2020年经济学人 乌龟的烦恼(1)

Science and technology

科技板块

Conservation

保护

How to prepare poached eggs

对付偷蛋人

A tracking device may help stop the robbery of turtles' nests

一种追踪装置或许可以阻止海龟巢穴被盗

Turtles have a problem. They are delicious. And so are their eggs. That has led to heavy hunting in the past. These days, though, the seven species of marine¹ turtle are protected in most countries. If turtle soup is legally on the menu its source will be a freshwater species such as the North American snapping turtle. But that does not stop the eggs of marine turtles being poached. Which they are, frequently.

乌龟们有一个烦恼：自己太美味，下的蛋也美味。这使得它们在过去遭受了大肆捕杀。目前，虽然有七种海龟已在大多国家的保护之下，但只要菜单上的龟汤合法，那么淡水龟种，比如北美的啮龟，就将成为原料来源。而这并未阻止海龟蛋继续被盗，被盗事件依旧频发。

Such poaching is often ignored by local bobbies. But even if the authorities do wish to clamp down on it, arresting the small-fry who dig the eggs up on beaches where turtles nest will not deal with the problem. That requires finding the trade's organisers. And this can be hard.

这种偷猎行为常被当地警察忽视，但是，即使当局真的想要强行压制，即便抓捕了那些在海龟筑巢的海滩上挖蛋的“小人物”也于事无补，他们需要找出幕后黑手(交易组织者)，但这十分困难。

To assist the process Kim WilliamsGuillén of Paso Pacifico, an American conservation charity, and Helen Pheasey of the University of Kent, in Britain, have come up with a nifty gadget². It is a globalpositioning-system transmitter enclosed in a plastic shell made by 3D printing. The result looks like a turtle's egg and weighs about the same. Dug up and carried away by poachers, it can lead the police to those poachers' bases of operation.

为了协助这一行动的进行，美国保护慈善组织帕索·太平洋地区的金·威廉斯吉伦和英国肯特大学的海伦·菲西发明了一个精巧的装置，即一种安装在由3D打印制作的塑胶蛋壳内的全球定位系统发射机，外形、重量均与海龟蛋无差。一旦这种装置被偷蛋者挖出来并带走，警察便可追踪至偷蛋者的大本营。

As they report this week in Current Biology, Dr Williams-Guillén and Dr Pheasey have now tested their invention in Costa Rica, a place where turtle-egg poaching is rife³. They set the printer to mimic⁴ the eggs of two species, the green and the olive ridley, which frequent that country's coast-lines, and placed a decoy egg into each of 101 turtle nests on four beaches where poaching is a problem. The decoys were rigged to remain dormant⁵ until their shells were exposed to the air. At that moment—presumed to signal the arrival of poachers—the "egg" in question starts broadcasting its location once an hour.

正如本周他们在《当代生物学》上报道的那样，金·威廉斯吉伦博士和菲西博士已经在哥斯达黎加（海龟蛋被盗盛行之地）对该装置进行了测试。他们用打印机模拟了两种海龟蛋——绿蠵龟和橄榄绿蠵龟，这两种海龟经常出没于该国的海岸线上。他们在存在偷猎问题的四个海滩上的101个海龟巢穴中各放了一枚假蛋。诱饵蛋被设置成休眠模式，直到蛋壳暴露于空气之中将其触发。在那一刻——被认为是偷猎者到来的信号——这只“蛋”便开始每小时播报一次自己的位置。

1 marine   

adj.海的；海生的；航海的；海事的；n.水兵

参考例句：

• Marine creatures are those which live in the sea. 海洋生物是生存在海里的生物。
• When the war broke out,he volunteered for the Marine Corps.战争爆发时，他自愿参加了海军陆战队。

2 gadget   

n.小巧的机械，精巧的装置，小玩意儿

参考例句：

• This gadget isn't much good.这小机械没什么用处。
• She has invented a nifty little gadget for undoing stubborn nuts and bolts.她发明了一种灵巧的小工具用来松开紧固的螺母和螺栓。

3 rife   

adj.(指坏事情)充斥的，流行的，普遍的

参考例句：

• Disease is rife in the area.疾病在这一区很流行。
• Corruption was rife before the election.选举之前腐败盛行。

4 mimic   

v.模仿，戏弄；n.模仿他人言行的人

参考例句：

• A parrot can mimic a person's voice.鹦鹉能学人的声音。
• He used to mimic speech peculiarities of another.他过去总是模仿别人讲话的特点。

5 dormant   

adj.暂停活动的；休眠的；潜伏的

参考例句：

• Many animals are in a dormant state during winter.在冬天许多动物都处于睡眠状态。
• This dormant volcano suddenly fired up.这座休眠火山突然爆发了。