PART 4

For my presentation today I want to tell you about how groups of elephants have been moved and settled in new reserves.

在我今天的演讲中，我想告诉大家大象群是如何迁移到新的保护区并定居的。

This is known as translocation and has been carried out in Malawi in Africa in recent years.

这被称为移地放归，这一行动已经在非洲的马拉维进行多年。

The reason this is being done is because of overpopulation of elephants in some areas.

这样做的原因是某些地区的大象数量过多。

Overpopulation is a good problem to have and not one we tend to hear about very often.

种群过剩不是坏事，也不是我们经常听说的事。

In Malawi's Majete National Park the elephant population had been wiped out by poachers, who killed the elephants for their ivory.

在马拉维的玛杰特国家公园，大象种群已被偷猎者消灭，他们为获取象牙而猎杀大象。

But in 2003, the park was restocked and effective law enforcement was introduced.

但在2003年，公园重新放养大象并引入了有效的执法。

Since then, not a single elephant has been poached.

从那以后，再没有人偷猎大象。

In this safe environment, the elephant population boomed.

在这个安全的环境中，大象数量激增。

Breeding went so well that there were more elephants than the park could support.

大象繁殖进行得如此顺利以至于公园里的大象数量超过了它的可容纳量。

This led to a number of problems.

这导致了许多问题。

Firstly, there was more competition for food, which meant that some elephants were suffering from hunger.

首先，对食物的竞争更加激烈，这意味着一些大象正在挨饿。

As there was a limit to the amount of food in the national park, some elephants began looking further afield.

由于国家公园的食物数量有限，一些大象开始寻找更远的地方来觅食。

Elephants were routinely knocking down fences around the park, which then had to be repaired at a significant cost.

大象经常撞倒公园周围的栅栏，后期不得不花费巨资修复这些损坏。

To solve this problem, the decision was made to move dozens of elephants from Majete National Park to Nkhotakota Wildlife Park, where there were no elephants.

为了解决这个问题，国家公园决定将数十头大象从玛杰特国家公园转移到没有大象的恩科塔科塔野生动物园。

But, obviously, attempting to move significant numbers of elephants to a new home 300 kilometres away is quite a challenge.

但是，很显然，将大量大象转移到300公里外的新家的尝试是一项相当大的挑战。

So how did this translocation process work in practice?

那么移地放归在实践中是如何运作的呢？

Elephants were moved in groups of between eight and twenty, all belonging to one family.

来自同一家族的8到20只大象被分为一组，进行转移。

Because relationships are very important to elephants, they all had to be moved at the same time.

因为家庭关系对大象来说非常重要，所以它们必须同时被转移。

A team of vets and park rangers flew over the park in helicopters and targeted a group, which were rounded up and directed to a designated open plain.

一队兽医和公园护林员乘坐直升机飞越公园，找寻一个象群，这些大象被围起来并带到指定的开阔平原。

The vets then used darts to immobilise the elephants – this was a tricky manoeuvre, as they not only had to select the right dose of tranquiliser for different-sized elephants but they had to dart the elephants as they were running around.

兽医随后使用飞镖击中大象，让大象无法动弹，这是一个棘手的操作，因为他们不仅要为不同体型的大象选择合适剂量的镇静剂，还要在大象四处奔跑时向它们发射飞镖。

This also had to be done as quickly as possible so as to minimise the stress caused.

同时，这一动作必须尽快完成来尽量减少对动物造成的压力。

As soon as the elephants began to flop onto the ground, the team moved in to take care of them.

只要大象一扑倒在地上，工作人员就立即靠近去照顾它们。

To avoid the risk of suffocation, the team had to make sure none of the elephants were lying on their chests because their lungs could be crushed in this position.

为了避免窒息的风险，团队必须确保大象都没有伏趴在地，因为这样可能会压伤大象的肺部。

So all the elephants had to be placed on their sides.

所以所有的大象都必须侧卧。

One person stayed with each elephant while they waited for the vets to do checks.

在等待兽医进行检查时，每头大象都有一个人陪伴。

It was very important to keep an eye on their breathing – if there were fewer than six breaths per minute, the elephant would need urgent medical attention.

密切关注它们的呼吸非常重要。如果每分钟呼吸次数少于六次，大象就需要紧急医疗护理。

Collars were fitted to the matriarch in each group so their movements could be tracked in their new home.

每组大象中的“女家长”都戴上了项圈，这样大象在新家里的一举一动都可以被追踪。

Measurements were taken of each elephant's tusks – elephants with large tusks would be at greater risk from poachers – and also of their feet.

工作人员对每头大象的象牙进行了测量。象牙大的大象更容易受到偷猎者的伤害。它们的脚也会被测量。

The elephants were then taken to a recovery area before being loaded onto trucks and transported to their new home.

这些大象随后被带到恢复区，然后被装上卡车运到它们的新家。

The elephants translocated to Nkhotakota settled in very well and the project has generally been accepted to have been a huge success – and not just for the elephants.

迁移到恩科塔科塔的大象安顿得很好。人们普遍认为该项目取得了巨大的成功，而且不仅仅是对大象而言。

Employment prospects have improved enormously, contributing to rising living standards for the whole community.

就业前景已大大改善，有助于提高整个社区的生活水平。

Poaching is no longer an issue, as former poachers are able to find more reliable sources of income.

偷猎不再是问题，因为以前的偷猎者能够找到更可靠的收入来源。

In fact, many of them volunteered to give up their weapons, as they were no longer of any use to them.

事实上，他们中的许多人自愿放弃了他们的武器，因为对他们来说武器不再有任何用处。

More than two dozen elephants have been born at Nkhotakota since relocation.

自移地放归以来，已有二十多只大象在恩科塔科塔出生。

With an area of more than 1,800 square kilometres, there's plenty of space for the elephant population to continue to grow.

面积超过1,800平方公里的新家给让大象有足够的空间继续繁衍。

Their presence is also helping to rebalance Nkhotakota's damaged ecosystem and providing a sustainable conservation model, which could be replicated in other parks.

他们的存在也有助于让恩科塔科塔受损的生态系统回归平衡，并提供可持续的保护模式，其它公园也可以复制这模式。

All this has been a big draw for tourism, which contributes five times more than the illegal wildlife trade to GDP, and this is mainly because of the elephants.

所有这些都对旅游业产生巨大吸引力。旅游业对GDP的贡献是非法野生动物贸易的五倍，而这一增加主要是因为大象。

There's also been a dramatic rise in interest …

人们也越来越有兴趣知道……