美国国家公共电台 NPR Wolves Are Back In Germany, But Not Always Welcome

 

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

So if you live in the Western United States, you know that wolves can be a real point of contention¹. Things can get pretty heated when the government helps to restore wolves back to a region over the objections of local ranchers and hunters. And it turns out that this conflict is not unique to America, as NPR's Martin Kaste discovered on a recent reporting trip in Germany.

MARTIN KASTE, BYLINE²: There are a lot of similarities between wolf politics in the U.S. and Germany, but those similarities do not include the protests. Anti-wolf rallies in Germany tend to be pretty German.

(SOUNDBITE OF PROTEST)

UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Playing horns).

KASTE: Hunting horns are the big draw at this anti-wolf rally in Potsdam outside Berlin. Hunters and farmers are showing their displeasure with the growing number of wolves in the countryside. Farmer Marco Hintze wants to be allowed to do something about it.

MARCO HINTZE: That we are able to shoot. If we miss them, it's OK. If we don't miss them, it's not against the law. And that's what we're trying to fight for.

KASTE: But right now, wolves are strictly³ protected by German and European law. That protection has allowed their numbers to grow rapidly, especially in the East since German reunification. And Hintze says part of the problem is that city people have romanticized the returning wolves.

HINTZE: They think, oh, it's a nice wolf, and he needs to be in nature and be free. But people raised on the countryside - they don't need the wolf anymore.

KASTE: Once the hunting horns are done, demonstrators show how they feel about wolves by introducing a character who's never very far from this debate in Germany.

(SOUNDBITE OF PROTEST)

UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER #1: (Speaking German).

KASTE: Yes, it's "Little Red Riding Hood⁴." A teenaged girl dressed the part steps to the microphone and starts the famous tale of what a wolf did to her.

(SOUNDBITE OF PROTEST)

UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER #2: (Speaking German).

KASTE: But there are plenty of people in Germany who don't take Little Red Riding Hood's side.

HANS-HOLGER LISTE: Well, I liked when it was a kid's reading - a glimpse of fairy tales. And I was always more sympathizing with the wolves than with the people...

KASTE: Hans-Holger Liste is a soil ecologist and member of a pro-wolf activist⁵ group. Walking through the woods near his house, he says having them come back here has been thrilling.

LISTE: If you meet them for the first time, it's like a spiritual experience. They stand there. They're not afraid of anything. They don't run from you. It just moves slowly away maybe.

KASTE: He says his enthusiasm is shared by his neighbors, but this community is still kind of suburban⁶ within commuting⁷ distance from Berlin. Attitudes turn more anti-wolf as you get farther into farming areas. In a remote corner of Saxony this summer, wildlife authorities found a young female wolf that had been illegally shot and then sunk into a lake with a cement weight attached.

LISTE: It was such a gruesome act of killing⁸. As we called it and the media called it, it was like a - mafia-like killing.

KASTE: But the anti-wolf people also have reasons to be upset. In another part of Saxony, a farmer found 40 sheep and five goats killed by wolves in one attack. Farmers get compensation, but all of this has made wolves a hot political issue in Germany. And Liste says just like in the U.S., it usually comes down to a simple matter of left versus⁹ right.

LISTE: Definitely. I would say it's going to be the same.

KASTE: He says the pattern was already clear in the last elections.

LISTE: The Left Party and the Green Party - they were almost 100 percent pro-wolf. And the party of very conservative people were basically against wolves.

KASTE: That party he's talking about is the Alternative for Germany, the upstarts on the far-right that gained so much ground recently by campaigning against immigration - human immigration. But now they're also against the wolves.

(CROSSTALK)

KASTE: And at that demonstration¹⁰ in Potsdam, you get the sense that this is about more than just wolves. Again, just as in the Western United States, rural people here see the wolves as a symptom of an arrogant¹¹, out-of-touch government. Dirk Wellershoff is with the Brandenburg Hunting Society.

DIRK WELLERSHOFF: (Speaking German).

KASTE: "I get the impression that our politics in all of Germany is getting distant from the people and our concerns," he says. "And we observe very clearly with the wolves how our problems are not being seen and solutions aren't being found."

(SOUNDBITE OF PROTEST)

UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER #2: (Speaking German).

KASTE: At the microphone, Red Riding Hood is reaching the end of her story. It's the more gruesome grim version of the tale in which she and her grandmother sew stones into the wolf's belly¹². He wakes up, stumbles to the ground and dies.

(SOUNDBITE OF PROTEST)

UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER #2: (Speaking German).

(APPLAUSE)

KASTE: A moment that's greeted by happy applause. Martin Kaste, NPR News.

1 contention   

n.争论，争辩，论战；论点，主张

参考例句：

• The pay increase is the key point of contention. 加薪是争论的焦点。
• The real bone of contention,as you know,is money.你知道，争论的真正焦点是钱的问题。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 strictly   

adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地

参考例句：

• His doctor is dieting him strictly.他的医生严格规定他的饮食。
• The guests were seated strictly in order of precedence.客人严格按照地位高低就座。

4 hood   

n.头巾，兜帽，覆盖；v.罩上，以头巾覆盖

参考例句：

• She is wearing a red cloak with a hood.她穿着一件红色带兜帽的披风。
• The car hood was dented in.汽车的发动机罩已凹了进去。

5 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

6 suburban   

adj.城郊的，在郊区的

参考例句：

• Suburban shopping centers were springing up all over America. 效区的商业中心在美国如雨后春笋般地兴起。
• There's a lot of good things about suburban living.郊区生活是有许多优点。

7 commuting   

交换（的）

参考例句：

• I used the commuting time to read and answer my mail. 我利用上下班在汽车中的时间来阅读和答复给我的函电。
• Noncommuting objects are as real to the mathematicians as commuting objects. 对于数学家来说，不可交换的对象与可交换的对象是一样真实的。

8 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

9 versus   

prep.以…为对手，对；与…相比之下

参考例句：

• The big match tonight is England versus Spain.今晚的大赛是英格兰对西班牙。
• The most exciting game was Harvard versus Yale.最富紧张刺激的球赛是哈佛队对耶鲁队。

10 demonstration   

n.表明，示范，论证，示威

参考例句：

• His new book is a demonstration of his patriotism.他写的新书是他的爱国精神的证明。
• He gave a demonstration of the new technique then and there.他当场表演了这种新的操作方法。

11 arrogant   

adj.傲慢的，自大的

参考例句：

• You've got to get rid of your arrogant ways.你这骄傲劲儿得好好改改。
• People are waking up that he is arrogant.人们开始认识到他很傲慢。

12 belly   

n.肚子，腹部；(像肚子一样)鼓起的部分，膛

参考例句：

• The boss has a large belly.老板大腹便便。
• His eyes are bigger than his belly.他眼馋肚饱。