①All told, the birds ②logged as much as 80,000 kilometers on their geo-locators, the longest migration ever recorded.

By Carl Zimmer

In 1976, the biologist Robert E. Gill Jr. came to the southern coast of Alaska to survey the birds preparing for their ①migrations for the winter. One species in particular, ②wading birds called bar-tailed ③godwits, ④puzzled him deeply. They were too fat.

1976年，生物學家小羅伯‧E‧季爾來到阿拉斯加的南部海岸，調查冬徙的鳥群。其中一種名為斑尾鷸的水鳥令他深感困惑。牠們也未免太胖了。

①migration遷移;(候鳥等的)遷徙[U][C]the annual migration of birds

②wading bird涉禽類(如鶴,鷺鷥等)

③godwits黑尾鷸

④puzzle使迷惑;使為難,使窘困[H]What puzzles me is why they didn't show up.

“They looked like flying softballs,” said Mr. Gill.

季爾說：「他們看來就像是飛行的壘球。」

At the time, scientists knew that bar-tailed godwits spend their winters in places like New Zealand and Australia. To get there, most researchers ①assumed, the birds took a series of flights down through Asia, stopping along the way to rest and eat. They were land birds, not sea birds that could dive for food in the ocean. But in Alaska, Mr. Gill observed, the bar-tailed godwits were ②feasting on clams and worms as if they were not going to be able to eat for a very long time.

當時，科學家知道斑尾鷸將飛往紐西蘭、澳洲等地過冬。多數的研究人員推測，這些斑尾鷸將透過一連串的飛行穿越亞洲，抵達紐澳，沿途停停飛飛，休息與覓食。牠們是陸鳥，不是會俯衝入海覓食的海鳥。但是季爾發現，在阿拉斯加，斑尾鷸會大啖蛤蜊和蟲子，彷彿在做長時間不進食的打算。

①assume假定的,設想的

②feast on盡情欣賞(或享受)He feasted on the beautiful scene.

Mr. Gill wondered if the bar-tailed godwit actually stayed in the air for a much longer time than scientists believed. It was a difficult idea to test, because he could not actually follow the birds in flight. Finally, in 2006, technology caught up with Mr. Gill’s ideas. He and his colleagues were able to ①implant satellite transmitters in bar-tailed godwits and track their flight.

季爾心想，或許斑尾鷸停留空中的時間遠較科學家以為的長。這種想法難以求證，因為季爾無法實際追蹤飛行的鳥群。2006年，科技終於趕上季爾的想法。他和同事在斑尾鷸身上裝設衛星發報器，追蹤牠們的旅程。

①implant埋置

Just as he had suspected, the bar-tailed godwits headed out over the open ocean and flew south through the Pacific. They did not stop at islands along the way. Instead, they traveled up to 11,425 kilometers in nine days – the longest nonstop flight ever recorded. “I was speechless,” Mr. Gill said.

正如他所懷疑的，斑尾鷸飛向大海，再南飛穿越太平洋。牠們沒有在沿途的任何島嶼停靠，而是在9天內飛行了1萬1425公里，為歷來最長不落地飛行紀錄。季爾說：「我驚訝地說不出話來。」

Since then, scientists have tracked a number of other migrating birds. Their results make clear that the bar-tailed godwit is not alone. Other species of birds can fly several thousand of kilometers nonstop on their migrations, and scientists ①anticipate that as they gather more data, more birds will join these ②elite ranks.

之後，科學家又追蹤了其他數種候鳥。結果十分清楚，直飛終點的不只是斑尾鷸。另有鳥類遷徙時也是一飛數千公里不停歇，科學家還預測，隨著蒐集的資料日增，會有更多鳥類登上精英榜。

①anticipate預期,期望;預料It is impossible to anticipate when it will happen.

②elite精華;精英;優秀分子

“I think it’s going to be a number of examples,” said Anders Hedenström of Lund University in Sweden.

瑞典蘭德大學的安德斯‧賀登史卓姆說：「我想還有許多這種例子。」

As more birds prove to be ultra marathoners, biologists are turning their attention to how they manage such spectacular ①feats of endurance. Consider what might be the ultimate test of human endurance in sports, the Tour de France: Every day, bicyclists ②pedal up and down mountains for hours. In the process, they raise their ③metabolism to about five times their resting rate.

在越來越多鳥類證明牠們是超級馬拉松勇士的同時，生物學家也開始將注意力轉向了解牠們何以能展現如此的超凡耐力。以可能是人體耐力終極考驗的運動賽事環法自由車賽為例，參賽者每天在山間騎上騎下，過程中，新陳代謝速度約提高到休息狀態的五倍。

①feat功績,業績;英勇事跡He did a marvellous feat.

