美国国家公共电台 NPR Move Over, Goat Yoga. Alaskans Now Have Reindeer Yoga

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

If you want to commune with animals while doing yoga, there are many options these days - puppy yoga, cat yoga, goat yoga, yoga with B.J. Leiderman who writes our theme music. In Fairbanks, Alaska, there's a yoga class with a fauna¹ - with fauna? With fauna. With fauna - particular to the cold northern climes of the sub-arctic reindeer². From member station KTOO and only on NPR, Ravenna Koenig has the story.

(REINDEER SNORTING )

RAVENNA KOENIG, BYLINE³: In a grassy⁴ pan at the running reindeer ranch⁵, a mix of adult and baby reindeer are milling around, grazing, nosing curiously⁶ at water bottles and pawing yoga mats as people shake them out for class.

(REINDEER SCRATCHING)

KOENIG: The air is buzzing with mosquitoes, and the sky is threatening rain. But a good two dozen or so people have shown up for this petting zoo/exercise experience. One of them is Tarah Hoxsie.

TARAH HOXSIE: I've wanted to do, like, goat yoga, but this is like one step up. This is, like, the ultimate, OK? So while everybody's doing goat yoga in the lower 48, we're doing reindeer yoga, which is way cooler.

KOENIG: This is a brand new thing for the ranch. It's only the third class they've done. They usually give natural history walking tours with the animals. Jane Atkinson is one of the owners. She does yoga herself, and she thinks that reindeer are particularly well suited to it. They're twisty creatures, especially in the springtime when their antlers are growing and itchy and they scratch them with their back hooves.

JANE ATKINSON: So you'll see the reindeer get into these amazing poses. And it's like, wow, look at this little yoga move that they do.

KOENIG: One of Atkinson's employees at the ranch, Elsa Janney, happens to also be a yoga instructor⁷.

ELSA JANNEY: All right, so everybody go ahead and find your mat.

KOENIG: The class starts with a safety talk - things like don't touch the reindeer sensitive antlers because it could hurt them. From there, much of the class follows a typical yoga class script.

JANNEY: We’re going to ground through our sit bones, find some length in our spine⁸.

KOENIG: But there is some extra stuff mixed in. Like, when Janney asks the class to pay attention to the sounds around them.

JANNEY: Reindeer make a click when they walk. That is the ligament connected to two different ankle bones that is unique to both caribou⁹ and reindeer.

KOENIG: At the start of class, most of the reindeer are standing¹⁰ up or slowly wandering around the mats. But as the class goes on, one by one they all lie down. Rocket, an elegant male reindeer, spreads out between the first and second rows and spends most of the class making a noise that sounds like snoring.

(SOUNDBITE OF REINDEER SNORING)

KOENIG: He's sleeping (laughter).

(SOUNDBITE OF REINDEER SNORING)

KOENIG: The whole thing's pretty surreal. There's a lot of giggling¹¹, especially when one of the reindeer relieves itself on the grass.

(SOUNDBITE OF REINDEER URINATING)

JANNEY: Doing that gentle opening of your right side of your neck.

KOENIG: After class, Beth Ann Chase says she didn't really mind sharing her mat with the lounging reindeer rocket.

BETH ANN CHASE: It was awesome¹². It was super cool. I could hear him snoring the whole time that I was during it. It definitely brought me to like a (laughter), like a peaceful place.

KOENIG: And Diana Saverin says that trying to maintain focus was part of the workout.

DIANA SAVERIN: As the rain came down and the mosquitoes buzz and the reindeer snored, it was like, can you stay with your breath? (Laughter) It's good hard work.

KOENIG: Plus, all the participants now have some kind of animal yoga bragging¹³ rights.

For NPR News, I'm Ravenna Koenig in Fairbanks, Alaska.

1 fauna   

n.(一个地区或时代的)所有动物，动物区系

参考例句：

• This National Park is an area with unique fauna and flora.该国家公园区域内具有独特的动物种群和植物种群。
• Fauna is a biological notion means all the animal life in a particular region or period. 动物群是一个生物学的概念，指的是一个特定时期或者地区的所有动物。

2 reindeer   

n.驯鹿

参考例句：

• The herd of reindeer was being trailed by a pack of wolves.那群驯鹿被一只狼群寻踪追赶上来。
• The life of the Reindeer men was a frontier life.驯鹿时代人的生活是一种边区生活。

3 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。

4 grassy   

adj.盖满草的；长满草的

参考例句：

• They sat and had their lunch on a grassy hillside.他们坐在长满草的山坡上吃午饭。
• Cattle move freely across the grassy plain.牛群自由自在地走过草原。

5 ranch   

n.大牧场，大农场

参考例句：

• He went to work on a ranch.他去一个大农场干活。
• The ranch is in the middle of a large plateau.该牧场位于一个辽阔高原的中部。

6 curiously   

adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地

参考例句：

• He looked curiously at the people.他好奇地看着那些人。
• He took long stealthy strides. His hands were curiously cold.他迈着悄没声息的大步。他的双手出奇地冷。

7 instructor   

n.指导者，教员，教练

参考例句：

• The college jumped him from instructor to full professor.大学突然把他从讲师提升为正教授。
• The skiing instructor was a tall,sunburnt man.滑雪教练是一个高高个子晒得黑黑的男子。

8 spine   

n.脊柱，脊椎；(动植物的)刺；书脊

参考例句：

• He broke his spine in a fall from a horse.他从马上跌下摔断了脊梁骨。
• His spine developed a slight curve.他的脊柱有点弯曲。

9 caribou   

n.北美驯鹿

参考例句：

• Afar off he heard the squawking of caribou calves.他听到远处有一群小驯鹿尖叫的声音。
• The Eskimos played soccer on ice and used balls filled with caribou hair and grass.爱斯基摩人在冰上踢球，他们用的是驯鹿的毛发和草填充成的球。

10 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

11 giggling   

v.咯咯地笑( giggle的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• We just sat there giggling like naughty schoolchildren. 我们只是坐在那儿像调皮的小学生一样的咯咯地傻笑。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I can't stand her giggling, she's so silly. 她吃吃地笑，叫我真受不了，那样子傻透了。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

12 awesome   

adj.令人惊叹的，难得吓人的，很好的

参考例句：

• The church in Ireland has always exercised an awesome power.爱尔兰的教堂一直掌握着令人敬畏的权力。
• That new white convertible is totally awesome.那辆新的白色折篷汽车简直棒极了.

13 bragging   

v.自夸，吹嘘( brag的现在分词 )；大话

参考例句：

• He's always bragging about his prowess as a cricketer. 他总是吹嘘自己板球水平高超。 来自辞典例句
• Now you're bragging, darling. You know you don't need to brag. 这就是夸口，亲爱的。你明知道你不必吹。 来自辞典例句