这一自然奇观以其无与伦比的美景促使美国政府辟建了世界上第一个国家公园。作为一个19世纪初叶才发展起来的年轻国家，黄石地区的开辟得以使美国以其辽阔而雄浑的自然风光著称于世。
Today, Yellowstone s identity is closely associated with its powerful, natural geysers such as the ever present: Old Faithful. Old Faithful erupts about every 85, 87 minutes. Its 130, 140 feet tall, its magnificent.
今天，黄石国家公园的特色是与其许多天然间歇泉紧密联系在一起的，诸如迄今尚存的"老忠实喷泉"。"老忠实喷泉"每隔85到87分钟喷射一次，高达130到140英尺，十分壮观。
老忠实喷泉
The incredible geysers and picture postcard landscape brought Yellowstone its fame. But today, its wildlife population is just as popular. The most controversial of these is Yellowstone s wolf population. Until recently, the wolf was almost extinct.
奇特的喷泉与印在明信片上的美丽景色使黄石国家公园闻名遐迩。但今天，这里的野生动物数量同样引人关注，其中最有争议的是黄石国家公园狼的数目。到最近，它们已濒临灭绝。
This world has been obsessed with killing wolves. We have been killing wolves for centuries, probably for thousands of years. Afraid of the threat wolves would pose to their livestock, government bounty hunters in the early 1900s, killed Yellowstone s grey wolves for the price of fifteen dollars a head. They were hunted to near extinction. It would be almost a century before an effort would begin to reverse this damage.
狼群一直在遭受捕杀，人们杀狼已有数百年，可能有几千年的历史。担心狼群会危及家畜，政府在20世纪初开始奖赏猎手，杀死黄石公园一头灰狼赏15美元。它们被捕杀殆尽。直到近一个世纪后，人们才开始弥补这个损失。
In 1995, Yellowstone s wolf population was almost gone, so Douglas Smith (Yellowstone s Wolf Preservation Project Leader) went to Canada to capture fourteen of the animals in an effort to revive Yellowstone s wolf population. Douglas said: " Catching a wolf is a tough thing to do. And theres nothing more exciting than flying over a wolf in a helicopter. You throw a net over them, they get tangled up, and then you go up and sedate them. When you move a wolf from one location to another, they try and get back home. We held them for about ten weeks inside the pens."
1995年，黄石公园已经几乎没有狼了。于是，道格拉斯·史密斯（黄石国家公园狼群保护计划负责人）从加拿大捕来14只狼，希望能够恢复黄石国家公园狼的数量。道格拉斯说："捕狼并非易事。再也没有比坐在直升机上捕狼更令人兴奋的事了。你扔下一张网罩住它们，它们就被裹住了，然后你走上前去，给它们注射镇静剂。当你把狼从一个地方移居到另一个地方时，它们总是试图回到原来的家。我们把它们在围栏里关了有10周左右。"
One of the transplanted wolves in particular, has had a lot to do with the parks wolf repopulation. This wolf, a female known as No.9, is one of the park s top breeders, and 70％ of the wolves born in the park today have he
r genes. Wolves are now the marquee animal in Yellowstone. Many people said it was a lifetime experience seeing a wolf in the wild in Yellowstone.
在这些被移居的狼当中，特别有一只与公园内狼群的重新形成关系密切。这是一只被称为"9号"的母狼，它是公园里繁殖能力最强的狼之一；今天，在公园里出生的狼70％都有它的基因。狼现在已经成了黄石国家公园的招牌动物。许多人都说在黄石国家公园看见野生的狼是一种终生难忘的体验。
For inspiring the vision to preserve one of the worlds most beautiful natural wonders, Yellowstone lands at number six on our list.
为了鼓励人们去保护世界上这最美丽的自然奇观之一，黄石国家公园在我们的排名中位居第六。
最后由 sindy999 于 2006-07-17 11:46 编辑
