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Listen to part of a lecture in an environmental science class.
听一段环境科学课堂的讲座。
Now, we've been talking about the loss of animal habitat from housing developments, uh...
我们一直在讨论在住房建设和，呃...
growing cities small habitat losses.
城市发展中动物栖息地的减少——为数并不太多。
But today I wanna begin talking about what happens when habitat is reduced across a large area.
今天我想从谈论大片的栖息地在减少的时候都发生了什么。
There are, of course, animal species that require large areas of habitat, and some migrate over very long distances.
当然，动物有需要大片栖息地的物种，也有迁徙的物种。
So what's the impact of habitat loss on those animals animals that need large areas of habitat?
那么，栖息地的缩减对需要大量栖息地的物种有什么影响呢？
Well, I'll use the humming birds as an example.
我举一个蜂鸟的例子。
Now you know a humming bird is amazingly small, but even though it's really tiny, it migrates over very long distances,
大家都知道蜂鸟体形超小，但尽管它很小，它迁徙时得飞到很远的地方，
travels up and down the western hemisphere the Americas, back and forth between where it breeds in the summer and the warmer climates where it's spent the winter.
南北横跨西半球——美国，在夏季的繁殖地和气候暖和一点的地方来回，它们到暖和一点的地方过冬。
So you would say that this whole area over which it migrates is its habitat because on this long distance journey,
这样你会说它们迁徙跨越的这片土地就是它们的栖息地因为在它们长途迁移的过程中
it needs to come down to feed and sleep every so often, right?
它们需要时不时停下来进食和休息，是吗？
Well, the humming bird beats its wings get this about 3 thousand times per minute.
蜂鸟扇动着翅膀——明白不——大约每分钟3千次。
So you think, wow, it must need a lot of energy, a lot of food, right?
所以，想想，哇，它们得需要很多能量，很多食物，对吧？
Well, it does.
是的，确实这样。
It drinks a lot of nectar from flowers and feeds on some insects, but it's energy efficient too.
它们得喝很多花蜜吃昆虫，其实它们也很节能的。
You can not say it is not.
这一点你得承认。
I mean, as it flies all the way across the Mexico Gulf, it uses up none of its body fat.
我是说，当它们飞过墨西哥湾时，它们并没有耗尽身体的脂肪。
But that does not mean it does not need to eat.
但这并不意味着它们不需要进食。
So humming birds have to rely on plants in their natural habitat.
所以自然栖息地对蜂鸟来说植物是必须有的。
And it goes without saying, but the opposite is true as well, plants depend on humming birds too.
这是不言而喻的，但反过来也有道理，植物也依赖蜂鸟。
There are some flowers that can only be pollinated by the humming birds.
一些花只靠蜂鸟来授粉。
Without its stopping to feed and spread pollen from flower to flower, these plants would cease to exist.
如果蜂鸟不停下来觅食或传播花粉，这些植物就不复存在。
But the problem, well, as natural habitat along these migration routes is developed by humans for housing or agriculture or cleared for raising cattle,
但是，随着人类在蜂鸟迁徙路线上的自然栖息地进行开发，扩建住房或是耕作或是放牧，
for instance, there is less food available for migrating humming birds.
这样下来，蜂鸟在迁徙时能找到的食物就更少了。
Their nesting sites are affected too, the same by the same sorts of human activities.
它们的筑巢区也会受到影响，原因也是人类的活动。
And all of these activities pose a real threat to the humming bird population.
同时，人类所有的这些活动对蜂鸟种群的繁殖造成真正的威胁。
So help them survive, we need to preserve their habitats.
因此要帮助它们生存，人类需要保护它们的栖息地。
And one of the concrete ways people have been doing this is by cleaning up polluted habitat areas and then replanting flowers,
人们一直以来采取的保护蜂鸟栖息地的具体措施之一是清理受到污染的栖息地
um, replanting native flowers that humming birds feed on.
然后重栽蜂鸟赖以生存的花草。
Promoting ecological tourism is another way to help save their habitat.
推广生态旅游是保护它们栖息地的另外一种方式。
As the number of visitors, eco tourists who come to humming bird habitats to watch the birds,
随着游客数量的增加，这些生态旅游者来蜂鸟栖息地看鸟，
the more the number of visitors grows, the more local businesses' profit, so ecological tourism can bring financial rewards,
游客的数量越多，当地的旅游景点收益越大，这样看来生态旅游能带来经济回报，
all the more reason to value these beautiful little creatures in their habitat, right?
小巧漂亮的蜂鸟将更加得到重视，对吧？
But to understand more about how to protect and support the humming birds the best we can,
但是要想更好地了解如何才能做到最大地保护蜂鸟，
we've got to learn more about their breeding, nesting sites and migration routes, and also about the natural habitats we find there.
我们必须了解它们的繁殖，筑巢和迁徙路线，也需要了解沿途的自然栖息地。
That just helps us determine how to prevent further decline in the population.
这样能帮助我们决定如何防止蜂鸟数量进一步的减少。
A good research method, a good way to learn more, is by running a banding study.
电子条带捆绑研究是对蜂鸟进一步了解的不错方式。
Banding the birds allows us to track them over their lifetime.
条带绑定有助于我们对蜂鸟一生进行跟踪。
It's been a practice that's been used by researchers for years.
多年来，研究人员一直在沿用这样的做法。
In fact, most of what we've known about humming birds comes from banding studies, where we capture a humming bird and make sure all the information about it,
其实，人类对蜂鸟的了解绝大多数来源于(条带)捆绑研究，它提供蜂鸟确切的落脚点和其他的信息，
like its weight and age and length, are all recorded and put into an international information database.
如它的体重和年龄和寿命，都记录在案，然后输入一国际信息数据库。
And then we place an extremely lightweight band on one of its legs, well, what looks like a leg,
我们将一个极为轻巧的电子条带绑在蜂鸟的一条腿上，嗯，看起来像一条腿，
although technically it's considered part of the bird's foot.
尽管严格地说它应该是依附在鸟脚上的。
Anyway, these bands are perfectly safe, and some humming birds have worn them for years with no evidence of any problems.
不管怎么说，这些条带绝对安全，一些蜂鸟带着它好几年一点问题都没有。
The band is labeled with tracking number, oh, and there is a phone number on the band for people to call for free,
条带上标有追踪号码，哦，上面还有一个人们可以免费拨打的电话号码，
to report a banded bird to be found or recaptured.
用来了解该鸟被发现或被抓的情况。
So when a banded bird is recaptured and reported, we learn about its migration route, its growth,
当被绑定的蜂鸟被逮住并有人(通过绑定的电话号码)告知，我们就知道它的迁徙路线，它的成长
and how long it has been alive, its lifespan.
和它活了多久，它的寿命。
One recaptured bird was banded almost 12 years earlier she was one of the oldest humming birds on record.
一只再次被逮住的蜂鸟曾于12年前被绑上电子条带——她是记录在案的最老的蜂鸟之一。
Another interesting thing we learned is that some humming birds no longer use a certain route.
我们了解到的另一个有意思的事是有些蜂鸟在迁徙时“不走寻常路”。
They travel by a different route to reach their destination.
它们另辟蹊径飞到目的地。
And findings like these have been of interest to biologists and environmental scientists in a number of countries who are trying to understand the complexities of how changes in a habitat affect the species in it, species like the humming birds.
这样的发现对致力于了解栖息地影响生活在其中的物种变化的复杂性的生物学家和环境科学家们来说一直兴趣盎然。
