A few years ago, I was leaving the kennel (养狗场) where I worked, only to find a baby goat at the end of the driveway. The kennel's owners are known animal rescuers and I figured someone outside dumped him over the fence.

I'm an animal lover and I've brought home dogs, cats, horses, chickens and fish, but never goats. The tiny kid was too adorable to resist. I named him Quincy, and with the help of some experienced friends, bottle-fed him in my bathroom. Quincy proved to be quite special. When he was about a week old, I tapped my fingers on the bathroom floor and said, "Lie down." I was amazed when he dropped down. I was even more amazed when he did it three times in a row.

A quick study, Quincy learned to lie down, bow, and turn in a circle in no time. He is house-trained, jumps in the back of my SUV when I say "load up," and spends the day wandering with my dogs, whom he considers his brothers and sisters. He knows the name of everything I feed him — apples, water, carrots, and strawberries.

I love to train animals and often take my dogs to shows where they can perform their tricks. Quincy did his first show when he was just six weeks old. He knew only a few tricks then, but he did them perfectly and never misbehaved or got nervous in front of the crowd.

Now he has a whole inventory: He'll shake hooves (蹄), come when called, walk on a rope, wave, smile for the camera, and more. Quincy and my dogs perform regularly at schools, nursing homes, and charity events. Quincy can even "read" his tricks off cue cards (提示板), which always earns the most applause.

It's hard to believe that the goat kid nobody wanted turned out to be one of the smartest and most good-natured animals I've ever had.

Aruba is one of the most well-known Caribbean destinations for tourists around the world. You're probably wondering what to include while you're there.

What to wear?

The main reason why you're heading there is to relax on the country's fresh beaches and enjoy yourself in warm waters of the Caribbean Sea. During most of the day, you'll likely be wearing your swimsuit. When you've finished at the beach or pool area, it is advisable to bring along a shirt or cover as well as shorts to wear.

It is not recommended to wear beach clothes when you go out for dimmer — regardless of the time of day. Shorts and T-shirts are enough in many restaurants, although more formal clothes are advised for the fanciest eating restaurants.

What else to bring?

The Caribbean sun is very strong and if you're planning on spending lots of time in the sun, there are several precautions you must take. Include suncream, sunglasses, a wide hat, a couple of bathing suits as well as a beach bag and a cooler in your luggage.

What not to bring?

While drinking water is questionable or not safe in many Caribbean nations, Aruba is an exception. Aruba is known for having the cleanest water in the world. There is no need to bring water, so simply bring along an empty bottle.

Several items are not allowed in Aruba for carrying. Those include firearms, e-cigarettes as well as sharp objects and tools.

Standing out from the crowd isn't always a good thing.

Birds with uncommon traits like big beaks(喙), long tails and extended wings are more likely to be threatened and face extinction, new research finds. 

"We are fascinated by the diversity of the planet's bird species. At the same time, we are deeply concerned about the threats these birds face," lead author Jarome Ali, a PhD candidate at Princeton University, says. Ali completed the research at Imperial College London.

For their work, researchers analyzed measurement data collected from 9, 943 bird species, which are about 99% of all living bird species. The information came from both living birds as well as museum specimens(标本). The measurements included beak size and shape, as well as the length of legs, tails and wings. Researchers combined the information on physical traits with the birds' risk of extinction. Next, they ran simulations(模拟) about what would occur if the most threatened birds were to become extinct.

"All our simulations showed that extinction has worse effects on the diversity of bird shapes than we expected. This is deeply concerning, but not shocking given that we first found that threatened birds were more unique than non-threatened birds," Ali says.

The researchers weren't sure what could explain the link between unusual birds and their extinction risk. "Unique birds are likely to play specialized roles in the ecosystem. One possible explanation is that as habitats come under threat, these specialized roles are likely to be the first to be targeted," Ali says. "For example, if you were a hummingbird and specialized to feed on a small subset of plants, then damage to your habitat would be worse than if you were a less unique bird that eats a whole range of foods."

"The loss of these rare birds has an impact on the environment because their role in the ecosystem is lost," Ali says. "Our findings imply that we cannot simply hope that non-threatened species will come in and fill the role of the threatened species."