Ripperger, a researcher at the Smithsonia Tropical Research Institute and a writer of the study said people’s first response to vampire bats is usually fear. He added, “but once you tell them about their complex social lives, they are quite surprised that we can find such behavior that is somewhat similar to what humans do-and which one would maybe expect in primates(灵长类)—in bats.”