地球正处于大灭绝时期？2018年这些动物永远消失了 These species went extinct in 2018. More may be doomed to follow in 2019.

还记得《里约大冒险》里那只可爱的金刚鹦鹉吗？今后你再也无法在野外见到它们了。2018年，有很多种珍稀的动植物永远离开了我们。有研究人员表示，地球正处于第六次物种大灭绝时期。

They'd been on our planet for millions of years, but 2018 was the year several species officially vanished forever.

有几种物种已在我们的星球上生存了数百万年，但它们却在2018年正式消失了。

Three bird species went extinct this year, scientists said, two of which are songbirds from northeastern Brazil: The Cryptic Treehunter (Cichlocolaptes mazarbarnetti) and Alagoas Foliage-gleaner (Philydor novaesi), according to a report from the conservation group BirdLife International.

国际鸟类联盟保护组织的报告显示，科学家称，2018年有3种鸟类灭绝了，其中两种是来自巴西东北部的鸣禽——淡眉树猎雀和诺氏拾叶雀。

songbird['sɒŋbɜːd]：n.鸣禽，鸣鸟

According to BirdLife, the other extinct bird is Hawaii's Po'ouli (Melamprosops phaeosoma), which has not been seen in the wild since 2004 (the same year the last captive bird died).

据国际鸟类联盟称，还有一种于2018年灭绝的鸟类是夏威夷的毛岛蜜雀，这种鸟自2004年以来就没有在野外出现过（最后一只被圈养的鸟也在同一年死亡）。

A disturbing trend is that mainland species are starting to go extinct, rather than island species: “Ninety percent of bird extinctions in recent centuries have been of species on islands,” said Stuart Butchart, BirdLife’s chief scientist and lead author on the paper.

国际鸟类联盟的首席科学家、论文的第一作者斯图尔特·巴特哈特说，一个令人不安的趋势是大陆物种开始变得比岛屿物种更容易灭绝。他说：“几个世纪以来，百分之九十灭绝的鸟类都是岛屿物种。”

“However, our results confirm that there is a growing wave of extinctions sweeping across the continents, driven mainly by habitat loss and degradation from unsustainable agriculture and logging," he said.

他说：“然而，我们的研究结果证实，日益高涨的灭绝浪潮正席卷整个大陆。主要原因是不可持续的农业和伐木造成（鸟类）栖息地的丧失和退化。”

An additional species of bird – the Spix’s macaw, which was made famous in the 2011 animated movie "Rio" – was declared extinct in the wild. Only a few dozen captive Spix's macaws are alive.

斯派克斯金刚鹦鹉因2011年的动画电影《里约大冒险》而出名，然而，目前野生的斯派克斯金刚鹦鹉已告灭绝，只有几十只被捕获的斯派克斯金刚鹦鹉还活着。

《里约大冒险》的主角是一只稀有的小蓝金刚鹦鹉，它的原型是一只叫做Presley的斯派克斯金刚鹦鹉。2014年，Presley去世了，没有留下任何后代。而当时这种鹦鹉在野外已经很难寻觅了，人工繁殖保护之下，全球也只有不到100只，科学家担心近亲繁殖会让它们的基因产生太多缺陷，最后免不了还是走向灭绝的境地，所以一直在全球寻找野生的小蓝金刚鹦鹉种群。然而经过数年的寻找，人们沮丧地发现，它们可能真的，已经消失了。

That species was wiped out in the wild because of deforestation and other factors such as the creation of a dam and trapping for wild trade.

野生斯派克斯金刚鹦鹉灭绝是由于森林砍伐，以及建设水坝和捕获出售等原因。

和斯派克斯金刚鹦鹉一起被认为已经灭绝的鸟类还有：莫雷阿岛苇莺（Moorea reed warbler）和灰绿金刚鹦鹉（glaucous macaw）等等，其中有些鸟类在野外的栖息地已经没有了，有些连人工养殖的个体都没留下……

A few other bird species that are near extinction have such exotic names as the New Caledonian Lorikeet and the Pernambuco Pygmy-owl.

