美国国家公共电台 NPR Bats And Tequila: A Once Boo-tiful Relationship Cursed By Growing Demands

 

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

Now this Halloween story about bats and spirits - not spooky spirits. We're talking tequila. NPR's Neda Ulaby went to a Mexican bar in Washington, D.C., to research the connection between bats and booze.

NEDA ULABY, BYLINE¹: It's a Halloween happy hour hosted by the head of a group called Bat Conservation International.

MIKE DAULTON: And we're here at a bar tonight to talk about them because they are intimately tied to agave.

ULABY: Agave, the spiky² desert plant used to make mezcal, tequila and, by extension, the delicious looking margarita someone's offering me right now.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: There you go.

ULABY: You can't have tequila without agave. And it's hard to have agave without bats, says Mike Daulton. He runs the Bat Conservation Group. And he says industrial agave farming affects both the plants and the bats that pollinate them.

DAULTON: The tequila industry has seen 60 percent growth in the last 10 years. At the super-premium level, where you're spending $30 a bottle or more, it's more like 400 percent growth. And so that means you have to grow a lot of agave.

ULABY: And the problem with that - well, let Micaela Jemison explain. She also works for Bat Conservation International. And she's adorned³ appropriately in bat-themed jewelry⁴.

MICAELA JEMISON: So a lot of the agaves that we make tequila from are actually clones of each other. They're not actually naturally pollinated. The...

ULABY: They're clones?

JEMISON: Yeah. They're pretty much clones of each other.

ULABY: Growing genetically⁷ identical plants is easy and cheap for a big tequila company, but they're vulnerable. Fungus⁸ or disease could wipe them all out. Bats are the answer. Jemison says three kinds of bats create genetic⁶ diversity in agave by mixing up their pollen⁹.

JEMISON: The Mexican long-nosed bat, the lesser¹⁰ long-nosed bat and the Mexican long-tongued bat.

ULABY: Notice a bit of a theme? There's a kind of pollinating bat that has a tongue longer than its body.

JEMISON: You think how would it fit in its mouth?

ULABY: Yes, how?

JEMISON: It actually has to roll its tongue up in the back of its throat to fit it all in.

ULABY: Consider that when planning your next Halloween costume. Jemison says these bats need Gene⁵ Simmons-esque (ph) tongues when they hover¹¹ over fertile agave stems stuffed with pollen.

JEMISON: And use their long tongues to actually dig into the flower and get out that really awesome¹² nectar for them to eat. So they actually literally¹³ get their heads covered in this pollen. And as they're going from agave plant to agave plant, they're pollinating them at the same time.

ULABY: If you want to hear cocktail¹⁴ chatter¹⁵ about bats, this is the place. Bats have bellybuttons. They're the second-largest group of mammals in the world. People here drinking take bats very seriously. Joaquin Meza is part of a group called the Tequila Interchange Project that tries to make tequila production more bat-positive. Growing up in Mexico, he says he never thought of bats as anything but...

JOAQUIN MEZA: Evil, scary creatures. You know, I saw a bat, and I wanted to run away. And now it's - I understand the work they do like bees.

ULABY: Now Meza wants to convince tequila producers to create bat-friendly labels, putting, if you will, a little boo back in booze. Neda Ulaby, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF THE ALBUM LEAF'S "BACK TO THE START")

1 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。

2 spiky   

adj.长而尖的，大钉似的

参考例句：

• Your hairbrush is too spiky for me.你的发刷，我觉得太尖了。
• The spiky handwriting on the airmail envelope from London was obviously hers.发自伦敦的航空信封上的尖长字迹分明是她的。

3 adorned   

[计]被修饰的

参考例句：

• The walls were adorned with paintings. 墙上装饰了绘画。
• And his coat was adorned with a flamboyant bunch of flowers. 他的外套上面装饰着一束艳丽刺目的鲜花。

4 jewelry   

n.（jewllery）（总称）珠宝

参考例句：

• The burglars walked off with all my jewelry.夜盗偷走了我的全部珠宝。
• Jewelry and lace are mostly feminine belongings.珠宝和花边多数是女性用品。

5 gene   

n.遗传因子，基因

参考例句：

• A single gene may have many effects.单一基因可能具有很多种效应。
• The targeting of gene therapy has been paid close attention.其中基因治疗的靶向性是值得密切关注的问题之一。

6 genetic   

adj.遗传的，遗传学的

参考例句：

• It's very difficult to treat genetic diseases.遗传性疾病治疗起来很困难。
• Each daughter cell can receive a full complement of the genetic information.每个子细胞可以收到遗传信息的一个完全补偿物。

7 genetically   

adv.遗传上

参考例句：

• All the bees in the colony are genetically related. 同一群体的蜜蜂都有亲缘关系。
• Genetically modified foods have already arrived on American dinner tables. 经基因改造加工过的食物已端上了美国人的餐桌。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 基因与食物

8 fungus   

n.真菌，真菌类植物

参考例句：

• Mushrooms are a type of fungus.蘑菇是一种真菌。
• This fungus can just be detected by the unaided eye.这种真菌只用肉眼就能检查出。

9 pollen   

n.[植]花粉

参考例句：

• Hummingbirds have discovered that nectar and pollen are very nutritious.蜂鸟发现花蜜和花粉是很有营养的。
• He developed an allergy to pollen.他对花粉过敏。

10 lesser   

adj.次要的，较小的；adv.较小地，较少地

参考例句：

• Kept some of the lesser players out.不让那些次要的球员参加联赛。
• She has also been affected,but to a lesser degree.她也受到波及，但程度较轻。

11 hover   

vi.翱翔，盘旋；徘徊；彷徨，犹豫

参考例句：

• You don't hover round the table.你不要围着桌子走来走去。
• A plane is hover on our house.有一架飞机在我们的房子上盘旋。

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 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

14 cocktail   

n.鸡尾酒；餐前开胃小吃；混合物

参考例句：

• We invited some foreign friends for a cocktail party.我们邀请了一些外国朋友参加鸡尾酒会。
• At a cocktail party in Hollywood,I was introduced to Charlie Chaplin.在好莱坞的一次鸡尾酒会上，人家把我介绍给查理·卓别林。

15 chatter   

vi.／n.喋喋不休；短促尖叫；(牙齿)打战

参考例句：

• Her continuous chatter vexes me.她的喋喋不休使我烦透了。
• I've had enough of their continual chatter.我已厌烦了他们喋喋不休的闲谈。