中国大象成了国际明星。英语读头条（第690期）
China’s wandering elephants becoming international stars
中国迁徙象群成为国际明星
AP
Edited and Translated by Ray & Sally
Already famous at home, China’s wandering elephants are now becoming international stars.
中国的迁徙大象已经在国内出名，现在正成为国际明星。
Major global media are chronicling the herd’s more than yearlong, 500-kilometer (300-mile) trek from their home in a wildlife reserve in mountainous southwest Yunnan province to the outskirts of the provincial capital of Kunming.
“We should be more like the elephant and be more family oriented, take family vacations and help and care for and protect each other,” read one comment on YouTube signed MrDeterministicchaos.
“我们应该像大象学习，更以家庭为主，要全家度假，互相帮助、关心和提供保护，”YouTube上署名为“MrDeterministicchaos”的一条评论写道。
The elephants have been trending for days on China’s Weibo microblogging service with photos of the group sleeping attracting 25,000 posts and 200 million views Monday night.
这些大象已经在中国的微博上上榜好几天了，周一晚上，大象群睡觉的照片更是吸引了25000个回帖和2亿次浏览量。
The 15-member herd has been caught at night trotting down urban streets by security cameras, filmed constantly from the air by more than a dozen drones and followed by those seeking to minimize damage and keep both pachyderms and people out of harm’s way.
这个有15头象的象群在夜间里，在城市街道上小跑时被安全摄像头拍到，十几架无人机不断地从空中拍摄，人们试图将破坏降到最低程度，让大象和人都免受伤害。
pachyderm：厚皮动物(如大象)
They’ve raided farms for food and water, visited a car dealership and even showed up at a retirement home, where they poked their trunks into some of the rooms, prompting one elderly man to hide under his bed.
它们冲进了农场寻找食物和水，造访了一家汽车经销商，甚至出现在一家养老院旁，在那里它们把鼻子伸进一些房间，这让一位老人躲进了床下。
While no animals or people have been hurt, reports put damage to crops at more than $1 million.
虽然没有动物或人受伤，但据报道，农作物损失超过了100万美元。
Sixteen animals were originally in the group, but the government says two returned home and a baby was born during the walk. The herd is now composed of six female and three male adults, three juveniles and three calves, according to official reports.
最初有16只大象，但政府说有两只回家了，而途中又出生了一只小象。据官方报道，目前这一象群由6只雌性和3只雄性成年大象、3只少年象和3只幼崽组成。
What exactly motivated them to make the epic journey remains a mystery, although they appear to be especially attracted to corn, tropical fruit and other crops that are tasty, plentiful and easy to obtain in the lush tropical region that is home to about 300 of the animals. Others have speculated their leader may be simply lost.
究竟是什么促使它们踏上这段史诗般的旅程仍然是一个谜，它们似乎特别喜欢玉米、热带水果和其它一些可口的农作物，这些非常美味、多产而且容易得到的食物在它们繁茂的热带家乡都有，并且那里有大约300只大象。另外也有人猜测他们的头领可能只是迷路了。
Asian elephants are loyal to their home ranges unless there have been disturbances, loss of resources or development, in which case they may move out, according to Nilanga Jayasinghe, manager for Asian species conservation at the World Wildlife Fund.
世界野生动物基金会亚洲物种保护经理尼兰加·贾亚辛格表示，亚洲象忠于它们的栖息地，除非发生干扰、资源损失或土地开发，它们才可能会搬走。
“In this case, we don’t really know why they left their home range, but do know that there has been significant habitat loss due to agriculture and conversion of forests into plantations within that range in the last few decades,” Jayasinghe wrote in an email. “What possibly happened here is that in their search for new habitat, they got lost along the way and kept going.”
贾亚辛格在一封电子邮件中写道：“这一次的情况，我们不知道它们为什么离开自己的栖息地，但我们知道，在过去几十年里，由于农业和将森林转变为种植园，在这个范围内的栖息地已经严重丧失。而这次可能的原因是，在寻找新栖息地的过程中，他们迷路了，但一直没有停下脚步。”
Authorities have been working to avoid negative interactions and “must determine what the best next steps here are and keep human-elephant conflict at bay,” Jayasinghe wrote.
政府一直在努力避免负面的人象互动。贾亚辛格写道：“必须确定下一步最好的措施是什么，并防止人象冲突”。
Kunming is to host the upcoming Convention on Biological Diversity’s Convention of Parties to discuss topics such as human-wildlife conflict, and “this is a real-time example of the importance of addressing the issue and its root causes for the benefit of both wildlife and people,” she wrote.
昆明将主办即将召开的《生物多样性公约》缔约方大会，讨论人类与野生动物冲突等议题，她写道：“这是解决这个问题的重要性及其根源的实时例子，有利于野生动物和人民的利益”。
Elephants are given the top level of protection in China, allowing their numbers to steadily increase even as their natural habitat shrinks, and requiring farmers and others to exercise maximum restraint when encountering them. Government orders have told people to stay inside and not to gawk at them or use firecrackers or otherwise attempt to scare them away.
大象在中国受到最高级别的保护，即使自然栖息地缩小，大象的数量也能稳步增加，同时要求农民和其他人在遇到大象时尽最大能力克制自己。政府要求人们呆在屋里，不要呆呆地盯着它们看，不要使用鞭炮，也不要试图吓跑它们。
So far, more passive means are being used to keep them out of urban areas, including the parking of trucks and construction equipment to block roads and the use of food drops to lure them away.
到目前为止，更多的被动手段被用来阻止他们进入城市地区，包括停放卡车和建筑工程设备堵塞道路，以及使用食物引诱他们离开。
As of Tuesday, the herd remained on the outskirts of Kunming, a city of 7 million, with one of the males having moved away on his own, creating even more excitement — and worry — for those attempting to keep tabs on them.
截至本周二，这群大象仍在拥有700万人口的昆明市郊徘徊，其中一只雄性大象已经自己离开，这给那些试图监视它们的人带来了更多的兴奋和担忧。
A statement Monday from a provincial command center set up to monitor the group said the elephants appeared to be resting, while more than 410 emergency response personnel and police personnel, scores of vehicles and 14 drones were deployed to monitor them. Area residents were evacuated, temporary traffic control measures implemented, and 2 tons of elephant food put in place.
周一，省指挥中心发表声明说，这些大象似乎正在休息，超过410名应急人员和警察、数十辆汽车和14架无人机被部署来监视它们。当地居民已被疏散，并实施了临时交通管制措施，2吨大象食品也已就位。
Another objective was to “maintain silence to create conditions for guiding the elephant group to migrate west and south,” the command center said.
指挥中心说，另一个目标是“保持沉默，为引导大象群西迁南迁创造条件”。
Asian elephants, the continent’s largest land animal, are declining overall, with less than 50,000 left in the wild. Habitat loss and resulting human-wildlife conflict are their biggest threats, along with poaching and population isolation.
亚洲大象是亚洲大陆最大的陆生动物，总体数量正在下降，仅存的野生大象不到5万头。栖息地的丧失和由此引发的人类与野生动物之间的冲突，以及偷猎和种群隔离，是它们最大的威胁。
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