新岛吸蜜鹦鹉和伯南布哥鸺鹠等几种鸟类也濒临灭绝，它们的名称也很独特。

Beyond birds, other animals such as the vaquita and the northern white rhino are near the end.

除了鸟类之外，其他动物，如小头鼠海豚和北方白犀牛也接近灭绝。

"Vaquitas are the most endangered of the world’s marine mammals," the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said. "Less than 30 vaquitas remain in the wild."

美国国家海洋和大气管理局说：“小头鼠海豚是世界上最濒危的海洋哺乳动物。目前野外还存活的不足30只。”

The last male northern white rhino died at a wildlife sanctuary in Kenya last March, Mashable reported. Only two females are left.

据Mashable网站报道，去年3月份，最后一只雄性北方白犀牛在肯尼亚一个野生动物保护区死去，现在只剩下两只雌性白犀牛。

sanctuary['sæŋ(k)tjʊərɪ]：n. 避难所

In the USA, only 40 endangered red wolves remain in the wild, and the population could go extinct within eight years, according to a report released last year by the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

美国鱼类与野生动物局去年公布的数据显示，在美国，濒危的野生红狼仅存40只，或将在8年内灭绝。

Earth "is now in the midst of its sixth mass extinction of plants and animals – the sixth wave of extinctions in the past half-billion years," according to the Center for Biological Diversity.

根据美国生物多样性中心的说法，地球“现在处于过去5亿年中的第6次动植物大灭绝时期”。

The group said, "We're currently experiencing the worst spate of species die-offs since the loss of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.

该组织认为，“自6500万年前恐龙灭绝以来，我们正经历着最严重的物种大灭绝。”

"Although extinction is a natural phenomenon, it occurs at a natural 'background' rate of about one to five species per year. Scientists estimate we're now losing species at 1,000 to 10,000 times the background rate."

“虽然物种灭绝是一种自然现象，但自然的‘背景灭绝率’约为每年1到5个物种。科学家们估计，目前的物种灭绝速度是‘背景灭绝率’的1000到1万倍。”

In the past 500 years, the center estimates that about 1,000 species have gone extinct, from the woodland bison of West Virginia and Arizona's Merriam's elk to the Rocky Mountain grasshopper, passenger pigeon and Puerto Rico's Culebra parrot.

该中心估计，在过去500年中，已有大约1000种物种灭绝，例如美国西弗吉尼亚州的林地野牛、亚利桑那州的梅里安麋鹿、落基山蚱蜢、旅鸽、和波多黎各的库莱布拉岛鹦鹉等等。

2018年，东部美洲狮也被正式宣布灭绝，距离最后一只东部美洲狮在缅因州被杀死可能已经过去了80年。

我们不仅在抹去一些世界上最新被发现的物种——比如苏门答腊猩猩（apanuli orangutan），于2017年被发现，由于人类工业的发展，它们已经濒临灭绝。我们同时也在杀死那些古老的物种：中国大鲵（Chinese giant salamanders）是一个“活化石”物种，它们的祖先曾与剑龙和梁龙一起在地球上生存，尽管它们存活了2.5亿多年，如今也正处于灭绝的边缘，世界上许多最独特的鲨鱼和鳐类也同样如此。

同样是2018年，我们熟悉的长颈鹿的一个亚种首次被列为了极度濒危物种；几乎所有狐猴都难逃厄运；昆虫类同样不容乐观，在美国，我们已经失去了97%的西方帝王斑蝶，南美洲的爬行动物种类也在迅速减少。

不过，2018年也并非是完全令人绝望的，在这一年里，山地大猩猩从极度濒危状态中获救；野生黑犀牛50年来首次回到乍得；可爱的圣昆廷袋鼠鼠（San Quintin kangaroo rat）经过30年的假定灭绝后，被发现仍然存活，而且活得很好；罕见的墨西哥蝾螈（Lake Pátzcuaro salamande）因为墨西哥修女的命令而幸免于难。

来源：今日美国报、参考消息网、天使光芒网易号、中国科普网百家号

翻译&编辑：yaning