Zoo Stock Take 動物園盤點
Zoo Stock Take 動物園盤點
The script of this programme 本節目臺詞
收聽與下載
Neil: Hello. This is On the Town from BBC Learning English. I'm Neil.
Helen: 大家好，我是 Helen, 歡迎收聽都市掠影。
Neil: Welcome to London Zoo. Animal heaven!
Helen: 倫敦動物園，孩子們的天堂，也是動物的天堂。
Neil: And did you know that the first month of every year is the busiest time for the zoo keepers?
Helen: Zoo keepers 動物園管理員，1月份是動物園最忙的季節，為什么？Why?
Neil: Well, it's the time that zoo keepers have dusted off their calculators and dug out their tally charts to begin the tricky task of counting every animal at London Zoo.
It's not an easy job to count them... it's very very important that we know exactly what we've got, so we can input all their information into huge global databases...
Adrian Wall, London Zoo
Helen: 拿出他們計算器 calculators 和統計表 tally charts, 把動物園里的所有動物都挨個數清楚。 這能數得清楚嗎？
Neil: It's not an easy task. The keepers are taking note of every mammal, bird, fish, reptile, amphibian and invertebrate.
Helen: 哎呀，我聽著都頭暈了。包括哺乳動物 mammal, 鳥 bird, 魚 fish, 爬行動物 reptile, 兩棲動物 amphibian, 還有無脊椎的動物 invertebrate.
Neil: Last year, there were over 18,000 animals and 750 species. But that will change this year. Let's find out what each department is doing.
Helen: 在動物園里，企鵝是一大熱點，管理員 Adrian Wall, 已經開始點數了。
It's not an easy job to count them. Obviously with 60+ penguins black and white, they all look fairly similar, it's very very important that we know exactly what we've got, so we can input all their information into huge global databases, run stud book programmes, make sure we've got all the genetic side of the penguins mapped out.
Neil: Adrian says it's not easy to count the 60+ penguins in his care.
It's not easy to count the penguins - they all look alike!
Helen: 60多只企鵝，都是黑白相間，長得差不多。要分清楚也不容易。Adrian 說知道這些動物的準確數目和性別對他們的科研和繁殖工作非常重要。
Neil: The information is put into huge global databases and is accessed by other zoos around the world. So they can run stud programmes, which are breeding programmes.
Helen: 數據庫 database, 世界各國的動物園都可以分享這些信息，可以幫助配種項目 stud programmes.
Neil: But counting the animals is not as easy as 1,2,3. Some of them are not exactly human friendly.
Nobody wants to count the tarantulas!
Helen: Gareth Kother 負責數爬行動物 reptiles. 接近這些蜥蜴 lizards 的時候，可得當心點。
Neil: You don't want to be too close to them, and if they do get their teeth into you, you'll know.
It would hurt a lot, you'd try not to get bitten by one of them. You wouldn't die, but it'd be a very painful bite, and you will not be doing well for a while.
Helen: 如果被蜥蜴咬了的話，雖然死不了，但也不好過。要好久才能恢復。
Neil: Ouch! Over in the bug house.
Helen: Where?
We do keep a really close eye on the numbers of these animals, so we will be doing regular counts throughout the year as well.
Kate Pearce, London Zoo
Neil: Bugs, insects. Like ants and millipedes.
Helen: Yuck, I don't like bugs 蟲子，那這么多蟲子怎么數得清楚？蟲子太小了。
Neil: Well, Kate Pearce is a bug handler.
Helen: Kate 是昆蟲管理員 bug handler.
Neil: She has the bugs under control.
We do keep a really close eye on the numbers of these animals, so we will be doing regular counts throughout the year as well. I also know that some of these species will be from certain generations, so I know how old they are as well. So it's quite important to keep a really good track of how they are going really.
Helen: Kate 說，平時都密切關注昆蟲的數量是關鍵。 她用了一個很有用的表達 to keep a close eye on something 就是密切關注的意思。
Neil: Her team does regular counts throughout the year. And amazingly she knows which generation some of these bugs are from.
Some creatures, like this butterfly, are hard to catch.
Helen: 是啊，這可了不起。就連蟲子的輩分她都知道。她的跟蹤工作做的很好，she's keeping track of how the bugs are doing.
Neil: As we mentioned, counting the animals is important for the zoo. Here is Dave Clark. He explains the reasons behind the annual stock take to us once more.
Well, there are various reasons, because of the zoo license and we do keep tabs during the year. This is a point in time, where we double check what numbers we've got and particularly important for things like, we have got relatives for this giant land snails and a little snail from Polynesia which are extinct in the wild. So depend totally on captive breeding. And that's a vital conservation programme, and we need to know exactly how many we've got.
Helen: 動物園每年都要數一次動物數量的。另一重要原因是續簽動物園的執照 the zoo license. 這是當地政府發的許可證，拿不到 zoo license, 那動物園就沒法開門了。
Neil: Dave also mentioned that some species are extinct in the wild.
Helen: 在野外已經絕種了 extinct in the wild.
The Zoo keepers have to check all the animals both big and small.
Neil: So they totally depend on captive breeding.
Helen: 人工繁殖 captive breeding.
Neil: This is a vital conservation programme.
Helen: 所以清點動物數目也成了非常重要的保護項目。Vital 就是關鍵，conservation 是保護的意思。
Neil: Well, stock taking at the zoo is not a five minute job. It's expected to take a week.
Helen: 那我們別打擾工作人員了，they've got lots of counting to do. 別忘了在我們的網站上有更多有趣的節目， 我們的網址是www.bbcukchina.com. 謝謝收聽。 Bye.
Neil: Bye.
