VOA慢速英语2014 在南非狩猎是一个大行业

 

Trophy¹ Hunting Is Big Business in South Africa 在南非狩猎是一个大行业

Asian countries, like Thailand, are fighting to contain the illegal ivory trade and the killing² of elephants by illegal hunters known as poachers.  However, South Africa has a tourism industry that permits people to hunt big game animals such as the elephant, rhinoceros⁴ and lion.  Many people object to this blood sport.  But some argue that hunting big game animals creates income needed to save the country’s population of big animals.

In many sports, when you win or do well, you get a trophy.  This trophy could be a medal, as in the Olympics, or it could be a cup or a small statue.   

In hunting, especially big game hunting, the trophies⁵ are parts of the animal that is killed.  In their homes hunters may show the skins, heads and horns of the animals they kill. 

Trophy hunting for big game is a much-disputed, or controversial, issue.  It is also an emotional issue.  A nineteen-year-old college student from the American state of Texas started an online debate recently.  The controversy⁶ began when she posted pictures of herself with African wildlife she had legally hunted on a trip to South Africa.                   

Trophy Hunting is Big Money

It is legal in some African countries to hunt big game.  The business brings in a lot of money.  A ten-day ‘elephant package’ could cost U.S. $36,000.  Hunting a rhinoceros can cost U.S. $100,000.

The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) has strong words against what it calls the “needless killing of endangered species for trophies.”  The organization says big game hunting is not sustainable, meaning it cannot be supported over a long period of time.  The group also says it provides only short-term economic gains, hurts the area’s environmental balance and is morally wrong.

But not all conservationists agree.  Some argue trophy hunting may be helping⁷ Africa’s wildlife.  Professor John Hanks is the former head of the World Wide Fund for Nature in South Africa.  He says tourism and donations do not provide the billions of dollar needed.

“I think trophy hunting in South Africa is really absolutely essential if we are going to look for long-term future for rhinos⁸ in the whole of Africa…there’s hardly a single country anywhere that can afford to run its national parks as they should be run… Here we are in South Africa, one of the richest countries in the continent, Kruger Park has a million visitors a year and they still cannot afford to defend the rhinos.”                                                         

The hunting industry in South Africa brings in more than $744 million each year.  The industry employs about 70,000 people.  And about 9,000 trophy hunters travel to South Africa every year.  Ninety percent of them come from the United States.  In 2012, foreign hunters spent $115 million in South Africa.  Trophy hunting is the most profitable form of commercial land use in the country.

Herman Meyeridricks is the president of the Professional Hunters’ Association of South Africa.  He argues that legal hunting is important to wildlife protection.

“The only way there will be incentive⁹ for those landowners to protect and keep on investing in rhino³ is if they have an economic value. They can only have an economic value if there is an end-user that is willing to pay for that and that is the trophy hunter.”

Rhino Poaching in South Africa a Crisis

In South Africa, rhino poaching has become a crisis.  Many people say hunting is leading to the disappearance¹⁰ of this endangered species.                                 

?Mr. Meyeridricks argues that hunters would not be given permits, or permission to hunt, if the animals were truly under threat.  He says that the number of animals hunted represents a small part of the total number of animals available.

An international body called CITES controls the number of animals that hunters may kill.  But critics say the system is weak because individual governments are responsible for confirming that hunting limits are observed.                                                 

Susie Offord is the deputy director of the group Save the Rhino.  She argues that trophy hunting could be a useful tool in protecting the rhino population if it is supervised correctly.

“In an ideal world, rhinos wouldn't be under the extreme pressure they are facing today and there wouldn't be any need for trophy hunting, but the reality is that wildlife conservation is incredibly expensive.”

Not every country in Africa permits trophy hunting.  Kenya has had a policy against it for a long time.  The Kenyan government banned the sport in 1977 describing it as a “barbaric” part of its colonial past. 

Criminals presenting themselves as legal hunters have also become involved in trophy hunting.  They use the business to illegally trade horns.  They sell these animal parts for high prices on black markets in countries such as Vietnam and Thailand.

South African officials say that since 2009 false hunters exported about 300 rhino horns illegally.  Because of this, South Africa has stopped giving hunting permits to citizens from the Czech Republic and Vietnam.

Conservationists argue that governments need to do more to fight the illegal hunting of big game and enforce hunting regulations.                    

Much of the public is likely to continue to disapprove¹¹ of trophy hunting as more elephants, rhinos and lions are killed for sport.  But for some environmentalists, the issue is not so clear-cut or easy to understand.

1 trophy   

n.优胜旗，奖品，奖杯，战胜品，纪念品

参考例句：

• The cup is a cherished trophy of the company.那只奖杯是该公司很珍惜的奖品。
• He hung the lion's head as a trophy.他把那狮子头挂起来作为狩猎纪念品。

2 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

3 rhino   

n.犀牛，钱, 现金

参考例句：

• The rhino charged headlong towards us.犀牛急速地向我们冲来。
• They have driven the rhino to the edge of extinction.他们已经令犀牛濒临灭绝。

4 rhinoceros   

n.犀牛

参考例句：

• The rhinoceros has one horn on its nose.犀牛鼻子上有一个角。
• The body of the rhinoceros likes a cattle and the head likes a triangle.犀牛的形体像牛，头呈三角形。

5 trophies   

n.（为竞赛获胜者颁发的）奖品( trophy的名词复数 )；奖杯；（尤指狩猎或战争中获得的）纪念品；（用于比赛或赛跑名称）奖

参考例句：

• His football trophies were prominently displayed in the kitchen. 他的足球奖杯陈列在厨房里显眼的位置。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The hunter kept the lion's skin and head as trophies. 这猎人保存狮子的皮和头作为纪念品。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

6 controversy   

n.争论，辩论，争吵

参考例句：

• That is a fact beyond controversy.那是一个无可争论的事实。
• We ran the risk of becoming the butt of every controversy.我们要冒使自己在所有的纷争中都成为众矢之的的风险。

7 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

8 rhinos   

n.犀牛（rhino的复数形式）

参考例句：

• There are many reports of people taming and even training Indian rhinos. 有许多关于人们驯养甚至训练印度犀牛的记载。 来自辞典例句
• The rhinos had fed during the night in the rice fields of these villagers. 犀牛夜里在这些村民的庄稼地里也已吃饱了。 来自辞典例句

9 incentive   

n.刺激；动力；鼓励；诱因；动机

参考例句：

• Money is still a major incentive in most occupations.在许多职业中，钱仍是主要的鼓励因素。
• He hasn't much incentive to work hard.他没有努力工作的动机。

10 disappearance   

n.消失，消散，失踪

参考例句：

• He was hard put to it to explain her disappearance.他难以说明她为什么不见了。
• Her disappearance gave rise to the wildest rumours.她失踪一事引起了各种流言蜚语。

11 disapprove   

v.不赞成，不同意，不批准

参考例句：

• I quite disapprove of his behaviour.我很不赞同他的行为。
• She wants to train for the theatre but her parents disapprove.她想训练自己做戏剧演员，但她的父母不赞成。