亡者歸來:三分之一絕種動物再現世間

Conservationists are overestimating the number of species that have been driven to extinction, scientists have said.

A study has found that a third of all mammal species declared extinct in the past few centuries have turned up alive and well.

Some of the more reclusive creatures managed to hide from sight for 80 years only to reappear within four years of being officially named extinct in the wild.

The shy okapi – which resembles a cross between a zebra and a giraffe – was first discovered in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1901.

After increasingly rarer sightings, it vanished from the wildlife radar for decades from 1959, prompting fears that it had died out.

But five years ago researchers working for the WWF found okapi tracks in the wild.

Other mammals 'back from the dead' include the rat-like Cuban solenodon, the Christmas Island shrew, the Vanikoro Flying Fox of the Solomon Islands, the Australian central rock rat and the Talaud Flying Fox of Indonesia.

The revelations come as the world's leading conservationists prepare for a major United Nations summit on biodiversity in Nagoya, Japan, next month.

Many scientists believe the world is going through a new 'mass extinction' fuelled by mankind – and that more species are disappearing now than at any time since the dinosaurs vanished 65 million years ago.

According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, 22 per cent of the world's mammals are at risk of extinction. In Britain, more than two plant and animal species are being wiped out each year.

科學家稱，環保人士對滅絕物種的數量估計過高。

一項研究發現，過去幾個世紀已經宣告滅絕的哺乳動物中有三分之一其實都活得好好的。

有些行蹤更隱祕的生物在消失了80年後被官方宣告已在野外絕種，而在宣告後不到四年，它們又再次現身。

害羞的歐卡皮鹿是外形界於斑馬和長頸鹿之間的一種動物，1901年在剛果民主共和國首次被發現。

後來，人們見到它的次數越來越少，從1959年起野生動物雷達系統就再也捕捉不到它的蹤跡，於是人們擔心它已經絕種了。

然而，五年前，爲世界野生動物基金會工作的研究人員在野外發現了歐卡皮鹿的蹤跡。

其他“死而復生”的哺乳動物包括外形像老鼠的古巴鼩、聖誕島麝香鼩、所羅門羣島的瓦尼科羅狐蝠、中澳巖鼠，還有印尼的塔勞狐蝠。

這些真相是世界知名的環保人士們爲聯合國關於生態多樣性的一次大型峯會做準備時發現的。該峯會將於下個月在日本名古屋舉行。

許多科學家認爲世界正在經歷由人類引發的新一輪“物種大滅絕”，現在滅絕的物種是自6500萬年前恐龍滅絕以來最多的。

據世界自然保護聯盟稱，世界上22%的哺乳動物正面臨絕種的危險。在英國，每年消失的植物和動物物種都在兩個以上。

Vocabulary:

reclusive: 隱遁的

okapi: a large browsing mammal of the giraffe family that lives in the rain forests of the northern Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire). It has a dark chestnut coat with stripes on the hindquarters and upper legs（一種非洲鹿）