中英對照讀新聞》Elusive Attenborough echidna rediscovered in Indonesia神出鬼沒的阿滕伯勒長喙針鼴再度現蹤印尼

消失60年的阿滕伯勒長喙針鼴再度現蹤。（法新社）

◎魏國金

An echidna feared extinct after disappearing for six decades has been rediscovered in a remote part of Indonesia.

一種在消失60年後，恐怕已滅絕的針鼴在印尼一個偏遠地區再度被發現。

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The Zaglossus attenboroughi, a kind of long-beaked echidna named for famed British naturalist David Attenborough, had last been seen in 1961.

阿滕伯勒長喙針鼴，一種以知名英國自然學家大衛‧阿滕柏勒命名的長喙針鼴，上一次被看見是在1961年。

Echidnas are nocturnal and shy, making them difficult to find at the best of times, and the Attenborough long-beaked echidna has never been recorded outside the extremely remote Cyclops Mountains of Indonesia’s Papua region.

針鼴是生性害羞的夜行動物，這讓牠們即使在最好的情況下也難以發現，而阿滕伯勒長喙針鼴從未在印尼巴布亞地區極為偏遠的獨眼巨人山脈之外，被紀錄過。

They are the last vestiges of an ancient animal line, explained James Kempton, a biologist from the University of Oxford. "The reason it appears so unlike other mammals is because it is a member of the monotremes － an egg-laying group that separated from the rest of the mammal tree-of-life about 200 million years ago."

牠們是古動物譜系的最後殘餘，牛津大學生物學家詹姆士‧坎普頓解釋說。「牠之所以看起來窘易於其他哺乳動物，是因為牠是單孔目動物成員：一種在2億年前與其他哺乳動物生命樹分離的卵生類群」。

新聞辭典

Elusive：難以捉摸的、神出鬼沒的。例句：The answers to these questions remain as elusive as ever.（這些問題的答案仍不得而知。）

at the best of times：即使在最好情況下。例句：My car is slow even at the best of times.（我的車即使在最好情況下也開不快）。

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