VOA慢速英语2015 无人机帮助游骑兵应对偷猎行为

AS IT IS 2015-06-14 Drones Help Rangers¹ Fight Poachers 无人机帮助游骑兵应对偷猎行为

Africa's fight against poaching is often described as a war. Illegal killing² is on the rise, fueled by growing Asian demand for ivory and rhino³ horn. Experts estimate that more than 35,000 African elephants are killed every year. And rhino poaching is thought to have reached its highest levels.

African conservationists no longer rely on simple foot patrols. South Africa is already using surveillance drones to monitor its wildlife in national parks. Kenya plans to do the same. The fight against poaching is a modern war, and it is becoming increasingly high-tech⁴.

A small white airplane, the DT26, flies into the skies over the Selous Game Reserve in Tanzania. The plane is a drone, and its designers hope it will soon be used to catch poachers.

Mike Chambers⁵ runs Bathawk Recon, the company that made the drone. He says that right now, Tanzania's rangers do not have the resources even to keep up with poachers.

"With a quarter of a million square kilometers of protected area, it's impossible with the budget that Tanzania has to cover that area effectively. Resources available to rangers just aren't going to be able to do it, especially at the moment, where the resources for poachers are rising because of the international demands."

Mike Chambers says his drones cover large areas that otherwise would be impossible to watch. Drones are a technological⁶ tool that can greatly reduce poaching and give park officials more help.

"Drones give a multiplier effect to rangers. If we can cover four or five thousand square kilometers with a pod of drones, then fewer rangers are needed to cover that area because they can be organized as a reaction force, and to go where we have found the incidents to be occurring."

In neighboring Kenya, the wildlife service is focusing on genetics to strengthen legal cases against poachers. Last month the service opened a lab in Nairobi where suspected bush meat can be identified.

Philip Muruthi is Chief Scientist for the African Wildlife Foundation. He says that along with ivory poaching, illegal bush meat hunting is also reducing Kenya's wildlife population. Until now charging those who hunt or catch game illegally has been difficult. Poachers often claim giraffe or zebra meat is beef, and proving otherwise can be difficult.

"Often law enforcers in the wildlife area lose their cases because they cannot authenticate⁸. They can't prove in a court of law that that which they are using as an exhibit is actually prohibited wildlife material."

Muruthi says the new lab should be able to tell the kind of animal the meat comes from. The lab also will be able to provide a genetic⁷ database of Kenya's endangered animals. The information can help charge ivory and rhino horn poachers.

"When you find samples from anywhere in the world you can take those samples and match them to your database, and be able to say where the confiscated¹⁰ item comes from.  So if you are trying to nail somebody in a court of law, you can say, well, this is something that you are trafficking illegally."

Conservationists point out that technology is only as good as the people behind it. They say that Africa's endangered animals still depend on the political will to protect them. That desire, they say, is sometimes lacking.

Words in This Story

poacher(s) – n. people who kill or take wild animals illegally

pod – n. a part that can be separated from the main part

authenticate –v. to prove that something is real, true or genuine

prohibit – v. to say something is not allowed

database – n. a collection of pieces of information that is organized and used on a computer

confiscate⁹ – v. to to take something away from someone, especially as punishment or to enforce the law or rules

nail – v. to catch someone doing something illegal or wrong

1 rangers   

护林者( ranger的名词复数 )； 突击队员

参考例句：

• Do you know where the Rangers Stadium is? 你知道Rangers体育场在哪吗？ 来自超越目标英语 第3册
• Now I'm a Rangers' fan, so I like to be near the stadium. 现在我是Rangers的爱好者，所以我想离体育场近一点。 来自超越目标英语 第3册

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 high-tech   

adj.高科技的

参考例句：

• The economy is in the upswing which makes high-tech services in more demand too.经济在蓬勃发展，这就使对高科技服务的需求量也在加大。
• The quest of a cure for disease with high-tech has never ceased. 人们希望运用高科技治疗疾病的追求从未停止过。

5 chambers   

n.房间( chamber的名词复数 )；（议会的）议院；卧室；会议厅

参考例句：

• The body will be removed into one of the cold storage chambers. 尸体将被移到一个冷冻间里。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Mr Chambers's readable book concentrates on the middle passage: the time Ransome spent in Russia. Chambers先生的这本值得一看的书重点在中间：Ransome在俄国的那几年。 来自互联网

6 technological   

adj.技术的；工艺的

参考例句：

• A successful company must keep up with the pace of technological change.一家成功的公司必须得跟上技术变革的步伐。
• Today,the pace of life is increasing with technological advancements.当今， 随着科技进步，生活节奏不断增快。

7 genetic   

adj.遗传的，遗传学的

参考例句：

• It's very difficult to treat genetic diseases.遗传性疾病治疗起来很困难。
• Each daughter cell can receive a full complement of the genetic information.每个子细胞可以收到遗传信息的一个完全补偿物。

8 authenticate   

vt.证明…为真，鉴定

参考例句：

• We would have to authenticate your relationship with the boy.我们必须证实一下您和那个孩子的关系。
• An expert was needed to authenticate the original Van Gogh painting from his imitation.这幅画是凡·高的真迹还是赝品,需由专家来鉴定。

9 confiscate   

v.没收(私人财产)，把…充公

参考例句：

• The police have the right to confiscate any forbidden objects they find.如发现违禁货物，警方有权查扣。
• Did the teacher confiscate your toy?老师没收你的玩具了吗？

10 confiscated   

没收，充公( confiscate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Their land was confiscated after the war. 他们的土地在战后被没收。
• The customs officer confiscated the smuggled goods. 海关官员没收了走私品。