10.7 BBC精读笔记 - The sniffer dog that detects secretive harvest mice

戳这里看原文
#A sniffer dog is being trained to detect the presence of harvest mice, one of Britain’s smallest and most elusive mammals, in a novel approach to conservation
By Jeremy Coles
30 September 2015
sniffer dog: UK a dog that has been trained to find drugs or explosives by using its sense of smell
presence OF
harvest mice 收割鼠、巢鼠
elusive: an elusive animal is difficult to find or not often seen
novel: not like anything known before, and unusual or interesting
conservation: the action of preventing something from being lost or wasted
#No one really knows how many harvest mice there are currently in the British countryside, but that could be about to change with the help of a flat-coated retriever called Tui.
be about to change
with the help of
flat-coated retriever: 平毛巡回猎犬
retriever: a type of dog that can be trained to find and bring back birds that its owner has shot 猎犬
#Tui is a sniffer dog that has been trained by PhD researcher Emily Howard-Williams at Moulton College, Northamptonshire to detect the scent of the secretive rodents.
rodent: any small animal of the type that has long sharp front teeth, such as a rat or a rabbit 啮齿动物
#This novel approach to small mammal conservation has been funded by the People’s Trust for Endangered Species (PTES). The charity believes numbers of harvest mice (Micromys minutus) have significantly declined over the last 40 years, due to changes in farming practices and habitat loss.
farming practice: the practice of business of growing crops or keeping animals on a farm
habitat loss: 栖息地的丧失
#“Given that other mammals on farmland are experiencing a decline in numbers, there is serious concern that the same is happening to harvest mice,” says Ms Howard-Williams.
mammal
there is serious concern that ...
experience a decline in numbers
#But, problematically, there are no reliable studies to prove this or what the species' population status is today. Because of their minute size and secretive nature, explains Ms Howard-Williams, harvest mice are a lot harder to find than bigger mammals that leave more evidence of their activity.
problematically: problematic-involving problems and difficult to deal with
minute size: extremely small size minute(adj)-a minute amount, a minute handwriting
#Currently it is very time-consuming and notoriously difficult to find and track harvest mice, even for a trained expert. The most common method involves identifying their presence from the nests they weave among tall grasses and reeds, but it is also possible to survey bait pots for faecal matter and hair tubes or analyse owl pellets for remains.
notoriously: famous or well-known for something bad[=infamous]
find and track
nest: a place where insects or small animals live
weave: to move somewhere by turning and changing diirection a lot 迂回前进
reed: a type of tall plant like grass that grows in wet places
bait pot: bait-something attractive that is offered to someone to make them do something or buy something, especially when thi is done in a dishonest way that tricks people
faecal matter: US faeces n. /feces 粪便 solid waste material from the bowels 内脏
hair tube: ？？？？？？？不知道是什么
owl pellet: pellet-a small ball of a substance
-----------------------------分割线------------------------------
what is a pellet: Owls, like many other birds, eat their food whole. Since birds do not have teeth, they can't chew their food. Therefore, they use their strong and sharp beaks to rip their prey apart and then swallow large chunks whole. The owl slowly digests its meal by separating the softer materials (such as meat) from the harder material (such as bones). It then regurgitates the harder material along with indigestible items such as feathers and fur in the form of a pellet. This is a picture of an owl pellet.
#Physically trapping individual mice is another option, however this is very labour-intensive and not always reliable.
labour-intensive: an industry or type of work that is labour-intensive needs a lot of workers
capital-intensive: needs a lot of money in order to operate properly
#“None of these methods have any great success over larger spaces for gauging harvest mouse numbers, so there is a clear need to develop an effective monitoring method for this species,” says Ms Howard-Williams.
gauge the number of something: gauge: to judge how people feel about something or what they are likely to do
a clear need to do sth
#Then there is the added complication that it is not known how many nests each mouse builds, so when a nest is found it suggests the animals are present, but not how many are in the area.
#Tui the wonder dog
Enter Tui, a flat-coated retriever bred from working gun dogs, whose extraordinary sense of smell, Ms Howard-Williams hopes, will help develop a much less time-consuming and more accurate method of finding and cataloguing harvest mice compared with traditional survey methods.
wonder dog: the dog who creates wonders
gun dog: or bird dog, are dog types of hunting dogs developed to assist hunters in finding and retrieving game, usually birds 猎犬
catalogue: UK catalog(US) to make a complete list of all the things in a group
#Ms Howard-Williams was inspired by working with conservationists in New Zealand who used detector dogs to sniff out black petrels.
And another encouraging project has seen two English setter dogs successfully detect kiwi birds.
conservationist: someone who works to protect animals, plants etc or to protect old buildings
petrel: a black and white sea bird 海燕
sniff out: sniff something ↔ out: to discover or find something by its smell
setter dog: 蹲猎犬
kiwi birds: 长得很像奇异果的奇异鸟。。。圆乎乎，像刺猬似的毛，喙很长
#“Tui was quite challenging to train as she was easily distracted to begin with. A lot of time was spent training to build up her concentration levels and direct these towards the ‘game’, but in a controlled manner,” Howard-Williams tells BBC Earth.
build up one's concentration level
#Training a dog to find the scent of a live animal is much more complex than a chemical substance as it involves bringing lots of elements together.
But Ms Howard-Williams says she was confident at Tui’s reliability at recognising harvest mouse scent.
#If this method proves better than others, it is hoped it could become a mainstream survey technique for harvest mice. And if dogs are trained to particular scents, the method could work with any species, as long as the animals’ scent can be collected.
prove better than ...
mainstream(adj) survey technique: [mainstream] researching method accepted by or involving most people in a society
#This use of sniffer dogs could be the start of a revolution in mammal conservation, as the PTES is already supporting work where dogs are sniffing out pine marten scats more easily than people can see them, and an ex-police dog that can detect water vole burrows without disturbing the animal.
mammal conservation
PTES: Peoples Trust for Endangered Species
pine marten: 松貂
scat: a style of JAZZ singing, in which the singer sings sounds rather than words
pine marten scat: 这里scat指动物的粪便
water vole: UK an animal like a big mouse that can swin and lives near water[=water rat] 水鼠
burrow: a passage in the ground made by an animal such as a rabbit or fox as a place to live 狐狸或者兔子的洞穴
#According to Ms Howard-Williams: “Done well, with highly trained dogs, this method could be really useful."