时间:2018-12-05 作者:英语课 分类:国家地理2007年


英语课
When male Antarctic fur seals head to the beach each spring, it's no vacation. They are basically gonna be here for a month, holding their territory not eating, not sleeping, and just hoping they get some females in.

95% of the Antarctic fur seal population breeds on the beaches of South Georgia Island. Aggressive males get here first, it's often a fight for the best breeding spot and the biggest heroines.

It's all hormonal 1. Everything's about hormones 2 on the beach. This is definitely a muscle beach. The males are so territorial 3, so aggressive, Naturalist 4 Conrad Field and I will have to be ready to defend ourselves when we go in for a closer look.
We have the sticks, something that's not, not to harm them, but simply to hold them off if they charge. They're, they're nasty potentially.
Yeah, they're, they're quick as lightening, very, very powerful. These males are weighing 400, 450 pounds. And they can throw a hundred pounds over their shoulder on the run. So they aren't really to be feared but to be respected. And the sticks primarily are just to extend our range out, like this.

You can't blame these guys for being hostile, there's a lot at stake.
All about real estate and passing new genetic 5 line on. And now the females are coming in, and they will go to the best places on the beach to have their pups, so the males who have the best real estates, they get the most females.
So it's the old location, location, location thing?
Exactly.

These guys stuck in the middle of a river have their work cut out for them.
We are definitely in a low-rent district here. These guys have lost, but they are still holding the territory with hopes that the females will come in.

She's trying to find the best way, the best real estate possibly. See how big she is? She's a pregnant one, and she's coming down, and these males, if she gets within area, their territory, they will try to herd 6 her and keep her in there.
Look at them.
Look at them go. Try to get her. Now he's taking a big chance because he's leaving the harem open. So he's just got her in?
Yep, he's just got another female.

Females give birth to their pups and then mate again 6 to 8 days later.
Pup is only a couple of days old, still has a staggering head, about 3 to 4 days.

Life on the beach isn't easy for newborn pups. We watch as a mother fights off skuas and a giant petrel looking for a meal. Pups face other dangers. Aggressive males that can easily crush them seemingly unconcerned about whom they are running over.
You see what happens, the female moves and the male tries to keep her from going anywhere. He's no connection to the pup, and she's trying to get to her pup.
Now this one I don't want to walk towards. Yeah. I don't blame ya.

For Antarctic fur seals, life begins, and sometimes ends on the beach.
And if anybody ever wanted a lesson in, in elementary evolution and biology, this is it, isn't it?
Yeah, the strongest definitely survive in this situation. But to come out and see all this, and all the behaviors, absolutely amazing.


at stake: At risk to be won or lost 危险
harem: A group of women sexual partners for one man. 【动】[集合词](与一只雄动物配偶和聚居的)一群雌动物
skua: 【动】贼鸥




1 hormonal
adj.激素的
  • Some viral diseases are more severe during pregnancy, probably tecause of hormonal changes. 有些病毒病在妊娠期间比较严重,可能是由于激素变化引起的。
  • She underwent surgical intervention and a subsequent short period of hormonal therapy. 他接受外科手术及随后短暂荷尔蒙治疗。
2 hormones
adj.领土的,领地的
  • The country is fighting to preserve its territorial integrity.该国在为保持领土的完整而进行斗争。
  • They were not allowed to fish in our territorial waters.不允许他们在我国领海捕鱼。
3 naturalist
n.博物学家(尤指直接观察动植物者)
  • He was a printer by trade and naturalist by avocation.他从事印刷业,同时是个博物学爱好者。
  • The naturalist told us many stories about birds.博物学家给我们讲述了许多有关鸟儿的故事。
4 genetic
adj.遗传的,遗传学的
  • It's very difficult to treat genetic diseases.遗传性疾病治疗起来很困难。
  • Each daughter cell can receive a full complement of the genetic information.每个子细胞可以收到遗传信息的一个完全补偿物。
5 herd
n.兽群,牧群;vt.使集中,把…赶在一起
  • She drove the herd of cattle through the wilderness.她赶着牛群穿过荒野。
  • He had no opinions of his own but simply follow the herd.他从无主见,只是人云亦云。
学英语单词
adega
aegina i.
an extra pair of hands
astigmometer
automatic fog signal
backway
bangar fibre
before one's nose
Belgian Malinois
beslubbering
blunt-end
calcium plumbate
charter a vessel
Chiloscyphus
Coblenzian stage
Cochin-China
Commonwealth Secretariat
conjunctival glands
convertite
decocked
diacyl-glycerol
diesel gas purification
direct screening
disporum lanuginosum nichols
earth arrestor
Eastern hop hornbeam
egeria densas
einsteinium trichloride
Ejby
elementary direction characteristics
fibrous astrocytes
flatly cambered hammer
fuel oil pressure pipe
gastrodia uraiensis
gaussian describing function
give an example to
gliding bacterial alcer disease
habenula
handlamps
higher high water
hypergamic
indusia
jointly moment
joyel
laminato-carinate
libba
linear servo-mechanism
linear- triangular element
lip line
liquid-suspension reactor
lothoes
luminous night clouds
macmaster
mail house
masonry beam
micro stilb
multilobulated
nictitating fold
O Dia
operating bank
osteodystropyy
Park Falls
peak-to peak
pelagic animalcule
permanent resident foreground
pole blight
quarterboys
reconnaissance strategic missile
red fuming nitric acid
reference line for frame
regna
rocinante
secondary color
shearing force diagram
soluseptasine
southern tais
stem smut of wheat
stimulus vector
superexcited
suzerainty
Takehu
tazorac
thermolizing
tilghmen
Titonka
traversellite
U. C. B.
ultra-rapid cinematograph
uranium-234
vasicentric type
venae circumflexae feemoris mediales
voluntary indictment
WAN - wide area network
water retention capacity
wavepoint
wayangs
weathertight superstructure
wee wee
whirtwind
with chemicals
wolgast
wooden pin