無人機捕獲了有史以來比較大的海龜群

無人機捕獲了有史以來最大的海龜群

Given that we are currently experiencing a global extinction crisis, the occasion to witness a large congregation of an endangered species is a rare and special opportunity indeed.

鑒于我們目前正經(jīng)歷一場全球滅絕危機，有機會目睹一大批瀕臨滅絕的物種確實是一個罕見和特殊的機會。

So you can imagine how privileged biologist Vanessa Bézy must have felt when she flew her drone over the Costa Rican coastline to capture what might just be the largest swarm of sea turtles ever filmed, reports National Geographic.

據(jù)《國家地理》報道，當生物學家凡妮莎·貝齊駕駛無人機飛越哥斯達黎加海岸線，捕捉可能是有史以來最大的海龜群時，你可以想象她有多幸運。

BRYAN NELSON

The photo, shown in the above, depicts thousands of olive ridley sea turtles swimming across an area just off Ostional National Wildlife Refuge. It's estimated that there is roughly one turtle for every square meter in the footage. The congregation is so dense that you could almost imagine hopping over the sea by leaping from shell to shell.

在上面的圖片中，成千上萬的橄欖綠海龜在國家野生動物保護區(qū)附近游泳。據(jù)估計，每平方米大概有一只烏龜。聚集的龜群如此密集，你幾乎可以想象從一個殼跳到另一個殼的情景。

In fact, the number of turtles in the photo might only be the tip of the iceberg. You can visibly see new turtles rising from the depths as the drone ascends, so there might be many more turtles hidden from view below the surface.

事實上，圖片中海龜?shù)臄?shù)量可能只是冰山一角。隨著無人機的上升，你可以清楚地看到新的海龜從海底升起，所以可能會有更多的海龜隱藏在水下。

“I immediately knew there was something special going on,” said Bézy, to National Geographic. “To this day I’m still blown away by that. They look like bumper cars out there.”

“我立刻意識到有些特別的事情正在發(fā)生，”貝茲在接受《國家地理》雜志采訪時表示。“直到今天，我仍然被該現(xiàn)象所震撼。它們看起來就像碰碰車。”

Swarms of turtles aren't unusual at Ostional; the refuge was established in 1983 as a protected area specifically for the turtles. But swarms this dense have never been seen before from this vantage point, and they may never be seen again given that this is a vulnerable species.

成群的海龜在嗅覺上并不罕見;該保護區(qū)成立于1983年，是專門為海龜設立的保護區(qū)。但是，從這個有利位置上，從未見過如此密集的蜂群，鑒于這是一個脆弱的物種，它們可能永遠不會再被看到。

Bézy studies these sea turtles, and says she recently released this photo to raise awareness about what we stand to lose if this species is not protected. Though these turtles are widespread, they have very few nesting sites around the world, and so when these nesting sites become compromised it threatens whole populations at once. For instance, Bézy has become increasingly concerned about a rising tourism industry around the beaches where this population nests.

Bezy研究這些海龜，她說她最近發(fā)布了這張照片來提高人們的意識，如果這個物種得不到保護，我們將會失去什么。雖然這些海龜分布廣泛，但它們在世界各地的筑巢地點卻很少，因此當這些筑巢地點受到威脅時，整個種群就會受到威脅。例如，Bezy越來越關注海灘周邊的旅游業(yè)的發(fā)展，因為這里是海豚的棲息地。

New regulations have been proposed to protect these critical beaches, but as developers encroach and access becomes easier, the regulations may not be enough. Part of the problem is that olive ridley sea turtle hatchlings have a very low survival rate into adulthood. Only about 1 out of 100 reach maturity, and that's just considering natural threats. If you pile on threats from human encroachment, it's easy to see how the turtle population could crash fast, potentially in a single generation.

已經(jīng)有人提出了保護這些重要海灘的新規(guī)定，但隨著開發(fā)商的入侵和進入變得更容易，這些規(guī)定可能還不夠。部分原因是欖蠵龜?shù)某苫盥屎艿汀Ｖ挥写蠹s百分之一達到成熟，這只是考慮到自然威脅。如果你把人類入侵的威脅加在一起，很容易就能看出海龜?shù)臄?shù)量是如何迅速減少的，甚至可能在一代人的時間內(nèi)減少。

For now, as we can see in the photo, this population seems robust. Bézy hopes that her footage will help to keep it that way.

現(xiàn)在，正如我們在照片中看到的，這個群體似乎很強大。貝絲希望她的鏡頭能幫助保持這種狀態(tài)。