伦敦动物园“人口普查” 动物萌态十足（组图）

伦敦动物园迎来一场“人口普查”，工作人员给动物园里的所有动物测量身高和体重，测量数据将与全球动物园分享，以便比较数千种濒危动物的数据。来看看这些萌态十足的动物们吧。

这是在英国伦敦动物园拍摄的“身高尺”前的一只亚洲狮（8月24日摄）。新华社发（伦敦动物园供图）

How do you get an emperor scorpion to hop up onto a scale to peer at its weight?
你如何让一只帝王蝎跳上磅称称体重？

Or get a yawning Asiatic lioness to stand still for a minute so that you can take her measurements?
如何让一只打哈欠的亚洲雌狮子站着不动，保持一分钟，让你测量它的体重和尺寸？

At the London Zoo, they do it very carefully — with patience, scales and bribes.
伦敦动物园饲养员非常仔细地进行测量工作，他们满怀耐心，用食物“贿赂”动物，用磅秤给动物们称重。

Mark Habben, head of zoological management at the Zoological Society of London, said in a phone interview Friday that 70 keepers had begun just such an undertaking the day before: the zoo’s annual weigh-in.
伦敦动物学会动物管理的负责人马克•哈本在8月25日的电话采访中说，70名饲养员已于8月24日开始进行伦敦动物园一年一度的动物称重工作。

Armed with giant rulers, big (and little) scales, along with the animals’ favorite food, they are measuring, weighing and counting most of the 750 species in care of the zoo.
饲养员拿着大尺子、大型（或小型）磅秤以及动物们最爱的食物，正在为园中照管的750种动物中的大多数进行身高体长的测量、称重并盘点数量。

8月24日，在英国伦敦动物园，工作人员为一只松鼠猴称重。新华社发（伦敦动物园供图）

Because the zoo has about 20,000 animals, he said, “this will go on for the next couple of weeks.”
他说，因为园中有大约20000只动物，“所以接下来几周都将进行这项工作。”

The keepers are taking the vital statistics of the smallest primates (the pygmy marmosets), the towering creatures (the giraffes) and the many animals in between: gorillas, squirrel monkeys, penguins and ants, to name a few.
饲养员正在对最小的灵长目动物（侏儒狨猴）、高大的动物（长颈鹿）以及诸如大猩猩、松鼠猴、企鹅、蚂蚁等尺寸适中的动物进行生命统计。

The goal of all this weighing and measuring and counting is not only to gauge their health and well-being — it’s also to make sure “we care for our animals by feeding them the correct food,” the society says on its website.
对动物进行称重、测量和清点数目不仅仅是为了评估它们的健康状况，也是为了确保“我们照管动物时，给他们喂食了正确的食物”，伦敦动物学会官网如是说。

With such valuable information, one may learn at another zoo, for instance, that a corn snake named Sausage can eat one mouse every 10 days. That’s the same amount that Ebeneezer, a royal python, swallows — except every 21 days. Frodo and Freda, White’s Tree frogs? Twenty crickets every three days.
有了这些有用的信息，动物园就能够相互学习了解动物的食量，比如说，一只叫“香肠”的玉米蛇每十天能吃掉一只老鼠；一只名埃比尼泽的皇蟒可能每21天吃一只老鼠；白点树蛙弗罗多和弗雷达每3天吃掉20只蟋蟀。

The annual weigh-in at the London Zoo also lets the keepers figure out if any of the animals are pregnant, Habben said.
哈本说，伦敦动物园每年给动物称重也让饲养员弄清楚是否有动物怀孕。

The information collected will be entered into a database, the Zoological Information Management System, and shared with zoos around the world, to compare important data on endangered species.
收集的数据将录入动物数据管理系统，并与世界各地的动物园共享，以此对比濒危物种的重要信息。

8月24日，在英国伦敦动物园，一只树蛙在秤上称重。新华社发（伦敦动物园供图）

The lightest creature weighed at the London Zoo so far is the leaf cutter ant, whose weight is measured in micrograms, Habben said.
哈本说，迄今为止，切叶蚁是伦敦动物园称过的最轻的生物，其体重以微克度量。

That insect came in at 5 micrograms on average.
切叶蚁的平均体重约为5微克。

The giraffe was the heaviest to weigh, he said. For that, the zoo uses a “specially built” scale.
哈本称，长颈鹿是伦敦动物园称过的最重的动物，为了给长颈鹿称重，动物园还特制了一个秤。

