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美国帮助拯救西非濒危大猩猩

The U.S. is helping¹ to save an elusive² and endangered species of gorilla³ in West Africa. The Fish and Wildlife Service and the Wildlife Conservation Society have developed a five-year plan to ensure the survival of the primate⁴.

美国正在帮助拯救西非一种罕见并且濒临灭绝的大猩猩。渔业与野生生物局和野生生物保护学会开发了一项5年计划，以确保这种灵长目动物的生存。

Dirck Byler of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service said the Cross River gorilla is not as well-known as its relatives in other parts of Africa.

美国渔业与野生生物局的德克.拜勒尔说，克罗斯河大猩猩不像非洲其他地区的大猩猩那么有名。

Critically endangered

“There’s two different species of gorilla actually. There’s the western gorilla and the eastern gorilla. And the one that people are most familiar with are the eastern gorillas⁵, specifically the subspecies known as the mountain gorilla, which is found in Rwanda and Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The western gorilla is found in the western part of the Congo Basin in countries such as Cameroon, Gabon, northern Republic of the Congo. And then one of their subspecies is called the Cross River gorilla. And this is the most endangered gorilla species today,” he said.

拜勒尔说：“事实上，有两种不同的大猩猩。一种是西部大猩猩，另一种是东部大猩猩。人们最熟悉的是东部大猩猩，特别是被称为山地大猩猩的这一亚种。山地大猩猩多见于卢旺达、乌干达和刚果民主共和国。西部大猩猩在刚果盆地的西部，那里有咯麦隆、加蓬以及北部的刚果共和国。西部大猩猩的一个亚种叫作克罗斯河大猩猩。它是当今最濒危的大猩猩。”

In fact, the Cross River gorilla has been classified as “critically endangered” by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, the IUCN.

事实上，克罗斯河大猩猩被国际自然保护联盟列为“极度濒危”的物种。

“It’s much more endangered than the mountain gorilla is and unfortunately hasn’t received as much attention over the years,” said Byler.

拜勒尔说：“克罗斯河大猩猩比山地大猩猩更为濒临灭绝，不幸的是，多年来这一点并未引起足够的重视。”

Byler, program officer for the Great Ape Conservation Fund at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said it’s believed there are only a few hundred of the gorillas left.

拜勒尔是美国渔业与野生生物局类人猿保护基金的项目负责人。他说，据信，克罗斯河大猩猩目前只剩下几百只了。

“We don’t really have a good estimate of what the population was before, but it was likely many thousands. But over the last hundred years as human population has grown in this area they were hunted down to a very small level of 250 to 300 individuals scattered⁶ across 13 little pockets on the border of Nigeria and Cameroon,” he said.

拜勒尔说：“我们对100多年前克罗斯河大猩猩的数量并没有很准确的估计，不过这个数字很可能是几千只。而经过过去100年人类在这一地区的发展，大量捕捉大猩猩，克罗斯河大猩猩的数量已经减少到250至300只，并且散落在尼日利亚和咯麦隆边境的13个狭小地带。”

Just 10 to 15 years ago, the Cross River gorilla was thought to be either extinct or nearly extinct.

就在10至15年前，克罗斯河大猩猩已被认为要么已经灭绝，要么濒临灭绝。

“With actually a lot of support from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the work of conservation NGOs like the Wildlife Conservation Society we’ve been able to get a handle on where the remaining populations exist. So our understanding from a scientific point of view has increased dramatically,” he said.

拜勒尔说：“在美国渔业与野生生物局提供大量支持以及野生生物保护学会等非政府机构的帮助下，我们得以掌握残存下来的克罗斯河大猩猩的栖息地。因此，这就极大地增加了我们对这个问题的科学了解。”

Survival of the subspecies

Two new national parks have opened in Cameroon that offer safe haven⁷ for the gorilla. One is the Kagwene Gorilla Sanctuary⁸, which was created with a grant from the service. The other is the Takamanda National Park, which was converted from a forest reserve.

两个新国家公园已在喀麦隆开放，为克罗斯河大猩猩提供安全住所。一个国家公园名叫卡瓜纳(Kagwene)大猩猩保护区，美国渔业与野生生物局为建立这个保护区提供了资金。另一个国家公园叫作塔卡曼达(Takamanda)国家公园，它是由一个森林保护区改造而成的。

Part of the five-year plan to save the Cross River gorilla is to have local communities act as guardians⁹ for the primates¹⁰.

拯救克罗斯河大猩猩的5年计划的部分内容是，让当地社区担负起保护这种灵长目动物的监护人职责。

Byler said, “Many of the gorilla populations still lie outside protected areas and national parks and will never probably be included in national parks. And so through working with local communities to curtail¹¹ hunting and to provide alternatives to hunting in many of these places we think we can get a handle on hopefully stabilizing¹² the population and even increasing it.”

拜勒尔说：“许多克罗斯河大猩猩仍然生活在保护区和国家公园之外，它们可能永远也不会被置于国家公园里面。因此，通过与当地社区合作，减少捕猎大猩猩，向这些地区提供替代捕猎大猩猩的其他途径，我们认为，这样我们就有望使大猩猩的数量稳定下来，甚至能够取得增长。”

So how many Cross River gorillas would there have to be in order for the species to be considered safe? Byler said it’s difficult to set what’s called a goal population.

那么，究竟需要有多少只克罗斯河大猩猩才能使这一物种不会灭绝呢？拜勒尔说，目前难以为这种大猩猩的总数设定一个所谓的目标数字。

“Maybe doubling the population in the next 20 or 30 years would be tremendous. And whether that would be enough to ensure its long term sustainability is in question, but it sure would be great progress if we could achieve that. The reproductive rate of gorillas is very slow and it takes a long time to actually increase a population,” he said.

拜勒尔说：“如果在今后二、三十年把克罗斯河大猩猩的数量翻一番就算是极大的增长了。这样的增长是否足以确保大猩猩的长期繁衍还不得而知，不过，如果我们能达到这一步，那肯定算是很大的进展。大猩猩的生殖率很低，因此，增加这种动物的总数量将需要很长时间。”

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is able to offer its assistance in Africa and elsewhere through the Great Ape Conservation Fund. It was established by Congress in 2000. The fund allows the service to offer conservation grants ranging from $50,000 to $100,000.

美国渔业与野生生物局能够通过类人猿保护基金向非洲和其他地区提供帮助。这项基金是2000年由国会创建的。它允许渔业与野生生物局向申请者提供5万美元到10万美元的保护生物拨款。