在潛逃七年之后，刺羊成了“社會疏遠的標志”

在潛逃七年之后，刺羊成了“社會疏遠的標志”

Stuck in self-isolation thanks to the lockdown one-third of humanity is currently under, Alice Gray and her family weren’t expecting any guests when they held a barbecue for her son’s birthday earlier this month. But to their surprise, a “great big fluffy ball of wool” decided to join them. However, this rotund sheep was no stranger – it was in fact one of many that fled from Gray’s farm in Dunalley, Tasmania, during a bushfire disaster in 2013. Seven years later, “Prickles” (as Gray’s son named the sheep), has returned, with a majestic self-isolation hairstyle to boot.

由于目前三分之一的人類被封鎖，愛麗絲·格雷(Alice Gray)和她的家人在這個月初為她兒子的生日舉辦燒烤派對時，并沒有期待任何客人的到來。但令他們驚訝的是，一個“巨大的毛絨球”決定加入他們。然而，這只圓胖的羊并不陌生——事實上，它是2013年塔斯馬尼亞州杜納利格雷農(nóng)場發(fā)生森林火災時逃出來的眾多羊中的一只。七年后，“仙人兒”(格雷的兒子給它取了個名字叫“羊”)又回來了，留著一種莊嚴的自我隔離的發(fā)型。

Katy Pallister

When blazes raged through 20,000 hectares (49,000 acres) of land across the state of Tasmania, the Gray’s family farm was burnt to the ground. One huge task undertaken in the aftermath of this tragedy was the repair of 47 kilometers of fencing. As Gray told ABC Radio Hobart, they believe Prickles ended up on the wrong side of the new fence: "It was during that time that she got trapped at the back of the farm, and once the new fences went back in she couldn't get back to the rest of the sheep.”

當大火肆虐塔斯馬尼亞州2萬公頃(4.9萬英畝)土地時，格雷家的農(nóng)場被夷為平地。這場悲劇之后的一項重大任務是修復47公里長的圍欄?；疑嬖VABC電臺霍巴特,他們相信最終刺在錯誤的一邊的新柵欄:“在這段時間里,她被困在農(nóng)場,一旦新柵欄回去她不能回到剩下的羊。”

Prickles is a bare-faced Merino, which helped her survive in the absence of seven years of haircuts. Alice Bennett

Separated from the flock, this “fleecy fugitive” spent the next few years of her life roaming the 200-acre bush block she now called home. Without an annual haircut, Prickles developed quite the coat. However, as she is a bare-faced Merino the wool never grew onto her face, enabling her to avoid “wool-blindness”.

與羊群分開后，這個“毛絨絨的逃亡者”在接下來的幾年里，在她現(xiàn)在稱為家的200英畝的叢林街區(qū)里游蕩。沒有了每年一次的理發(fā)，皮刺就長得很厚了。然而，由于她是一個裸露的美利奴羊毛從來沒有長在她的臉上，使她避免了“羊毛盲”。

Before she made a guest appearance at the Gray’s family BBQ, Prickles had been spotted in night vision camera footage, originally meant to capture wild deer. So when the family saw a “great white fluffy thing” at the back of their farm, Gray recalled to CBC Radio that she thought, “Oh my God, I think that is that crazy sheep we saw in the video.”

在她出現(xiàn)在格雷家的燒烤野餐之前，用夜視攝像機拍攝到皮刺，這原本是為了捕捉野鹿。所以，當這家人在他們的農(nóng)場后面看到一只“巨大的白色毛茸茸的東西”時，格雷向CBC電臺回憶說，她當時想，“哦，我的天哪，我想那就是我們在視頻中看到的那只瘋狂的羊。”

What ensued was a wild sheep chase by Gray’s husband, before the five adults wrestled Prickles into the back of their truck. “She's quite a sight to behold and she's quite glorious,” Gray explained to CBC Radio. “But luckily, she was very healthy under all of that, and very nimble for such extreme proportions.”

接下來是格雷的丈夫在追野羊，五個成年人把皮刺塞進他們的卡車后。格雷在接受加拿大廣播公司電臺采訪時表示:“她很有看頭，也很有魅力。不過幸運的是，她在所有這些條件下都很健康，身體也很靈活。”

Prickles gained her name after the family realized she had quite a few prickles in her fleece. Alice Bennett

Back on the farm, Prickles has settled in and seems to be enjoying time in the “retirement paddock.” Luckily for her, it won’t be long before she can blend back in with the flock, as her fleece is due to be sheared off on May 1. But the Gray family, inspired by Prickles’ ability to “socially distance” for seven years, decided to mark this moment by launching a fundraiser to raise money for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, helping those unable to self-isolate during the current crisis.

回到農(nóng)場，皮納斯已經(jīng)安頓下來，似乎正在“退休圍場”里享受時光。幸運的是，她很快就能重新融入羊群，因為她的羊毛在5月1日就要被剪掉了。然而，格雷一家受到皮斯托斯七年來“社會距離”能力的啟發(fā)，決定發(fā)起一項籌款活動，為聯(lián)合國難民事務高級專員公署籌集資金，幫助那些在當前危機中無法自我孤立的人，以此紀念這一時刻。

When making a donation the Gray family is asking people to guess the weight of Prickles’ fleece, teasing the potential of hitting the world record of 41.1 kilograms (90.6 pounds), which also came from an escaped Merino sheep.

在進行捐贈時，格雷一家要求人們猜測皮諾斯羊毛的重量，并預測其能否打破41.1公斤(90.6磅)的世界紀錄。皮諾斯羊毛同樣來自一只逃脫的美利奴羊。

Whilst the average merino sheep gets an annual haircut, weighing in at around 5 kilograms (11 pounds), Prickles' fleece is expected to be a lot heavier. Alice Bennett

If Prickles’ story has left you wondering whether other animals have gone on the run, this flamingo escaped from a zoo and lived it up in Texas undetected for 10 years, whilst these baboons made an ingenious escape from a research center, A-Team-style.

如果皮斯托斯的故事讓你懷疑其他動物是否也逃跑了，那么這只火烈鳥從動物園里逃了出來，在德克薩斯州生活了10年而沒有被發(fā)現(xiàn)，而這些狒狒則巧妙地從一個研究中心逃脫了，就像一個團隊一樣。