Tigers
虎
What immortal hand or eye?
拿什么造就你？ （陈继龙 编译）
Feb 22nd 2007 | BEIJING
From The Economist print edition
The controversial ancestry of the South China tiger
华南虎血统饱受争议
（1）FEW peoples are as proud of their uniqueness as are the Chinese. Many feel the same way about one of their national emblems: the South China tiger. So two Americans who have questioned its pediGREe have created quite a stir.
很少有民族像中国人那样为自己独有的血统倍感自豪。对于他们的民族象征之一——华南虎，许多中国人也是抱此态度。因此，两位美国人对华南虎血统的质疑自然就引起了轩然大波。
In 2004 Stephen O'Brien, head of genetics at the National Cancer Institute in Maryland, published the results of a 20-year study into the species. His findings concluded that of the five beasts he sampled, labelled in the Chinese zoos where they were kept as South China tigers, only two were of “unique lineage”. Three were no different genetically from the Indochinese tiger, a separate sub-species endemic to Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, Thailand and Laos.
2004年，马里兰州国家癌症研究所遗传中心主任史蒂芬•奥布莱恩（Stephen O’Brien）发表了一项历时20年的物种研究成果。研究发现，他从中国动物园采样的5只名为“华南虎”的老虎中，仅有2只属“纯种华南虎谱系”，其余三只在遗传学上与印支虎（Indochinese tiger）毫无二致，而印支虎是主要分布在越南、缅甸、柬埔寨、泰国和老挝等地区的特有亚种。
His study has GREat bearing on the animal's future. Hunted to the brink of extinction during Mao Zedong's “anti-pest” campaigns, the South China tiger is the rarest of five tiger sub-species, and there have been no confirmed sightings in the wild for more than 30 years. Many experts think the 68 now kept in Chinese zoos and research centres are the only ones left. （2）These survivors are all the progeny[1] of just two males and four females, and display the lowered fertility and above-average infant mortality that goes with inbreeding.
他的研究对华南虎的未来而言关系重大。在过去的“除四害”运动中，华南虎广遭猎杀，濒临灭绝，现已成为老虎五个亚种中最稀有的一种，至今已有三十多年未曾有过经确证的野外目击记录。很多专家认为，中国各动物园和研究中心目前圈养的68只华南虎是仅存的华南虎。这些幸存者均由2只雄虎和4只雌虎繁衍而来，繁殖能力明显减退，并且由于近亲繁殖其幼虎死亡率也超出平均水平。
Mr O'Brien's findings are good news for Ronald Tilson, a conservationist, who advises a national programme to reintroduce the beast into the wild. He recommends setting up two massive reserves in the provinces of Hunan and Guangdong. （3）He now thinks it will be easier to find “free-ranging, healthy, reproducing tigers” to fill them, because there should be no objection to introducing Indochinese specimens into the incest-ridden breeding stock.
对于罗纳德•提尔森（Ronald Tilson）而言，奥布莱恩的发现是个好消息。提尔森是一个自然资源保护论者，他提倡在全中国范围内开展一个将华南虎放归野外的计划，并建议在湖南、广东两省建立两个大型自然保护区。现在，鉴于奥布莱恩的研究成果，理当不再会有人反对把印支虎种系引入近亲滥交的虎群，因此提尔森认为在这两个保护区内，“自由觅食、健康且繁衍不息的老虎”即将随处可见了。
Mr Tilson first made himself unpopular with his hosts in 2001. After leading officers from the State Forestry Administration (SFA) on a census of wild South China tigers, he declared that none was left. （4）Many Chinese will take no less kindly to being told the tiger is an undistinguished monGREl[2], and that miscegenation[3] is the way forward.
2001年提尔森第一次受到东道主的冷遇。他在带领中国国家林业局（State Forestry Administration，SFA）的工作人员对野生华南虎数量进行了一次调查统计之后，即断言华南虎已经从野外绝迹。要是有人说华南虎不过普通的杂种虎，而且杂交繁衍才是长远之计，那么很多中国人肯定都将无法接受。
The SFA's Wang Weisheng, for example, angrily denies that the South China tiger is extinct in the wild. He cites the example of the Père David's deer. At one time, fewer than 20 of this Chinese ungulate[4] survived—all in the grounds of an English stately[5] home. After a successful breeding programme, thousands now live in Chinese reserves.
比如，国家林业局的王维胜（音）就愤然否认野外华南虎已然灭绝。他以麋鹿为例：这类中国有蹄动物曾一度仅存不到20只，而且全部都是在英国一豪华古堡的院落中供人观赏。育种计划成功后，目前生活在中国保护区的麋鹿已达数千只。
Yet neither Mr Wang nor any other Chinese official denies that the South China tiger urgently needs new blood. （5）At a conference last November, Wang Xingjin, of Guangzhou Zoo's South China Tiger Research Programme, admitted the South China tiger was “very probably” extinct in the wild and will certainly disappear, “unless we can find a wild tiger to enter the breeding pool.”
不过王维胜及其他中国官员都不否认华南虎亟需新血统的混入。在去年11月的一次会议上，广州动物园华南虎研究项目负责人王兴金承认，野生的华南虎“很可能”已经灭绝，而且 “除非我们能找到一只野生老虎与华南虎交配繁殖”，不然华南虎这一物种也定将彻底消失。
[QUIZ]
英译汉（将划线部分英文翻译成中文）：
[NOTES](OXFORD)
1. progeny n. [pl v] (fml 文) (a) offspring 子女; 幼崽: (joc 谑) He appeared, surrounded by his numerous progeny. 他出现时, 子女前呼後拥不计其数. (b) descendants 後代; 後裔.
2. monGREl n. 1 dog of mixed breed 杂种狗. 2 any plant or animal of mixed origin 杂交的动植物: [attrib 作定语] a mongrel breed 杂种 * of mongrel stock 混种的.
3. miscegenation n. [U] mixture of races; production of offspring by two people of different (esp white and non-white) races 人种混杂; 异族（尤指白人与非白人）结合生育子女.
4. ungulate n. 有蹄动物
5. stately adj. (-ier, -iest) dignified; imposing; grand 威严的; 庄严的; 堂皇的; 宏伟的; 盛大的: a stately old woman 仪态高贵的老妇人 * with stately grace 庄重高雅地.
