【卫报】野外间谍 | 第二期

A chimpanzee points at the lens in a forthcoming episode of Spy in the Wild. 

What does a newly hatched crocodile see while it is being transported to water between its mother's jaws? How should a wild dog pup behave if it wants to be accepted by an approaching pack of adults?

一只刚孵化出的鳄鱼被妈妈用下颚放到水中时它看到了什么？如果一只野狗崽想要被一群慢慢靠近的野狗群接纳，它应该怎样表现？

• hatched 孵化（hatch的过去式和过去分词）

• crocodile 鳄鱼

• jaw 下颚

These and other questions will be answered in a new BBC wildlife series screening this week, in which the stars of the show are not only the animals being filmed, but the animatronic "spy creatures" used to film them.

这周上映的BBC野外记录系列片将回答这类还有其他问题。在这部纪录片里，拍摄对象不只有上镜的动物，还有用于拍摄他们的生物机器人“生物间谍”。

• Animatronic  生物机器人

Spy in the Wild is the BBC's first major natural history series since Planet Earth II, but the footage that makes up the five-part series was captured in a very different way to Sir David Attenborough's wildlife spectacular.

野外间谍是BBC自地球的脉动Ⅱ之后最主要的自然史系列，构成此系列的五部以不同的拍摄方式向大家展示了Sir David Attenborough眼中野外生命的壮丽景色。

注：Sir David Attenborough特别擅长自然记录片的编写和拍摄，曾任BBC高管，因编写和拍摄九大生命奇迹记录片而闻名世界。

Using 30 remote-controlled robotic animals, each concealing miniature cameras, programme-makers captured footage they say is among some of the most intimate and revealing to date, showing a range of animal behaviours that appear to demonstrate grief, friendship and even empathy with other species.

程序设计者用30个带有隐藏微型摄像机的远程控制动物机器人来拍摄。他们说所捕捉到的片段是迄今为止最亲密和最具启发意义的片段之一。这些片段展示了一系列的动物行为包括：动物表达悲伤、友情甚至是对其他物种表示同情的行为。

• Concealing 隐形的（conceal的现在分词）

• Miniature 微小的

• Demonstrate 证明，展示

As well as allowing unprecedented access to the animals - including a trip between the jaws of a Ugandan Nile crocodile - the animatronic creatures were designed to interact with real-life animals in ways that at times astonished the film-makers, according to John Downer, the executive producer.

据执行总监John Downer所说，这种拍摄方式使得我们可以以史上最近的距离接触动物（包括在尼罗河鳄鱼上下颚之间溜一圈）。专门设计的生物机器人与真实动物之间的互动方式经常使制片人感到吃惊。

• Unprecedented 没有先例的

The first episode, themed around the subject of love, includes one example. In a scene filmed with a troop of langurs living on a temple complex in Rajasthan, a robotic camera, modelled to resemble a young monkey, is believed by the troop to be a baby that has died.

首个片段围绕的主题是爱，包括一个例子。影片中有一个镜头拍摄的是一群居住在Rajasthan寺庙建筑群中的长尾叶猴，一个仿小猴子生物机器人摄像头，它被猴群误认为是群族中一个已经死去的猴仔。

• Langurs 长尾叶猴

• Complex 建筑群

The langurs are seen gathering en masse to surround the motionless "baby", hushing their chatter and hugging each other as if collectively grieving.

可以看到叶猴都围着着这个静止不动的“宝宝”，低声啾叫，相互拥抱着仿佛集体哀悼。

• langur  n.叶猴

• En masse  （法）全体地

• grieve v.悲痛，哀悼

The series has been made for the BBC by Downer's eponymous production company, which has made previous "spy" series, including one featuring an early robotic camera concealed in a fake rock, nicknamed "bouldercam". 

该系列由Downer的同名生产公司为BBC打造。该公司此前制作了一系列“间谍”，包括之前藏匿在假石中、绰号为“bouldercam”的机器人摄像机。

• eponymous  adj.使得名的，齐名的

The animals in the new series, developed over months by international teams of roboticists, programmers and artists, have benefitted from huge technological advances since the lumbering boulder.

此系列中用到的动物间谍是由机器人专家、程序员和设计师组成的国际团队长达数月的时间创作而成的。从那个笨拙的石像以来迅猛的科技发展使他们受益不小。

A camera disguised as a prairie dog, which captures the animals' habit of "kissing" each other, was programmed with the ability to "jump-yip", a leaping motion that reinforces family bonds. 

“期待您的翻译，把您的理解留言在文章下方，第二天将会有长难句解析哒~”

• disguise v.假装，隐瞒

• prairie dog  草原土拨鼠

Similarly, "spy-pup", the wild dog camera, had to be given the ability to make a range of submissive gestures - including wagging its tail, twitching its ears and performing the respectful "play bow" - in order to win the trust of suspicious adults in the pack. The scientists who study the animals had predicted it would be ripped apart in minutes.

同样地，为了赢得多疑的成年野狗的信任，“迷你间谍犬”野狗相机也被赋予了可以做一系列顺从动作的能力（包括摇尾巴，抖耳朵和恭敬的“邀玩动作”）。动物研究科学家预测它在几分钟内会被狗群撕破。

• submissive  adj.顺从的

Downer would not disclose the cost of the animatronic creatures, which include a walking crocodile, several mobile tortoises and a female orangutan, but said "they are all obviously pretty expensive, because they require a massive amount of work". In the case of the more sophisticated animals, he said, this could take up to nine months of development per creature.

Downer不愿透露电子生物的制作成本。这些动物包括：一条可以爬行的鳄鱼，几只能移动龟和一个雌猩猩。但表示显然它们都非常昂贵，因为制作它们的工作非常繁重。他表示如果是极端复杂的动物则可能需要花费长达九个月的时间。

• disclose  v.公开，揭露

• tortoise n.乌龟

• orangutan  n.猩猩

• sophisticated  adj.复杂的，精致的

"In the last episode, which is about misbehaviour, you will see quite a few of our spy creatures destroyed," he said, including a tortoise trampled by a herd of elephants. Their greatest worry was that the creatures were not destroyed when first introduced to the animals, "because after that they are generally accepted", he added.

他说，“在讲不适当举动的最后一段，你会发现很多的间谍生物被损毁了”。其中包括一只被一群大象踩扁的乌龟。他们最担心的是生物间谍第一次出现在真实动物面前没有被毁掉。他补充道，“因为在此之后它们就被大多数动物接受了”。

• trample  v. 践踏

Ascribing human emotions to animals used to be frowned upon, said Downer, who began his career with the BBC's natural history unit, "but that's been the great change over the past decade or so".

在BBC博物学部开始职业生涯的Downer告诉我们，“过去人们不愿把人类情感归到动物身上，但这一点过去约十年间已发生了巨大变化”。

• Ascribe  v.归因于

• frowned upon  不赞成，不悦

• natural history  博物学

"You can't spend any time with animals without realising that in so much of what they do, they are so like us," he said. "That's inevitable - we are animals, so why make that big distinction? To deny it is to fly in the face of what you are seeing."

他说，“只要和动物相处我们就会发现，它们的行为很大程度上和我们类似，人和动物是那么地像。这是不可避免的，我们也是动物，所以为什么要用差别的眼光来看待它们？否认这一点就是置我们看到的于不顾”。

• fly in the face of 悍然不顾

Spy in the Wild is on BBC1 on 12 January at 8pm

1月12日晚8点 BBC1：野外间谍

翻译：栏目二第五组

审核：椰子

编辑：青青子衿