In the case of a giraffe named Elisa, whose true weight is no one’s business but her own, it can be revealed only that she weighs between 800 to 850 kilograms.
对于一只叫艾丽莎的长颈鹿来说，它的真实体重是自己的事，与其他人无关，所以可以只用记做：体重约为800-850千克。

The zoo periodically takes the measure of some animals on a monthly basis, but the annual weigh-in is more expansive. For strategic reasons, the keepers begin at a set point, often at feeding time.
动物园每个月都会定期测量一些动物的体重，但是每年进行的测量则更为全面。出于策略考虑，饲养员通常会在喂食时间等固定时间开始测量。

8月24日，在英国伦敦动物园，一只洪堡企鹅在秤上称重。新华社发（伦敦动物园供图）

According to the society, which works on the worldwide conservation of animals and their habitats:
伦敦动物学会致力于全球动物及动物栖息地保护，该协会称：

“A range of techniques are used, from training the sea lions to hold their flippers up to be measured, to tempting the brightly feathered macaw and the scaly python onto the weigh board with some of their favorite treats.”
“我们会使用许多技巧，比如训练海狮测量时举起脚蹼，而对于羽毛色彩鲜艳的金刚鹦鹉和多鳞的巨蟒，可以用它们最喜欢的食物将它们引诱到称重板上。”

In this weigh-in, Habben said, the zoo is prioritizing newborns. The penguins, for instance, “had quite a productive breeding season this year,” he said.
哈本说，这次工作优先对新生动物进行测量。比如企鹅，“今年繁殖期就相当多产。”

They’re also homing in on some important species. “We try to go at the key species to correlate dietary changes, growth,” he said.
他们也会重点测量一些重要的物种。哈本说：“我们试图测量一些重要物种的生命体征，以此找到它们的饮食变化和生长之间的关系。”

8月24日，在英国伦敦动物园，一只龟在秤上称重。新华社发（伦敦动物园供图）

So far, a penguin named Heathcliff came in at 4.25 kilograms; and the Pygmy goats, Bramble, Polly and Ellie, tipped the scales at 21.5 kg, 19.7 kg and 15.8 kg.
迄今为止，已测得一只叫西斯克里夫的企鹅体重为4.25千克；侏儒山羊布兰布尔、波利和埃莉的体重分别为21.5千克，19.7千克和15.8千克。

You would think that, given its height and weight, the giraffe would be the hardest animal to weigh. But you would be wrong.
你会认为，因为长颈鹿太高太重，所以要对其进行测量最为困难。但是你错了。

Yes, it does need “an extremely large set of scales,” and must be maneuvered onto platforms, Habben said.
哈本说，是的，给长颈鹿称重是需要非常非常大的秤，而且必须在平地上进行。

But when it comes down to which animal is the trickiest to weigh, he said, laughing, “the fish are pretty difficult, as you can imagine.”
但是谈到最难称重的动物，哈本笑着说，“你可以想象，鱼是最难称重的。”

So the zoo just doesn’t bother: “We just measure and count them.”
所以伦敦动物园也不自寻烦恼，“我们只测量身长，清点数量。”

8月24日，在英国伦敦动物园，一只大猩猩观察“身高尺”。新华社发（伦敦动物园供图）

Then there are the aptly named squirrel monkeys. For one thing, they are spread across 16 large enclosures. And some have had babies: two to be precise.
名字取得很巧妙的松鼠猴位列鱼类之后。一则，它们分散在16个大的围栏中，而且一些还怀孕了，准确说是两只。

And for another, they live up to their names.
其二，它们没有辜负它们的名字，很好动。

“You’ll have eight or nine of them trying to jump on the scales,” he said. “They’re more interested in playing. They’re pretty cheeky.”
哈本说，“可能会有八九个松鼠猴同时跳到秤上，它们更想玩儿，非常放肆。”

The weigh-ins are taking place during visiting hours, he said. And Friday was an especially good day to be at the London Zoo. It was an opportunity for visitors to gawk — but pretend that everything was oh so normal.
哈本说，称重的工作会在动物园开园期间进行。周五是去伦敦动物园的好时机，参观者有机会看热闹，但是他们最好假装一切如常。

There’s a goat — stepping on a scale.
一只山羊走到了秤上。

And that gorilla? It’s sidling up to a giant measuring board.
大猩猩呢？它正悄悄走近一个巨大的称重台。

Nothing to see here. Nothing much at all.
没什么好看的！没什么大不了的！

英文来源：bendbulletin.com
翻译：徐璠（中国日报网爱新闻iNews译者）
编审：yaning