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Rabbit Relatives Reel from Climate Change

气候变化又将害死谁

Up in California’s High Sierra, above the dense¹ pine forests, rocky habitats reign². And if you look carefully among the boulders³, you might see a pika—a rabbit relative the size of a hamster, with round ears and big eyes.

加州高山浓密的松树林上有一片岩石栖息地。如果你仔细观察这些岩石的话，可能会在当中发现一只鼠兔——它是兔子的一个近亲，仓鼠般大小，有着圆圆的耳朵和大大的眼睛。

\"Hikers oftentimes see them with little bouquets⁴ of wildflowers sticking out of their mouths." Joseph Stewart, a conservation biologist at the University of California Santa Cruz. "Maybe I'm a little biased⁵, other people tell me they're very cute. I find them majestic⁶. I feel like they're the lords of the mountain."

“徒步旅行者们通常会看到它们嘴里叼着几束野花。”约瑟夫·斯图尔特——加州大学圣克鲁斯分校的一名保护生物学家。“也许我有点偏心，别人都跟我说它们很可爱。可我觉得它们很威严。我觉得它们是大山的主人。

Stewart is also a skilled spotter of pikas. "You could say I've got a little bit of experience with that." Which makes it all the more strange that in five years of surveys—of 64 square miles of high mountain rocky habitats near Lake Tahoe—he found no pikas at all. In an area littered with decades-old pika droppings.

斯图尔特还是一名老练的鼠兔侦察员。“或者可以说，对此我有一些经验。”然而更奇怪的是，在对塔霍湖附近64平方英里的高山岩石栖息地的调查中，他一只鼠兔都没有发现过。而那是一个遍布着鼠兔几十年粪便的地区。

It's relatively⁷ pristine⁸ habitat, in the center, rather than the edge, of historic pika territory. So Stewart suspects the most likely culprit for this local extinction⁹ is rising temperatures, due to climate change. And the mercury's heading higher. "By 2050 we expect there's going to be a 97 percent decline in the area of climatically suitable habitat in the greater Tahoe area." The study is in the journal PLOS ONE.

这是一个相对原始的栖息地，是鼠兔历史栖息地的中心而非边缘。因此，斯图尔特怀疑导致这种局部灭绝现象发生的罪魁祸首是气候变化引起的气温上升。以及汞含量的持续变高。“据我们预计，到2050年大塔霍湖地区气候适宜的栖息地将会减少97%。”这项研究发表在《公共科学图书馆·综合》杂志上。

Pikas can still be seen elsewhere in Tahoe, and in other parts of the Sierras. Especially further south, where loftier summits allow pikas to roam higher to escape rising temperatures. But Stewart still worries about their eventual¹⁰ fate.

在塔霍湖的其他地区，以及寒拉斯山脉的其他地区还能看到鼠兔。尤其是比较偏南的地区，那里山峰更高能帮助鼠兔逃离高温。但斯图尔特对它们的最终命运仍然表示担忧。

"We're depriving future generations of the opportunity to see this critter. And pikas have been around longer than humans have been around. What right do we have to cause pikas and all the other species that are vulnerable to climate change to go extinct?"

“我们剥夺了后代看到这种生物的机会。鼠兔存在的时间比人类还要久远。我们有什么权利害得鼠兔以及其他易受气候变化影响的物种灭绝呢?”