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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
This summer, the Trump1 administration decided2 to remove Endangered Species Act protections for Yellowstone grizzly3 bears. They spent more than four decades on the threatened list, and now the government says they are safe. The Montana state government wants to take an even larger population of grizzlies4 off the list, saying they cause huge amounts of damage to crops and livestock5. Montana Public Radio's Nick Mott has this snapshot of life in grizzly country.
NICK MOTT, BYLINE6: Kari Eneas is standing7 in the back of a pickup8 truck stirring a curdling9 stew10 of severed11 deer legs in a big, red plastic bucket.
KARI ENEAS: Well, I've been tracking the stages of the bait barrel and, you know, there was one stage that I deemed sulfurous. And I think this has kind of got a hint of old shoe. (Laughter).
MOTT: Eneas is a wildlife biologist on the Flathead Reservation in Northwest Montana, and she's re-baiting a grizzly trap. She fishes a smelly roadkill leg out of the barrel and places it in a giant metal cylinder12. Stinky sneaker to us, this odor signals a tasty treat to a grizzly. Eneas hopes a bear will crawl in here to get its snack, and then Eneas and her co-workers will sedate13 the grizzly, slip a high-tech14 collar over its neck and let it go.
ENEAS: With the collar data, we can get GPS locations.
MOTT: With this data, biologists can start to figure out where the bears are crossing roads and why more bears than ever being killed by vehicles. In a normal year in this part of Montana, there's three bear deaths on roads. This year, there's already been 10 killed and another four cubs15 euthanized or relocated.
HILARY COOLEY: It's really not that unexpected.
MOTT: Hilary Cooley is the grizzly bear recovery coordinator16 for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
COOLEY: Because our distribution is expanding, the numbers of bears is growing, we would expect mortalities to grow in proportion to that, too.
MOTT: There are about a thousand bears here in the Northern Continental17 Divide area around Glacier18 National Park, and it's the largest grizzly population in the Lower 48. The animal's been federally protected since 1975. But Cooley says the population here is healthy and strong, and she expects a push to remove those protections by the end of the year. That will likely result in another round of lawsuits19 against the government claiming these bears still need protections. Still, Cooley and others believe state management instead of federal is best suited to mitigate20 conflicts as the bears' range expands.
COOLEY: More and more farmers and producers are experiencing bears that they haven't been for many years.
MOTT: Lisa Schmidt is a rancher in the plains east of Montana's Rocky Mountains, and she's seen what grizzlies can do.
LISA SCHMIDT: I walked down to the corral about 5:00 in the morning, and there were dead sheep laying everywhere.
MOTT: To bears, sheep are like little potato chips dotting the plains. Last year, a Montana board that compensates22 ranchers who lose animals to large predators23 doled24 out more money than they ever have for grizzly kills. The land around Schmidt's ranch21 is all agriculture - fields and prairie - and bears love it. They rip the doors off enormous grain bins25. They'll even take chunks26 out of cornfields. A little over a year ago, another grizzly showed up right outside Schmidt's front door. She scared the bear off, but the incident is remembered well. Here's Schmidt's daughter, Abby Hutton.
ABBY HUTTON: That was really scary for me, and I didn't like that.
SCHMIDT: Since then she doesn't want to camp, she doesn't want to be outside. That's what makes me mad, is when my daughter's scared to go outside because there's too many bears wandering around.
MOTT: She thinks, if delisted, more strict management of the grizzly population, including limited hunting, can give her some peace of mind. But how that delisting decision comes about may rest in the hands of the federal judge in Missoula deciding the fate of Yellowstone grizzlies. Last Saturday, a grizzly hunt was slated27 to begin in Idaho and Wyoming, but now that's been put on hold while the judge weighs both sides.
For NPR News, I'm Nick Mott in Missoula.
1 trump | |
n.王牌,法宝;v.打出王牌,吹喇叭 | |
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2 decided | |
adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的 | |
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3 grizzly | |
adj.略为灰色的,呈灰色的;n.灰色大熊 | |
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4 grizzlies | |
北美洲灰熊( grizzly的名词复数 ) | |
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5 livestock | |
n.家畜,牲畜 | |
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6 byline | |
n.署名;v.署名 | |
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7 standing | |
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的 | |
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8 pickup | |
n.拾起,获得 | |
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9 curdling | |
n.凝化v.(使)凝结( curdle的现在分词 ) | |
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10 stew | |
n.炖汤,焖,烦恼;v.炖汤,焖,忧虑 | |
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11 severed | |
v.切断,断绝( sever的过去式和过去分词 );断,裂 | |
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12 cylinder | |
n.圆筒,柱(面),汽缸 | |
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13 sedate | |
adj.沉着的,镇静的,安静的 | |
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14 high-tech | |
adj.高科技的 | |
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15 cubs | |
n.幼小的兽,不懂规矩的年轻人( cub的名词复数 ) | |
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16 coordinator | |
n.协调人 | |
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17 continental | |
adj.大陆的,大陆性的,欧洲大陆的 | |
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18 glacier | |
n.冰川,冰河 | |
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19 lawsuits | |
n.诉讼( lawsuit的名词复数 ) | |
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20 mitigate | |
vt.(使)减轻,(使)缓和 | |
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21 ranch | |
n.大牧场,大农场 | |
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22 compensates | |
补偿,报酬( compensate的第三人称单数 ); 给(某人)赔偿(或赔款) | |
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23 predators | |
n.食肉动物( predator的名词复数 );奴役他人者(尤指在财务或性关系方面) | |
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24 doled | |
救济物( dole的过去式和过去分词 ); 失业救济金 | |
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25 bins | |
n.大储藏箱( bin的名词复数 );宽口箱(如面包箱,垃圾箱等)v.扔掉,丢弃( bin的第三人称单数 ) | |
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26 chunks | |
厚厚的一块( chunk的名词复数 ); (某物)相当大的数量或部分 | |
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27 slated | |
用石板瓦盖( slate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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