津巴布韦动荡局势导致偷猎活动加剧

Zimbabwe Problems Lead to Poaching

Challiss McDonough

Dubamanzi Conservancy,

South Africa

29 Aug 2001

The unrest in Zimbabwe during the past year has led to a 1)shortage of food in some areas. Many commercial farms have been shut down and no longer productive. Hunger has driven some people to look for food wherever they can. That has meant a well-documented increase in 2)poaching on Zimbabwe 3)wildlife 4)reserves. Those in charge of controlling the poaching say the problem does not stop at the Zimbabwean border.

"That is the Limpopo river," says Thys Knoetze, pointing toward the river that forms the border between South Africa and Zimbabwe. During the rainy season, the Limpopo is a 5)crocodile-6)infested 7)torrent that is difficult and dangerous to cross. But this is the end of a long, dry winter. The river is barely a 8)trickle 1. "The Limpopo is not always flowing through the year. A trickle at this stage," he says. "I mean, you can see the size of the river. Once it flows then nobody crosses. But if it is down like this, then as you say, you know, it poses no problem. The people just cross it. No problem at all."

This part of the river is in the Dubamanzi Conservancy, an unusual nature reserve 9)stretching for more than 300 kilometers along the Zimbabwe-South Africa border. It is a partnership 2 between the South African military and a group of private 10)landowners. Roughly half of the conservancy's 9,000 hectares is owned by the military. The rest is made up of privately 3 owned game reserves, used either for conservation and 11)tourism or for controlled big-game hunting.

Driving onto an abandoned military base 12)adjacent to the Zimbabwean border, visitors see a family of warthogs 13)scampering through the 14)bush. There are three male kudu - large antelope 4 bearing lovely, twisted horns. Not too far away are more 15)antelope, this time a herd 5 of female 16)impala.

Thys Knoetze is a staff sergeant 6 in the South African National Defense 7 Force. He was born and raised in the nearby border town of Messina. His job now is to protect the animals on the military parts of the conservancy from 17)poachers. He says that job has gotten much harder during the past year. "Most of the problems we experience is more towards the border, and that basically points to Zimbabweans coming through," he says.

Sgt. Knoetze cannot comment on the number of Zimbabweans caught each day illegally crossing the border. Official government figures say it has doubled in the past year to about 20 per day. But several law-enforcement sources tell VOA as many as 300 illegal immigrants cross each day - and those are just the ones they catch.

All Sgt. Knoetze can say is the amount of poaching along the border has increased dramatically since this time last year. Local residents who own private game reserves agree. They have lost at least four zebra and six 18)kudu this month, plus countless 8 smaller game such as impala, warthogs, or 19)guinea fowl 9.

On the abandoned military base, the sergeant walks along a chain-link fence topped with 20)barbed wire. He points to a place where the fencing has been cut and pulled up away from the ground. It leaves a hole big enough for a small antelope or a warthog to pass through. A loop of rusty 10 wire is attached to the fence in front of the hole. It is rigged to tighten 11 around the neck of any animal that crawls through. "This is a snare 12 being set here. Anything - warthog, duiker [antelope] or anything will crawl 21)underneath 13 here," he says. "Once it crawls underneath here and gets caught by this, it means that is the end of it. Sometimes it breaks the snare and the snare remains 14 around the neck... and then slowly but surely this animal will die somewhere in the [field], if it is not been taken by leopard 15, 22)jackal or whatever."

Less than 50 meters away, on the same stretch of fence, Sgt. Knoetze finds another hole, and five more snares 16. "There is another 23)snare. There is one. There is one. OK, that is not set. This is set. There is one. Here is one. There is one. There is one. There is another one," he counted. "One two three, four, five. And this is again, this is set for guinea fowl. This is a small snare, it is thin wire, and you see the loop is small, so obviously it has been set for guinea fowl."

On another patch of military land, heavy 24)fortifications stand as a reminder 17 of the 25)apartheid government's 26)hostile relations with South Africa's neighbor to the north. Three layers of barbed-wire fence run parallel to the river bank. In the old days, the fence was electrified 18, but now the electricity is turned off. That has allowed poachers to use the government's own fortifications to snare South African game. "About three weeks ago, the people on the northern side stole about three kilometers of this electric fence because it is not on," he said. "It is just there for 'in case.' So they stole three kilometers of it. And then they used it to set snares with it."

The 27)sergeant 28)acknowledges that not all of the area's poaching problems are caused by Zimbabweans crossing the border in search of food. There are plenty of South African poachers, too. But there is solid evidence that the crisis in Zimbabwe is now threatening the wild animal populations in South Africa as well.

(1)      shortage[5FC:tIdV]n.不足, 缺乏

(2)      poach[pEJtF]vt.侵入偷猎, 窃取vi.偷猎

(3)      wildlife[5waIldlaIf]n.野生动植物

(4)      reserves n.储量

(5)      crocodile[5krRkEdaIl]n.鳄鱼, 鳄鱼皮

(6)      infest[In5fest]v.大批滋生

(7)      torrent[5tRrEnt; (?@) 5tC:r-]n.急流, 洪流, 连发, 迸发

(8)      trickle[5trIk(E)l]v.滴流

(9)      stretch[stretF]v.伸展, 伸长n.一段时间, 一段路程, 伸展

(10)      landowner[5lAndEJnE(r)]n.地主, 土地所有者

(11)      tourism[5tJErIz(E)m]n.观光事业, 游览

(12)      adjacent[E5dVeIsEnt]adj.邻近的, 接近的

(13)      scamper[5skAmpE(r)]v.奔跳n.奔跑

(14)      bush[bJF]n.矮树丛, (机械)衬套

(15)      antelope[5AntIlEJp]n.羚羊

(16)      impala[Im5pB:lE]n.[动]黑斑羚(产于非洲中南部)

(17)      poacher[5pEJtFE(r)]n.偷猎者, 侵入者

(18)      kudu[5ku:du:]n.[动]捻(一种非洲大羚羊)

(19)      guinea fowl n.〈动〉珍珠鸡

(20)      barbed wire n.带刺铁丝网

(21)      underneath[QndE5ni:W]adv.在下面prep.在...的下面

(22)      jackal[5dVAkC:l; (?@) 5dVAkl]n.豺, 走狗

(23)      snare[sneE(r)]n.陷井v.诱捕

(24)      fortification[fC:tIfI5keIF(E)n]n.防御工事, 要塞, 筑城术

(25)      apartheid[E5pB:theIt]n.(南非)种族隔离

(26)      hostile[5hRstaIl; (?@) 5hBstl]adj.敌对的, 敌方的n.敌对

(27)      sergeant[5sB:dVEnt]n.警官, 军士

(28)      acknowledge[Ek5nRlIdV]vt.承认, 答谢, 报偿