Animals being extinct from the Earth is a serious issue. When this happens in order to use their fur or skin for fashion, it is even worse, since it’s not even for a matter of human survival. That’s why a London zoo decided to make a powerful statement at the Siamese crocodile enclosure (鳄鱼围栏).

When visitors come in expecting to see a crocodile, they’re greeted with the handbag instead, making a very effective and powerful point about illegal wildlife trade and the harm it takes on the species involved.

A sign by the enclosure reads, “This bag used to be found swimming in slow-moving rivers and streams across Southeast Asia and Indonesia. Over the last 75 years, more than 80% of Siamese crocodiles have disappeared. Many, like this one, were hunted for their skins as part of the illegal wildlife trade.”.

Native to parts of Southeast Asia, Siamese crocodiles are critically endangered and have become virtually extinct in the wild. Due to hunting as well as habitat loss, they are now absent from nearly 99% of their original range. A huge part of the decline of population is due to humans using their wetland habitat for rice farming, and things only took a turn for the worse when large-scale hunting for their skin for commercial purposes began in the 1950s.

The particular handbag that is on display at the zoo was confiscated at a UK airport, according to Benjamin Tapley, leader of reptiles and amphibians at ZSL London Zoo.

Tapley told The Huffington Post, “We made this exhibit, within ZSL London Zoo’s Reptile House, to draw visitors’ attention to the destructive impact the Illegal Wildlife Trade (IWT) is having on species around the world. At ZSL, we are working globally with governments and local communities to protect wildlife, support law enforcement (执法) that targets illegal trade networks, empower local communities affected by IWT and reduce demand for threatened wildlife.”

Scientists in Australia thought they had developed a new tracking device to help them monitor magpies (喜鹊), but these birds had other ideas.

Australian magpies are medium-sized black and white birds from the same bird“family“ as crows and bluejays. They are known to be quite clever. They live in groups of up to 12 birds and work together to defend the area they live in.

The purpose of the scientists’ experiment was to learn more about how far they travel each day and how their social behaviors are influenced by sex, age, and rank. Besides, the scientists were eager to test the newly developed tracking device.

Most trackers are too big to fit on small and medium sized birds, and small trackers tend to be limited when it comes to data storage, battery life, and reusability. The new tracker, weighing less than 1 gram, was designed to overcome these problems. Attached to a backpack-like harness (背带) which could not be removed easily, the device can re-charge wirelessly and transmit (传输) data wirelessly.

The scientists placed trackers on five magpies using their special harnesses. Things started to fall apart almost immediately. Within 10 minutes of fitting the final tracker, an adult female without a tracker tried to remove the harness from a younger bird and eventually succeeded. This pattern was repeated in the following hours, and by the third day none of the birds had trackers anymore.

Scientists refer to this as “rescue behavior,” and it happens when a helper tries to free another individual in trouble and with no obvious direct benefit to the rescuing individual. They think this is the first time rescue behavior has been reported for Australian magpies. However, they aren’t sure if the same individual removed all of the harnesses or if others offered help.

The team didn’t get the data they wanted, but their experiment still produced interesting results. That’s how science works sometimes. The scientists need to try, again to figure out a good way to track these clever birds.

Frank Lloyd Wright was the champion of organic architecture, a style of building meant to harmonize with nature. But I’m not sure harmonizing with chipmunks — small American animals similar to squirrels with black lines on their fur — was what he had in mind.

During my years with the US National Park Service, I spent six months working in a visitor center designed by Wright’s firm. Several other employees and I staffed the park’s phone and radio system from a room in the basement.

I was sitting at my desk when I first heard a sound in the suspended ceiling. Dark shapes moved fast across the light panel (光板) above my head. Moments later, they ran back in the opposite direction, leaving me with an impression of noses and tails, each tail followed by another nose. It was like watching a shadow puppet (皮影) performance, but with real animals.

“Baby chipmunks,” a fellow told me. “They live in the ceiling.”

After four summers working in the parks, I had grown accustomed to sharing indoor space with wildlife. Chipmunks in the workplace even seemed to be a joy; their behaviors provided a bit of stress relief on difficult days.

As summer progressed, the shadows chasing each other across our lights grew bigger. Their movement across the light panels had become more of an athletic running.

I had just answered a call one day when I heard a loud sound, and a ceiling panel fell down on my head. I dropped the phone as I fell out of my office chair, looking up just in time to see a brown tail disappear over the gap in the ceiling.

I pulled myself off the carpet, laughing with my co-workers, and noticed the phone hanging over the side of the desk. I picked up the phone, preparing to explain the crash, the scream, the dropped phone, and the laughing to the listener who was about to visit the park.

“I’m sorry, but you’re not going to believe what just happened.”

I don’t think he did.