The Hodgeheg

By now it was quite late. The rush hour was over. The shops were shut. All was quiet. I'll wait, thought Max, and then when a car or truck comes along, I'll cross in front of it.

Soon he saw something coming. It was a truck. He was halfway across when he suddenly realized that the truck hadn't slowed at all and was almost on top of him, blinding him with its brilliant lights, deafening him with its thunderous roar. It was not going to stop! Trucks stopped only for people-not hedgehogs!

The truck driver had been quite unaware of the tiny pedestrian. With no time to brake, he straddled the little animal. Looking back in his mirror, he saw that it was continuing on its way unhurt, and he grinned and drove on into the night.

The horror of this great monster passing above with its huge wheels on either side of him threw Max into a blind panic, and he made for the end of the crossing as fast as his legs would carry him. He did not see the cyclist and the cyclist, who did not see him until the last moment, caught Max on the bottom and threw him headfirst into the roadside.

The next thing that Max recalled was crawling painfully. Somehow he had managed to come back. He had known nothing of the concern of the cyclist, who had stared at what looked like a small dead hedgehog, sighed, and rode sadly away. He remembered nothing of his journey home, guided only by his sense of smell. All he knew was that he had an awful headache.

The family crowded around him on his return, all talking at once.

“Where have you been all this time?” asked Ma.

“Are you all right, son?” asked Pa.

“Did you cross the road?” they both said, and Peony, Pansy, and Petunia echoed, “Did you? Did you? Did you?”

For a while, Max did not reply. His thoughts were muddled(混乱的), and when he did speak, his words were disordered, too.

“I've got a head on the bump,” he said slowly.

The family looked at one another.

“Something bot me on the hittom,” said Max, “and then I headed my bang. My ache bads headly.”

“But did you cross the road?” cried his sisters.

“Yes,” said Max. “I hound where the humans cross over, but…”

“But the traffic only stops if you're a human?” interrupted Pa.

“Yes,” said Max. “Not if you're a hodgeheg.”

CAMBODIA—The “world’s loneliest elephant” has been resettled at a nature reserve (保护区) in the Oddar Meanchey Province after receiving some help from singer Cher recently.

Kaavan, a 36-year-old, 9,000-pound elephant, was given the nickname after he suffered from emotional and physical problems while living in a zoo in Pakistan for 35 years. During that time, Kaavan was mostly tied in his enclosure (圈用地), and when his partner died in 2012, her body lay next to him for several days before it was removed. Doctors said Kaavan was overweight, malnourished (营养不良的) and suffering from behavioral problems due to loneliness.

Cher, who has been advocating Kaavan’s resettlement, met with Pakistani Prime Minister on Friday and later visited Kaavan in the zoo. Kaavan was tested for COVID-19 before his seven-hour journey, during which 440 pounds of food were prepared. A doctor took care of him on the flight and worked with Four Paws, the animal rescue group that organized the move. He said Kaavan did not seem stressed and even slept during the flight. Very few elephants have been relocated by plane, according to Four Paws.

On Monday, Kaavan arrived in Cambodia and made his way north by truck to his new home. Once he feels settled, he will be set free from his enclosure and allowed to wander around the reserve, which houses about 600 Asian elephants. Experts say Kaavan will get a long term of psychological and physical treatment. Years of living in an enclosure with poor flooring has caused his nail to crack and overgrow and he has developed a habit of shaking his head back and forth for hours, which is believed to be out of boredom.

The elephant has lost half a ton since his diet was changed to fruit and vegetables. The zoo where he spent much of his life has been ordered to shut down.

Listening to birds sing or watching them fly is more than just entertaining. Being around birds offers benefits for emotional well-being, a new study finds.

Researchers used a phone app to collect information on how this specific nature exposure could be good for mental wellness.

“Most previous studies have looked at the benefits of nature as a whole,” says lead author Ryan Hammoud, a research assistant at King’s College London. “We chose to focus on birdlife to try and understand which specific characteristics of nature benefit mental health. None of the previous studies had investigated this in real-time and real-world contexts.

For their experiments, researchers used the Urban Mind app to follow 1,292 people who completed nearly 27,000 assessments. Participants were from the United Kingdom, the European Union, and the United States. Three times each day, the app asked users whether they could hear or see birds. They were asked to answer follow-up questions on their mental state at the time, so researchers could see if there was a connection and how long it lasted.

Mental well-being was measured with questions about whether they were feeling confident, relaxed, happy, for example, or more negative feelings such as whether they felt anxious, stressed, or lonely.

The study collected data on people who have mental health conditions and those without. They discovered that bird activity is linked to improvements in emotional health in those who don’t have mental health concerns, as well as those who have been diagnosed with depression. They discovered that the effects were still observed in the following assessment which was up to eight hours later.

This exciting research shows just how much the sight and the sound of birdsong lift the spirits. It captures evidence that our senses are stimulated by birdsong, which is a precious part of nature that should be experienced.