纪录片《南太平洋》 第137期 奇异岛屿（13）（在线收听）

Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, the mammals have finally arrived in force. Australian possums.

聪明能干，哺乳动物最终大规模到达了。澳洲袋貂

Imported for their fur two centuries ago,

200年前它们的皮毛被进口

they soon reached plague proportions, stripping trees of their vegetation.

不久就带来了鼠疫，毁坏了草木

A war is being waged against them...traps set and poison scattered.

一场对它们发动的战争...陷阱装置和散布的毒物

And yet they are now far more numerous than the kakapo ever were.

可是它们的数量远远超过鸮鹉的数量

A staggering 70 million possums overrun New Zealand's forests.

难以置信得超过7千万只袋貂 散布在新西兰的森林里

Where a bird failed, a mammal has succeeded. But why? The possums were unwitting immigrants,

鸟失败了 哺乳动物嬴了。为什么？袋貂是不知情的移民

while the kakapo have lived here for millennia...perfectly adapted to this forest.

鸮鹉生活在这里已数千年...完美地适应了这里的森林

It's an irony that is by no means unique to the kakapo and the possum.

具有讽刺的是这里并不仅有鸮鹉和袋貂

Right across the Pacific, similar scenes have been unfolding.

横过太平洋 类似的场景依然在演化着

Tiny islands off the coast of New Zealand

新西兰海岸外的小岛

are the last refuge for a host of animals now vanished from the two main islands.

是一大群动物最后的避难所 它们如今在两个主岛上已经消失了

This is Stephens Island...one square mile of rock protruding from the ocean.

这是斯蒂芬岛...是从海上突出的一平方英哩的岩石

It's home to a living fossil, a relict, barely changed for over 100 million years.

它是一位活化石的家，一位残遗体 1亿年来几乎没有改变过

The tuatara. And half the world's population survive on this one island refuge.

楔齿蜥。全球一半的数量生存在这个岛屿庇护所

During the reign of the dinosaurs, the ancestors of the tuatara were everywhere.

在恐龙统治时期，楔齿蜥的祖先无处不在

They survived the cataclysm that killed off the dinosaurs,

它们从恐龙灭绝的剧变时代中存活下来

but then couldn't compete with the mammals and died out...everywhere,

却无法与哺乳动物相抗争，灭绝了...无论何处

except on what was then a mammal-free New Zealand.

除了不受哺乳动物影响的新西兰