首页
登录
职称英语
The Trees Have EyesA An elaborate combination of
The Trees Have EyesA An elaborate combination of
游客
2024-01-09
1
管理
问题
The Trees Have Eyes
A An elaborate combination of technologies is being deployed to try to curb the illegal hunting of endangered species. Nouabal6-Ndoki national park, in the Republic of Congo, is 4,200 square kilometres of virgin tropical forest that is as densely populated with elephants and great apes as it is sparsely populated with rangers. There are 14 of them, and they have failed to nab a single poacher for more than a year. That is not for lack of illegal hunting in the park. Demand for ivory is up, driven largely by consumers in Japan and an increasingly wealthy China. The value of meat from elephants, apes and other animals has also risen as loggers and miners move deeper into the country’s forests. Nor is this a problem confined to Congo. Last year poachers are estimated to have killed more than 23,000 African elephants. According to a study by the University of Washington, that is about one in 17 of the continent’s total.
B Nouabal6-Ndoki’s hard-pressed rangers are, however, about to get some high-tech help in the form of TrailGuard, a system of small and easily hidden electronic detection and communication devices. They will soon begin burying radio-transmitting metal detectors alongside elephant trails leading into the park. Authorised hikers through the park will be given transponders that tell the detectors who they are, as with the "identification friend-or-foe" systems on military aircraft. But when poachers carrying rifles or machetes traipse by a detector, it will send a radio signal to a treetop antenna. Seconds later the rangers will receive the intruder’s co-ordinates on their satellite phones. They will then be able to respond precisely, rather than slogging around on fruitless and demoralising patrols on the off-chance of catching a poacher up to no good.
C TrailGuard is the brainchild of Steve Gulick, an electrical engineer turned biologist who recently left the State University of New York (SUNY) to set up a not-for-profit organisation called Wildland Security, to promote his idea. Besides catching more (or, indeed, any) poachers, he hopes his invention will also prove to be an example of an idea from another one-time electrical engineer, Arthur C. Clarke. Clarke’s Third Law, as it is known to fans of his sciencefiction writing, is that "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic". Many people in Congo do believe in magic and Mr Gulick does not propose to disabuse them of the notion. Local people will receive no explanation for the rangers’ new powers. That, Mr Gulick hopes, will discourage potential poachers from turning thought into deed.
D Nor are metal detectors the only magic to be deployed. Small fire detectors hidden in trees should add to the anti-poaching unit’s reputation for clairvoyance. Poachers frequently smoke meat from their kills to preserve it during transport to market. Like the metal detectors, the fire detectors will alert the rangers by satellite phone, allowing them to swoop as from nowhere. Congo is not the only country about to apply technology to conservation. In Costa Rica’s Osa reserve two wildlife-preservation groups are testing similar metal-detector and satellite technology intended to curb the poaching of exotic birds (sold to pet stores) and jaguars (killed for their fur, or because they eat livestock). The project is expected to work well because, as in the Congo, lush vegetation makes it difficult to avoid trails, where most surveillance equipment can be set up.
E Whether such equipment will work outside forests has yet to be tested, but there are reasons to hope it might. In savannahs, for example, traffic moves toward or away from watering holes—and brush, sand and slopes keep most vehicles on tracks. The Galapagos Islands, a prime target for unlicensed hunting, has few practicable landing spots for boats and passages through the volcanic-rock landscape. Given that animals have established breeding grounds, this dictates poachers’ movements, says James Gibbs, who works at SUNY’s environmental-science department. He is testing a metal-detector-and-satellite system at a place on Isabela, the largest of the islands, where giant tortoises gather. At the moment, the animals are often killed by poachers for their meat, their shells and a fatty gel that can be clarified into a tasty cooking oil. If Dr Gibbs has his way, this will soon stop.
F Yet another place where anti-poaching sensors will soon be deployed is the Shavla Wildlife Refuge in Russia’s Altai Republic. This is one of the few remaining strongholds of the snow leopard. Shavla’s anti-poaching brigades vie with those of Nouabal6-Ndoki in the difficulty of their task. Though they have a mere 2,500 square kilometres to patrol (as opposed to 4,200), they have only 12 men and the land is mountainous. Snow leopard skins sell for up to $3,000 in China, "where they are used as a nice rug," says Misha Paltsyn, a local conservationist and the head of Arkhar, a nature-conservation organisation based in Altai’s capital, Gorno-AI-taisk. In the autumn Arkhar will begin hiding heat detectors with satellite links in the refuge’s unattended cabins. As with Nouabal6-Ndoki, authorised visitors will be given transponders. Unauthorised ones will get an unexpected visit shortly after they fire up the stove. [br] *
选项
答案
A
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://tihaiku.com/zcyy/3347162.html
相关试题推荐
BANAL:A、elaborateB、dutifulC、tendentiousD、simplifiedE、arrestingE
Whilechemiststrytoassemblemoleculesusingacombinationoftheor
INCREDIBLE:BELIEVE::A、elaborate:embellishB、pompous:impressC、indubitable:
BANAL:A、elaborateB、dutifulC、tendentiousD、simplifiedE、arrestingE
Bodylanguageinvolvesacombinationofmultiplefacial(i)______andvariousp
Bodylanguageinvolvesacombinationofmultiplefacial(i)______andvariousphy
Someinteractivecomputergamesaresoelaboratelycontrivedandrequiresuch(i
AlthoughA.S.Byatt’sstoriesareelaborateandsometimescontainsupernaturale
TheTreesHaveEyesAAnelaboratecombinationof
TheTreesHaveEyesAAnelaboratecombinationof
随机试题
网上冲浪tosurfontheInternet
Forthispart,youareallowed30minutestowriteashortessayentitledTextM
DSA需要对两次采集的图像进行数字图像处理中的A.图像相加 B.图像积分 C
(2018年真题)()是资产公司的核心业务。A.中间业务 B.投资业务 C
当股票的市场价格高于买入价格时,股票持有者卖出股票就可以赚取差价收益,这种差价收
A.白色B.红色C.樱红色D.橙黄色E.绿黑色石膏的条痕是()。
共用题干 一般资料:求助者,女性,28岁,公司职员。案例介绍:求助者是独生女,
会计软件应当提供不可逆的记账功能,确保对同类已记账凭证的连续编号,不得提供对已记
关于常模的叙述错误的是A.是测验取样的平均值 B.测验中所得原始分数需与该测验
关于单纯性肥胖的病因的描述不正确的是A.营养摄入过多 B.活动量过少 C.遗
最新回复
(
0
)