②pedal騎腳踏車I saw him pedal to school every morning.

③metabolism新陳代謝

The bar-tailed godwit, by contrast, ①elevates its metabolic rate between 8 and 10 times. And instead of ending each day with a dinner and rest, the birds fly through the night, slowly starving themselves as they travel 65 kilometers an hour.

相形之下，斑尾鷸的代謝速度則升高八到十倍。斑尾鷸不以晚餐和休息結束一天，而是夜裡兼程飛行，在時速65公里的飛行中，處於緩慢挨餓狀態。

①elevate舉起;抬起;使上升Earth movements in the past elevated great areas of the seabed.

“I’m in awe of the fact that birds like godwits can fly like this,” said Theunis Piersma, a biologist at the University of Groningen.

荷蘭葛洛寧恩大學生物學家休尼斯‧皮爾瑪說：「斑尾鷸這樣的鳥竟能如此飛行，這個事實令人驚嘆。」

In 2007, Carsten Egevang of Aarhus University in Denmark and his colleagues attached geo-locators to Arctic ①terns nesting in Greenland. Based on years of bird spotting, the scientists knew that the terns migrated to the Southern Ocean around Antarctica and then returned to the Arctic the following spring. But they did not know much more.

2007年，丹麥奧胡斯大學的卡登‧艾格凡和同事將地理紀錄器繫於在格陵蘭築巢的北極燕鷗身上。根據多年觀鳥的經驗，科學家知道北極燕鷗會移徙到圍繞南極洲的南冰洋，翌年春天再飛回北極。但除此之外，科學家所知有限。

①tern【鳥】燕鷗

In 2008, the scientists managed to capture 10 Arctic terns that had come back to Greenland. It then took them months to make sense of the data.

2008年，科學家捕捉到返回格陵蘭的10隻北極燕鷗。接著他們花了數個月才搞懂紀錄器內的資料。

The researchers reported this February that the Arctic terns flew from Greenland to a region of the Atlantic off the coast of North Africa, where they spent about three weeks.

這些研究人員今年二月報告說，北極燕鷗從格陵蘭飛往北非外海大西洋的一個地區停留了三周。

The Arctic terns then ①resumed their journey south. They spent five months in the Southern Ocean. “They probably just stayed on an iceberg and fished,” Dr. Egevang said.

其後，北極燕鷗重新踏上南飛旅程。牠們在南冰洋待了5個月。艾格凡博士說：「牠們可能只是待在一個冰山上捕魚吃。」

①resume重新開始,繼續He paused, drank a glass of his wine, reflected for a moment, and resumed.

In the spring, the terns then returned to the Arctic, often hugging the coasts of South America or Africa along the way. ①All told, the birds ②logged as much as 80,000 kilometers on their geo-locators, the longest migration ever recorded. Over the 30-year lifetime of a tern, it may migrate about 2.4 million kilometers – the distance a spaceship would cover if it went to the moon and back three times.

春天時，北極燕鷗返回北極，經常是沿著南美洲或是非洲海岸飛行。根據紀錄器上的資料，北極燕鷗合計飛行了8萬公里，為歷來最長遷徙紀錄。北極燕鷗在30年的壽命中，可能遷徙約240萬公里，是太空船探月來回三趟的距離。

①all told總共;合計

②log航海日誌;飛行日誌The captain of the ship entered the details in the log.

Mr. Gill and his colleagues have recorded similar ①odysseys from other wading birds, using satellite transmitters. They found that ②bristle-thighed ③curlews fly as far as 9,650 miles without a stop, traveling from Alaska to the Marshall Islands.

季爾和同事透過衛星發報器紀錄，發現其他水鳥也有類似的長程飛行。他們發現鬃腿杓鷸一飛即是9650公里遠不落腳，從阿拉斯加直飛到馬紹爾群島。

①odyssey長途飄泊

②bristle (動物的)短而硬的毛;(植物的)刺毛;豬鬃

③curlews【鳥】麻鷸

This spring, scientists are attaching geo-locators to more birds, and they expect to find new champions. One population of red knots, for example, is now arriving in Delaware Bay from its wintering grounds 8,850 kilometers away in Argentina. “My bet is that a lot of them make it in one go,” Dr. Piersma said.

今春，科學家在更多的鳥類身上繫上地理紀錄器，且預期將有新冠軍出爐。例如，一個紅腹濱鷸族群正從冬天的棲息地，8850公里遠的阿根廷抵達德拉瓦灣。皮爾瑪說：「我敢說其中有許多是直飛到底。」