美国国家公共电台 NPR After Walking Thousands Of Miles, Mink The Bear Is Almost Back Home

 

NOEL KING, HOST:

For years, a man in New Hampshire fed maple-glazed doughnuts to a black bear. When the man died, the bear went into town to look for more doughnuts. So wildlife officials moved her into the woods far up north. Ever since then, the bear has been making her way home. Here's New Hampshire Public Radio's Britta Greene.

BRITTA GREENE, BYLINE¹: Today I'm driving with Michael Hinsley. He's deputy fire chief in Hanover, N.H., but he's also the town's resident bear wrangler². He takes me to the original scene of the crime, where the maple-glazed doughnuts were served.

MICHAEL HINSLEY: This is ground zero.

GREENE: Oh, this was that guy's home?

HINSLEY: Oh, yeah (laughter). Yeah, that's it right there.

GREENE: The old man's house borders a nature preserve called Mink³ Brook⁴. That's actually where the bear got her name.

HINSLEY: Mink, as an animal, became habituated for over a decade of daily feeding.

GREENE: In other words, Mink got comfortable around humans. And when she started venturing further, looking for food after the doughnuts dried up, people in town grew to love her - a lumbering⁵, strong but gentle animal that would come right up to your door.

Hanover town manager Julia Griffin is among her fans.

JULIA GRIFFIN: She's a beautiful bear. She's an amazing bear. Anybody that likes animals was enchanted⁶ by her.

GREENE: But some people were scared. And ultimately, state wildlife officials made the decision that, for safety's sake, the bear needed to go. They planned to shoot her, but local news outlets⁷ picked up the story. A petition to save Mink got thousands of signatures. New Hampshire's governor intervened - had her relocated instead. Officials dropped her off with a tracking collar on the other side of the White Mountains near the Canadian border. She immediately started making her way back.

BEN KILHAM: She was going 30 miles a day. If anything, we should get her into a triathlon (laughter).

GREENE: This is Ben Kilham. He's a bear biologist near Hanover who's tracking Mink's location, getting readings once an hour. She's logged thousands of looping miles. She's crossed Interstate 91 and the Connecticut River multiple times.

The lead bear official for the state of New Hampshire told me he's never dealt with an animal that's travelled so long - hibernating⁸ for the winter, like Mink did - and continuing on. He now checks her progress anxiously, he says, first thing every morning. And he's not alone.

Kilham says even the governor asked to be included on the data.

KILHAM: I mean, he's clearly been watching. Probably, the whole office down there has been watching because it's fascinating the way she moves.

GREENE: Bears are known to be able to find their way home or at least try to. Actually, that's why wildlife officials first wanted to kill Mink. They said it was more humane⁹ than putting her through an arduous¹⁰ journey. Adult bears, including sows, females like Mink, are particularly likely to attempt a trek¹¹.

Town Manager Julia Griffin says it's been hard to watch.

GRIFFIN: To see how far she traveled and how thin she was last fall - we all felt like, what have we done to this sow?

GREENE: Until very recently, though, word wasn't out to the general public that Mink was getting close. That is until earlier this spring, when a woman named Patricia Campbell spotted¹² a bear outside her house, less than 20 miles from Hanover.

PATRICIA CAMPBELL: So I walked to the dining room, and she was right outside the window. She wasn't more than a foot away from the house.

GREENE: Campbell took a bunch of photos. And Mink, once again, ended up in the local news. Biologists now say she could be back in Hanover any time. If that happens, says Griffin, her future may hinge on her behavior.

GRIFFIN: If she comes right back as our nuisance bear in Mink Brook corridor, I don't know what more we can do.

GREENE: At this point, wildlife officials say it's wait and see. There's no plan in place if Mink makes it back. They're just hoping she'll lay low in the woods.

For NPR News, I'm Britta Greene in Hanover, N.H.

(SOUNDBITE OF MINUS THE BEAR'S "ANDY WOLFF")

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 wrangler   

n.口角者，争论者；牧马者

参考例句：

• When the strangled wrangler dangles the mangled spangles on the bangle jangle.被绞死的辩论者晃荡时，手镯上撕碎的小金属片发出刺耳的声音。
• A wrangler is a cowboy who works with cattle and horses.牧马者是放牧牛马的牛仔。

3 mink   

n.貂，貂皮

参考例句：

• She was wearing a blue dress and a mink coat.她穿着一身蓝色的套装和一件貂皮大衣。
• He started a mink ranch and made a fortune in five years. 他开了个水貂养殖场，五年之内就赚了不少钱。

4 brook   

n.小河，溪；v.忍受，容让

参考例句：

• In our room we could hear the murmur of a distant brook.在我们房间能听到远处小溪汩汩的流水声。
• The brook trickled through the valley.小溪涓涓流过峡谷。

5 lumbering   

n.采伐林木

参考例句：

• Lumbering and, later, paper-making were carried out in smaller cities. 木材业和后来的造纸都由较小的城市经营。
• Lumbering is very important in some underdeveloped countries. 在一些不发达的国家，伐木业十分重要。

6 enchanted   

adj. 被施魔法的，陶醉的，入迷的 动词enchant的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• She was enchanted by the flowers you sent her. 她非常喜欢你送给她的花。
• He was enchanted by the idea. 他为这个主意而欣喜若狂。

7 outlets   

n.出口( outlet的名词复数 )；经销店；插座；廉价经销店

参考例句：

• The dumping of foreign cotton blocked outlets for locally grown cotton. 外国棉花的倾销阻滞了当地生产的棉花的销路。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• They must find outlets for their products. 他们必须为自己的产品寻找出路。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

8 hibernating   

（某些动物）冬眠，蛰伏( hibernate的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The hibernating animals reduce movement to far below the ordinary level. 冬眠的动物把活动量大大减少到低于一般的水平。
• People find hibernating animals asleep. 人们发现冬眠动物处于休眠状态。

9 humane   

adj.人道的，富有同情心的

参考例句：

• Is it humane to kill animals for food?宰杀牲畜来吃合乎人道吗？
• Their aim is for a more just and humane society.他们的目标是建立一个更加公正、博爱的社会。

10 arduous   

adj.艰苦的，费力的，陡峭的

参考例句：

• We must have patience in doing arduous work.我们做艰苦的工作要有耐性。
• The task was more arduous than he had calculated.这项任务比他所估计的要艰巨得多。

11 trek   

vi.作长途艰辛的旅行；n.长途艰苦的旅行

参考例句：

• We often go pony-trek in the summer.夏季我们经常骑马旅行。
• It took us the whole day to trek across the rocky terrain.我们花了一整天的时间艰难地穿过那片遍布岩石的地带。

12 spotted   

adj.有斑点的，斑纹的，弄污了的

参考例句：

• The milkman selected the spotted cows,from among a herd of two hundred.牛奶商从一群200头牛中选出有斑点的牛。
• Sam's shop stocks short spotted socks.山姆的商店屯积了有斑点的短袜。