There have been many studies that show being in nature is good for your health. Walking in the woods is good for your well-being(健康). Living near trees can help you live longer. But when you go for a walk in the woods, what makes you feel good? Is it the sights or smells or sounds? A new study finds it might be the birds you hear while you have a walk.
Researchers from California Polytechnic State University analyzed(分析)how much the natural sounds people hear when they're outdoors influence well-being. They found that the "chorus(合唱)" of birds singing increased well-being in protected natural areas.
For the study, researchers put 10 hidden, evenly spaced(等间距的) speakers (扬声器) on two parts of trails(小路) in the Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks in Colorado. They played recorded songs from 11 kinds of birds. The researchers take tums to play the birdsong for a few hours a day for a week, and then turned off the speakers for a week at a time. They interviewed hikers after they passed through the areas with the speakers.
"The main result is that hikers that heard the birdsong showed a higher level of well-being compared to those that did not hear the birdsong," Biology Professor Clinton Franeis, who led the research, says.
Hikers who heard more birdsong on the first part of the trail said they felt better. Those who heard more birdsong on the second part reported that they thought more birds lived along that part of the trail. This feeling of more birds helps make the hikers feel better. "With the chorus, we were able to show that natural sounds have a clear influence on the quality of hikers' experiences," says Francis.
