What Is Species Extinction? 什么是物種滅絕？

譯/賴鵬玉 審訂/張政

What Is Species Extinction? 什么是物種滅絕？

譯/賴鵬玉 審訂/張政

With species like the Barbary lion and western black rhino featuring in the lengthy list of animals that have become extinct in the last 100 years, it is no longer plausible to turn a blind eye to the alarming rate at which extinctions are occurring of late.

[2] Extinction, in ecology, refers to the end of a specific group of organisms. Simply put, the death of the last individual of a particular species is considered the moment of extinction of that species. Over the years, the planet has witnessed the extinction of several species—right from tiny frogs to huge dinosaurs. While some of these animals fell prey to mass extinctions, others were slowly brought to the brink of extinction by humans, and eventually wiped off the planet.

隨著北非獅和西部黑犀牛等列入近100年內(nèi)滅絕動物的長長名單中，人們再也不能對近年來物種滅絕的驚人速度視而不見。

[2]生物學中的滅絕是指某個特定生物種群的消亡。簡言之，某一物種最后一個個體死亡即視為該物種的滅絕。多年來，地球上已有若干物種滅絕——從個頭微小的蛙類，到體型龐大的恐龍。其中一些是集群滅絕的犧牲品，另一些則被人類一步步推到滅絕邊緣，最后從地球上消失。

[3] It is estimated that around 99 percent of the animals to have ever existed on Earth are extinct today.Though the concept of extinction is not new for the planet, the alarming rate at which animals are disappearing over the last century or so, has left the scientists worried. At the ongoing rate, we are set to lose some of the most important species in the ecosystem, which, in turn, will result in severe ecological imbalance and bring about the downfall of all the plants and animals related to that particular species. More importantly, we need to understand that we are a part of this ecosystem and therefore, the loss of any species is bound to affect us directly or indirectly,sooner or later!

Note:It is very difficult to figure out the exact moment at which the animal became extinct, and therefore,the concerned organizations have to wait for a significant period after the last sighting to declare it extinct.Simultaneously, thorough research is carried out to ascertain whether the species has really become extinct or it still exists in the wild.

The western black rhinoceros, for instance, was declared extinct in 2011,i.e., almost a decade after the last sighting, when all attempts to find it in the wild failed. If the species is not found in the wild, but exist in captivity, it is enlisted as Extinct in the Wild (EW).

[3]據(jù)估計，地球上出現(xiàn)過的動物，約99%都已滅絕。雖然物種滅絕的概念在這顆星球上并不新鮮，但是從上個世紀前后開始，物種的驚人滅絕速度引起了科學家的擔憂。長此下去，我們注定要失去生態(tài)系統(tǒng)中某些最重要的物種，隨之生態(tài)嚴重失衡，所有與之相關的動植物種群就會滅絕。更重要的是，我們必須明白，人類也是生態(tài)系統(tǒng)的一部分，因此任何物種的滅絕都將直接或間接影響到我們，只不過是早晚的事情！

提示：查明某動物滅絕的具體時間點極為困難，所以相關組織在最后一次發(fā)現(xiàn)該動物后，須等待很長時間才能宣布其滅絕。在此期間，要進行全面調(diào)查，確定該物種是否真正滅絕或仍在野外存活。

例如，西部黑犀牛于2011年宣告滅絕，距最后一次發(fā)現(xiàn)已近10年，所有的野外搜尋毫無結果。如果某一物種在野外絕跡，但仍有人工圈養(yǎng)，則列為野外滅絕。

（譯者單位：北京師范大學）