英語(yǔ)聽(tīng)力文摘 人兔大戰(zhàn)——生生不息

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Rabbits Down Under

In 1859, an unassuming Australian landowner named Thomas Austin got the hunting bug. Eager for something to shoot, he released twenty-four wild rabbits onto his property and had a jolly time tracking them down. Unfortunately, some of the rabbits managed to escape and, as rabbits are known to do, began to breed like…well, rabbits.

By 1900, Austin was dead but his unwanted legacy lived on in the form of a rabbit infestation that spread throughout the entire Australian continent. Desperate landowners scrambled to capture over two million rabbits per year, but this hardly made a dent in the rabbit population. Rabbits, it seemed, had taken up permanent residence down under.

With its long ears, twitching nose, and adorable hopping ability, the individual rabbit is fairly cute. Multiply that bunny by millions, however, and they begin to seem entirely sinister. The great Australian rabbit infestation was ecologically devastating. The buck-toothed creatures helped extinguish nearly one-eighth of Australia’s native mammal species and led to the extinction of countless numbers of plants, leading to widespread soil erosion.

The Australian government tried to corral the rabbits by building so-called rabbit-proof fences across vast stretches of land. Undaunted, the rabbits burrowed under. Finally, in the 1950s, the Australians resorted to chemical warfare, injecting several rabbits with myxoma, an experimental virus known to target and kill rabbits. The virus spread, and the rabbit population dropped from six-hundred million to one-hundred million.

But that’s still a lot of rabbits, and those with a natural resistance to the virus began breeding with a fury. And so, the rabbit wars carry on still.

澳大利亞的兔子

1959年，澳大利亞一位默默無(wú)名的地主——Thomas Austin在打獵上碰到了瓶頸。在強(qiáng)烈的打獵欲望的催使下，他在自家的土地上放生了24頭野兔。一時(shí)之間，他的一大樂(lè)趣便是找出那些兔子?？善陀心敲匆恍┩米犹恿顺鋈?，做著我們所知兔子該做的事——生殖繁衍。

1900年，Austin去世了。但是他那些讓人頭疼的“遺產(chǎn)”卻已然遍布整個(gè)澳大利亞大陸，它們成群結(jié)隊(duì)地襲擊著一個(gè)個(gè)的莊園，讓人頭疼不已。農(nóng)場(chǎng)主們別無(wú)他法，只能大量地捕兔子。每年，農(nóng)場(chǎng)主們能捕到超過(guò)兩百萬(wàn)只兔子，可是，這只能算是冰山一角，區(qū)區(qū)兩百萬(wàn)對(duì)兔子這一群體不夠成任何影響。就這樣，兔子儼然已成澳大利亞的“常住居民”。

乍看上去，長(zhǎng)長(zhǎng)的耳朵，抽動(dòng)的鼻子和蹦蹦跳跳的可愛(ài)姿勢(shì)，兔子真的是可愛(ài)得不行。當(dāng)然，這只是針對(duì)一只兔子而言。如果是上百萬(wàn)只兔子聚在一起，那簡(jiǎn)直就是災(zāi)難。澳大利亞兔子的“橫行霸道”從生態(tài)學(xué)上來(lái)看簡(jiǎn)直就是毀滅性的。這些長(zhǎng)著小齙牙的生物“幫助”澳大利亞八分之一的土著哺乳動(dòng)物走向滅絕，順道再讓不計(jì)其數(shù)的植物從此消逝，最后的結(jié)果便是，澳大利亞嚴(yán)重的大面積水土流失。

澳大利亞政府也曾圈出大片土地，圍上所謂的防兔圍欄，試圖將兔子都趕到一個(gè)地方?？墒?，這些兔子是毫無(wú)畏懼的，它們從地底挖了洞，就這樣就逃了出來(lái)。到后來(lái)的20世紀(jì)50年代，澳大利亞人終將化學(xué)藥物投入了人兔大戰(zhàn)中。人們將粘液瘤注入兔子體內(nèi)，粘液瘤是一種用來(lái)殺兔子的實(shí)驗(yàn)用病毒。隨著該病毒的傳播，兔子數(shù)量從6億只急速減至1億只。

但是，1億仍是一個(gè)很大的數(shù)目。而且有些兔子天生就對(duì)這種病毒有抗體，接著這些兔子開(kāi)始迅猛繁殖。因而，直至今天，在澳大利亞這片土地上人兔大戰(zhàn)仍在進(jìn)行著。

Notes: down under 澳大利亞