“遥控牛” 保护沙丘生态平衡

These Lincoln Red cattle are highly efficient grazers – devouring¹ grasses, shrubs² and bushes with unrivalled enthusiasm.

林肯红牛是高效的食草动物，它们吃青草、灌木和灌木丛的热情无与伦比。

 

The collars they are wearing allow for the remote control of where they graze.

牛脖子上戴的项圈使人们能够远程控制它们吃草的范围。

 

Owen Beaumont, Natural England

On the map here, we've got a satellite map and we can see the pasture that we've drawn³ on, so that...

欧文·博蒙特       英格兰自然署（Natural England）

“在这张卫星地图上，我们可以看到标记出来的牧草地……”

 

And, like so many things nowadays, there's an app to help with the job.

就像如今的许多事情一样，有一个应用程序能帮助人们放牧。

 

Owen Beaumont, Natural England

When they get to the boundary, they get this audible warning – so they kind of know to walk back into the main herd⁴. If they do carry on through those audible warnings, they'll get a really small pulse – just a fraction of what an electric fence would be.

欧文·博蒙特       英格兰自然署（Natural England）

“当牛走近标记区域的边界时，会听到一个提示音，这样它们就知道要回到主要的牛群中。假如听到提示音之后，它们还是继续往外走，就会感受到一下很轻的电击，强度比电围栏的电击小得多。”

 

This nature reserve is dominated by its dunes⁵ – the flower and insect life here is unique but it's also under threat. The cattle have a key role to play in removing unwanted vegetation.

这片自然保护区内沙丘遍地，这里的花卉昆虫非常独特，但也面临威胁。这些牛群对于清除过盛的植被至关重要。

 

These dunes need to be grazed if they are to survive. And, of course, conservationists could just put fences everywhere to direct the cattle. But that doesn't give them the precision and control of a GPS collar.

如果这些沙丘要继续存在下去，上面的植被就必须被啃食。当然，保育人士其实只要在各处竖起围栏，引导牛群就好。但该方法并没有全球定位系统（GPS）项圈那样的精度和控制力。

 

And what about those who will have concerns about using this electric pulse on cattle?

但是有些人会对在牛身上使用电击感到担忧，怎么办？

 

Owen Beaumont, Natural England

Cattle have been checked out by vets⁷, so we had a vet⁶ there when we fitted the collars, and they've been studied elsewhere as well, and found to have no impact really on the cows.

欧文·博蒙特       英格兰自然署（Natural England）

“牛群已经被兽医检查过了，安装项圈的时候，有一位兽医在场，此外还有其它的研究表明，这种方法对牛并没什么影响。”

 

The technology is on trial here – a first for a UK nature reserve – and if successful, we'll be seeing many more ‘remote control cattle' playing a key role in conservation.

该技术正在这里试行，这是英国自然保护区的首次试验，如果成功，我们将看到更多的 “遥控牛” 在保护生态环境方面发挥关键作用。

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