PROFESSOR: How will you know if Asian bees have entered Australia?

教授：你是通过什么方法来知道是否有亚洲蜜蜂进入澳大利亚呢？

GRANT: We're looking at the diet of the bird called the Rainbow Bee Eater.

格兰特：通过观察一种名为彩虹蜂虎的鸟类的饮食状况。

The Bee Eater doesn't care what it eats, as long as they're insects.

这种鸟吃各种昆虫，从不挑食。

But the interesting thing about this bird is that we are able to analyse exactly what it eats and that's really helpful if we're looking for introduced insects.

关于这种鸟有意思的地方在于，我们能够分析它们到底吃了些什么，而这能够帮助我们寻找入境的昆虫。

PROFESSOR: How come?

教授：这是怎么做到的呢？

GRANT: Because insects have their skeletons outside their bodies, so the Bee Eaters digest the meat from the inside.

格兰特：因为昆虫的体外有一层壳，蜂虎消化的是昆虫体内的肉质。

Then they bring up all the indigestible bits of skeleton and, of course, the wings in a pellet - a small ball of waste material which they cough up.

然后将所有不能消化的部分，包括翅膀弄成一个小球吐出来。

PROFESSOR: That sounds a bit unpleasant.

教授：这听上去有些恶心。

So, how do you go about it?

你们是怎么进行研究的呢？

GRANT: In the field we track down the Bee Eaters and find their favourite feeding spots, you know, the places where the birds usually feed.

格兰特：在野外我们追踪蜂虎并且寻找他们的捕食地点。

It's here that we can find the pellets.

我们在那些地方能够找到这些小球。

We collect them up and take them back to the laboratory to examine the contents.

我们收集这些小球，然后带回实验室分析里面的成分。

PROFESSOR: How do you do that?

教授：怎么分析呢？

GRANT: The pellets are really hard, especially if they have been out in the sun for a few days so, first of all, we treat them by adding water to moisten them and make them softer.

格兰特：这些小球很硬，尤其是在太阳下晒过几天以后。所以我们得先用水把它们泡软。

Then we pull them apart under the microscope.

然后我们将它们弄开放在显微镜下观察。

Everything's all scrunched up but we're looking for wings so we just pull them all out and straighten them.

所有的东西都揉成一团了，但是我们要找的只是翅膀。我们把它们弄出来然后展平。

Then we identify them to see if we can find any Asian bee wings.

然后我们通过翅膀来辨认亚洲蜜蜂的踪迹。

PROFESSOR: And how many have you found?

教授：你们到现在发现多少了？

GRANT: So far our research shows that Asian bees have not entered Australia in any number - it's a good result and much more reliable than trying to find live ones as evidence of introduced insects.

目前的研究表明澳大利亚境内还没有亚洲蜜蜂的踪迹。这个结果十分乐观，而且这种方法也比直接寻找活的蜜蜂更可靠。

PROFESSOR: Well, that's fascinating! Thank you, Grant, for those insights.

教授：那真是太棒了！谢谢你，格兰特，来跟我们分享这么多知识。

I hope that you might inspire some of our students here to conduct some similar experiments.

希望你的研究能激励我们这儿的学生也进行类似的实验。