Many years ago in a zoo，I was shocked by finding that chimpanzees could behave in a more civil manner than youths. Great apes（类人猿）are always one of the favourite attractions in any zoo. The main reason for this is that they are so similar to us.

This similarity has persuaded a group called the Great Ape Project（GAP）to campaign for these animals to be afforded“human rights”.

This has resulted in laws in New Zealand，which could mean that great apes would become the first animals in the world with basic rights protected by the law.

Not everybody is happy with this idea，however. Scientists using animals for scientific research fear that this is just the first stage in a process that will lead to a ban on using all animals for research.

The GAP declaration claims great apes should have“human rights”due to scientific evidence about their abilities. But if we compare the abilities of humans and great apes，then why not the abilities of great apes and monkeys，monkeys and lemurs，and so on until insects are granted“human rights”？This is not foolish. There are people without basic human rights. How long ago，for example，did women not have the right to vote？

Yet another argument by those who don't support GAP is that the human-like qualities of great apes have been exaggerated（夸大）for certain reasons，and that this has led people to exaggerate the similarities but ignore the differences between humans and great apes.

In a fascinating book entitled What It Means to be 98% Chimpanzee，Jonathan M. Marks points out that，although a human and a daffodil（水仙花）share the common ancestry and their DNA matches more than 25% of the time，it is plainly ridiculous to claim that we are one-quarter daffodils.

He goes on to demonstrate that，if looked at from one angle，it is true that we are apes phylogenetically. But also fish from another angle！“It doesn't sound quite so profound now，does it？”

It's 10 o'clock at night, and we've been walking along behind him and his wife, Maria, on the beach in complete darkness for half an hour, hoping that every shadowy form is a green sea turtle that has appeared from the Caribbean to lay her eggs on Tortuguero Beach.

After traveling a long way here to witness the event at the end of the nesting season, we walk behind Castor in dutiful silence, thinking about the impact we could have on a turtle's nesting decision. Although they can't hear well, green sea turtles have a powerful sense of smell. Lights can also disturb them. And if the female feels threatened, she'll likely return to the sea to give up all 100 to 120 of her eggs-a huge sacrifice for an endangered creature.

Earlier that day we read up on threats to the turtles-poisonous waste, plastic bags and fishing hooks among other things. These threats apply, however, only if the baby turtles even make it to the sea in the first place.

"She is there," Castor reports, "making her nest now." A female turtle turns herself around and around in a circle until the top of her shell is nearly even with the sand. Employing her back flippers (鳍肢), she then reaches beneath herself to dig a neat, deep hole for the hundred or more eggs she will lay his evening.

We sit silently on a big piece of driftwood, waiting patiently like family members outside the birthing room. "Come closer!" Castor says, and we bend towards the soft red glow of his flashlight. His right hand holds the massive turtle's left back flipper aside so that the light shines directly into the hole, which is already filled with eggs. Her tail lifts as a soft, slippery egg slides through and goes into the hole, followed by another and another. After laying the eggs, her tail flipper begin to remove sand from the "walls" around her, dragging it over the top of the eggs.

Then Castor signals us to another spot where a nest is hatching (孵化) at the very moment. Dozens of baby turtles desperately move to the surface, trying to drag themselves up out and to the sea. However, a huge driftwood lying in the sand parallel to the sea blocks their passage down the beach. Castor shines his beam toward the water and Maria picks the newborns up and places them on the other side of the wood. If we weren't there at the moment, most of them would have wandered aimlessly toward the jungle and death.

On the way back to the village, I recall my mixed feelings about human impact on the environment, Now I'm home joyous that my presence has helped an entire nest of baby turtles survive the first challenge of their lives.

The horses, llamas, donkeys and dogs who arrive at Horse Creek Stable Rescue Sanctuary are often sick, weak or just tired. Lester Aradi, a retired police chief, along with his wife Diane, makes sure no one lets them down again. The refuge for special needs animals they founded in Georgia’s Blue Ridge mountains is a bustling 35-acre beacon of new beginnings. But there are endings here, too.

When they die, the animals are buried on a slight hillside overlooking the grass land. Graves for dogs are lined up in a row. Burials for bigger animals — horses, llamas, donkeys — are marked with a fruit tree. Lester and Diane see it as a symbol of the circle of life. “We just try to honor them that way,” Lester said. But the most obvious marker for a fresh grave will be a three-legged dog named Tricycle. When an animal dies, he shows sadness — sometimes for as long as three days.

“I don’t know if he can sense it, smell it, or whatever, But I think he is grieving. That is his way of saying goodbye.” The first time was back when his friend Major died. “When Major died, we buried him here on the farm,” Lester said. “Tricycle went over and laid on his grave for about three days. He would come into the house. But every time he was outside, he would go to Major’s grave and lay on it.”

Lester posted a picture of Tricycle mourning Major on Horse Creek Stable’s Facebook page. Not long after that, a dog rescue group got in touch with him. They thought maybe Lester and Diane could take in another three-legged dog who needed a second chance in life. And so, Romeo arrived at the farm. Naturally, Tricycle bonded with his new friend, just like him. It truly is the circle of life.