如何避免成为猎豹的盘中餐?(下)

Even though these communication hubs only comprise around 10 percent of the landscape, cheetahs spend most—sometimes all—of their time within them.

尽管这些通信中心只占整个地区的10%，但猎豹大部分时间——有时是全部时间——都在这里度过。

“This is basically a long-term tradition, which is passed on from cheetah generation to cheetah generation.

“这基本上是一个长期的传统，从猎豹一代传到一代。

Some of these communication hubs are basically known—or let’s say the marking locations—the marking trees were known by the farmers for 60, 70 years.

其中一些通信中心基本上是已知的，或者说标记位置—标记树，农民们已经知道有六七十年了。

The grandfather of the current farmer already knew the marking trees in this area.”

这位农民的祖父已经知道了这一地区的标记树。”

What the farmers never realized is that only some farms overlap with the cheetahs’ communication hubs.

农民们从未意识到的是，只有一些农场与猎豹的通信中心重叠。

Melzheimer thought that if those farmers relocated their most vulnerable herds, it could be a huge help.

梅尔茨海默认为，如果这些农民重新安置他们最脆弱的畜群，这将是一个巨大的帮助。

He remembers the first farmer he tried to convince.

他还记得他试图说服的第一个农民。

“I told him, ‘Look, Wilfred, I have the idea that they are actually there because of these marking trees.

“我告诉他，‘看，威尔弗雷德，我觉得猎豹确实在那里，因为这些标记树。

And you happen to have your small calves exactly in the same area.

你恰好把你的小牛放在同一区域。

Let’s try to move your herds out of this area and keep them somewhere else.

让我们试着把你的牛群移出这个地区，让它们呆在别的地方。

And then let’s measure the losses.’

然后我们来衡量一下损失。’

And he was laughing at me.

他还嘲笑我。

He said, ‘Nice idea, but I’m not sure whether this is going to work. They will probably follow the calves.’

他说，‘好主意，但我不确定这是否行得通。 猎豹可能会跟着小牛。”

So we tried this, and it actually worked.

所以我们尝试了这个方法，它确实有效。

And he earned much more money because he lost less calves.”

而且他赚了更多的钱，因为他失去的小牛更少了。”

After that, 35 more farmers agreed to try it out.

此后，又有35名农民同意实验一下。

In all, the number of calves lost to cheetah predation fell by a whopping 86 percent.

总的来说，被猎豹捕食而损失的小牛数量下降了86%。

Of course, some cattle outside of communication hubs were still lost to cheetahs, but it was at a low enough level that most farmers seemed to tolerate it.

当然，一些通信中心外的牛还是被猎豹捕走了，但损失数量已经很低了，大多数农民似乎都能承受。

What this means is that cheetahs aren’t actively following the cattle; they simply take advantage of whatever food is available nearby.

这意味着猎豹不会主动跟随牛群; 它们只是利用附近任何可获得的食物。

If it’s not cattle, then they go after wild ungulates like springbok or oryx or kudu.

如果不是牛，它们就会去猎杀像跳羚、羚羊或捻角羚这样的野生有蹄类动物。

There are no so-called problem cheetahs, who intentionally seek out cattle. Instead there are “problem areas.”

没有所谓的问题猎豹，它们故意寻找牛。 相反存在“问题领域”。

That’s a much easier problem to solve, and it’s one that doesn’t result in farmers killing cheetahs.

这是一个更容易解决的问题，而且它不会导致农民杀死猎豹。

Melzheimer is now hard at work collecting tracking data from cheetahs in other parts of Africa to see whether his findings hold up in other ecosystems.

梅尔茨海默现在正努力收集非洲其他地区猎豹的追踪数据，以确定他的发现是否适用于其他生态系统。

So often it seems as if the goals of wildlife conservation are incompatible with the goals of commerce.

野生动物保护的目标似乎常常与商业目标不相容。

But this story reveals that in fact biodiversity and agriculture can coexist.

但这个故事表明，事实上生物多样性和农业是可以共存的。

“Our case is really one of these nice examples where it can go hand in hand.”

“我们的案例确实是一个很好的例子，生物多样性和农业可以携手并进。”

Thanks for listening for Scientific American's 60-second Science. I'm Jason Goldman.

谢谢大家收听科学美国人——60秒科学。我是我是杰森·戈德曼。