有聲英文閱讀-種種動物都瀕臨滅絕的危險境地，有誰關(guān)心？
Animals at Risk: Who Cares
An animal species becomes extinct when it fails to produce enough young is each generation to keep pace with the death-rate. We can tell from fossil evidence in rocks that many living species have become extinct over the millions of years since life began. It is a natural process and extinction is the fate of many animal that has specialized too far to change when its environment changes, or has to compete with a better-adapted and more powerful animal. Because of remarkable technical developments during the past few centuries, man has destroyed or nearly destroyed some species by killing them at such a rate that they couldn't produce enough offspring, or by completely changing their natural environment at surprising speed.
A number of examples can be given of the way in which natural environments are being rapidly changed - Amazonia, for instance. There is every likelihood that many species of animals will be made extinct because of these and similar clearances of natural vegetation. Large numbers of animals have been hunted and killed for food. The North American buffalo is a case of the near-extinction of a species through hunting. Often the numbers are so great the hunters may not realize the danger. But even when the danger is widely publicized, the financial rewards for the hunters may be so great that they choose to ignore the threat to the species. Attitudes like this have led to hunters killing animals for furs, for ivory or merely for ornaments. A slight variation on this is when tourists hunt animals for trophies. Magnificent creatures such as lions and tigers have been hunted out of existence in some parts of the world. It is important to realise, though, that animals are sometimes killed out of fear. Big cats are killed in this way. And animals are sometimes killed out of a wish to reduce numbers to help the species to survive. The killing of the Canadian seals is claimed to be for this purpose, and the use of their skins for furs is only a by-product.
Many people are concerned about animals and wildlife conservation. One way to preserve species under threat of extinction - whatever the cause - is to remove them to zoos and parks and breed them there. There is always the chance that enough offspring will be born to return them one day to their natural environment - provided it still exists, and that hunters don't kill them again! Another method is to protect the animals in their natural environment by creating wildlife reserves and parks and using game wardens to look after them. But the parks are large, the wardens few and the determination of hunters very great. Early in 1980 wardens and hunters clashed in East Africa. The hunters were armed with modern weapons and several people were killed.
There is great pleasure in watching wildlife in natural or near-natural environments, and tourism can add to the income of countries. The animals are still resources - but in a very different form.
種種動物都瀕臨滅絕的危險境地，有誰關(guān)心？
不論何種動物，只要每一代不能繁殖出足夠的后代，不能與這種動物的死亡數(shù)字相平衡，那么這種動物就會逐漸滅絕。我們從巖石中的化石遺留下的證據(jù)中可以辨別出來，自從地球上有生命時開始，在若干個百萬年中，有很多動植物的物種已經(jīng)逐漸地滅絕了。任何一種生性過于特殊化以致于不能隨著環(huán)境的變化而改變自己的特性的動物，或者是任何一種必須與一種能更好地適應(yīng)環(huán)境而又更加強(qiáng)大的動物相競爭的動物，它們的命運都將是滅絕，這是個很自然的演化過程。由于最近幾百年來各項科學(xué)技術(shù)的迅猛發(fā)展，以驚人的速度大量殺死了某些種動物，或以驚人的速度徹底改變了這些動物的生存的自然環(huán)境，致使這些動物不能生育繁衍出足夠的后代，人類已經(jīng)消滅了或已經(jīng)接近于消滅了某些種動物。
可以舉出很多很多的例子說明自然生態(tài)環(huán)境已經(jīng)被迅速地改變了，亞馬遜河流域就是最好的例證。因為在這些地區(qū)以及和這些地區(qū)相類似的地區(qū)，自然界的植物已經(jīng)被砍伐凈盡，許多種動物將完全有可能滅絕。一大批一大批的動物被當(dāng)作食品而遭獵殺。北美洲的野牛就是因為捕獵而接近于滅絕的物種之一。這些動物的數(shù)量非常龐大，以致于獵手們意識不到這些動物會有滅絕的危險。但即使是把這種動物行將滅絕的危險已經(jīng)廣泛地公諸于眾，偷獵對獵人們財務(wù)上的回報是非常巨大的，以致獵人們選定了對這些物種行將滅絕的危險采取不理不睬的態(tài)度。這類態(tài)度已經(jīng)導(dǎo)致了獵人為了獲得毛皮、獲得象牙或者僅僅是為了用作裝飾品就去獵殺動物。與此稍有不同的是，那些旅游觀光客錯殺動物是為了留作戰(zhàn)勝獵物的紀(jì)念品。像獅子、老虎之類雄偉的動物在世界有些地區(qū)已經(jīng)滅絕了。然而要注意到，有時人們殺死了動物是由于人們害怕，這一點是很重要的。大貓科的動物就是這樣被殺死的。有時殺死一些動物是希望減少一些數(shù)目，以便有助于這種動物能生存下去。據(jù)說殺死了一批加拿大的海豹就是為了這個目的，而利用海豹皮只是一種副產(chǎn)物而已。
許多人都關(guān)心動物及野生動植物的保護(hù)工作。不管是什么原因造成了滅絕，一種保存遭受滅絕威脅的物種的辦法就是把這些物種搬進(jìn)動植物園里面去，并讓這些動植物在那里生息繁衍下來。假如這種動物能存活下來，假如獵手們不再殺死它們，那么等將來它們繁衍出足夠的后代之后，總會有這樣的機(jī)會，總有一天會讓它們的大自然的環(huán)境中去！另一種在自然環(huán)境中保護(hù)動物的辦法，就是創(chuàng)建野生動植物保護(hù)區(qū)和野生動植物園并設(shè)置禁止?jié)O獵野生動物監(jiān)督官來看護(hù)這些動物。但是野生動植物園范圍很廣大，禁止?jié)O獵野生動物監(jiān)督官人手又很少，偷獵野生動物的獵人們的偷獵決心都很大。1980年初監(jiān)督官與獵手們發(fā)生了沖突。獵手們都裝備有現(xiàn)代化的武器，結(jié)果有數(shù)人在沖突中死亡。
在大自然當(dāng)中或在接近于大自然的環(huán)境當(dāng)中，欣賞野生動植物，真是一大賞心樂事，況且這種旅游觀光業(yè)也能為國家或地方增加收入。各種動物都依然是我們的資源--但卻是一種不同形式的資源。
