VOA慢速英語：科學(xué)家證實所謂雪人其實是熊

Scientists Find No Evidence of Yeti

科學(xué)家證實所謂雪人其實是熊

For decades, a large creature called a Yeti has been talked about in Western popular culture. It has appeared in films, cartoons, video games and more.

幾十年來，西方流行文化一直提到了一種名為雪人的大型生物。它出現(xiàn)在電影、漫畫、電子游戲等內(nèi)容中。

The yeti is large and hairy and walks on two feet. Some people claim they have seen a yeti in the Himalayan Mountains in Asia.

雪人體型巨大、多毛、直立行走。有人宣稱他們在喜馬拉雅山脈見過雪人。

It has a fearsome reputation.

它的名聲非?？膳?。

Consider a scene from the American cartoon show, Scooby Doo:

咱們來看看美國動畫片《史酷比》中的一個場景：

-Apparently every restaurant that's ever opened here closed down immediately -- under suspicious circumstances.

顯然這里所有餐館都在可疑的情況下立馬關(guān)閉了。

-Let me guess: Yeti-related circumstances?

讓我猜一下：是因為雪人?

-You got it.

你猜對了。

New genetic research suggests that this huge beast may, in fact, exist in the Himalayas.

新的基因研究表明，這種巨大野獸可能真的存在于喜馬拉雅山脈。

But it's probably just a bear.

但是它可能就是熊。

A team of scientists said this week that they had studied the DNA of nine samples from museums and private collections. All of the samples were said to have come from the yeti.

一隊科學(xué)家本周表示，他們已經(jīng)研究了博物館和私人收藏的9份標(biāo)本的DNA。這些標(biāo)本都聲稱來自于雪人。

They found that eight of the nine samples came from bears – Asian black bears, Himalayan brown bears and Tibetan brown bears, to be exact. The one remaining sample came from a dog, the researchers found.

科學(xué)家發(fā)現(xiàn)9個標(biāo)本中，有8個來自于熊，準(zhǔn)確地說是亞洲黑熊、喜馬拉雅棕熊和西藏棕熊。剩下的一個標(biāo)本來自于狗。

Charlotte Lindqvist studies bear genetics at the State University of New York at Buffalo. She is one of the writers of the yeti report published recently in the scientific journal "Proceedings of the Royal Society B." She said the report's findings "strongly suggest" that the legend of the yeti is connected closely to bears that live in the mountainous area.

夏洛特·林德奎斯特(Charlotte Lindqvist)在紐約州立大學(xué)布法羅分校研究熊類基因?qū)W。她是最近發(fā)表在科學(xué)期刊《英國皇家學(xué)會學(xué)報B版：生物科學(xué)》上的雪人報告的作者之一。她說，該報告的研究結(jié)果“充分表明”雪人的傳說和棲息在山區(qū)的熊密切相關(guān)。

Lindqvist called the study the most detailed research to date of so-called yeti specimens.

林德奎斯特稱這項研究是迄今為止對所謂雪人標(biāo)本進行的最為詳細的研究。

While the recent study did not identify a yeti, it did give scientists information about the area's bear populations.

雖然這項最新研究并未證實雪人，但它確實給科學(xué)家提供了關(guān)于該地區(qū)熊類種群的信息。

The brown bears living high in the Tibetan Plateau and the western Himalayan Mountains appear to belong to two separate bear populations, researchers found. Despite living fairly close to each other, those two populations have been separated for thousands of years, Lindqvist said.

研究人員發(fā)現(xiàn)，棲息在青藏高原的棕熊同棲息在喜馬拉雅山脈西部的棕熊似乎屬于兩個不同的熊類種群。林德奎斯特表示，盡管兩者的棲息地非常鄰近，這兩個熊類種群已經(jīng)分開了幾千年。

I'm John Russell.

約翰·羅素報道。