2019.07.17

周三 Wednesday

far-flung
 ['fɑ:'flʌŋ] 
adj.辽阔的；漫长的；遥远的

图片来源：视觉中国

At first, the scientists wondered whether it was a mistake.

一开始，科学家们在想这是不是个错误。

Just 21 days after leaving the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen, an arctic fox had arrived in Greenland. And in less than three months, it made it to Canada. 

仅仅在离开挪威的斯匹次卑尔根岛的21天后，一只北极狐就到达了格陵兰岛。不到三个月就到达了加拿大。

The fox averaged nearly 30 miles a day (50 kilometers) - some days, though, it walked almost 100 (160 kilometers).

这只狐狸平均每天走将近30英里（50千米）。有几天它走了近100英里（160千米）

"When it started happening, we thought 'is this really true?' " said Arnaud Tarroux, one of the researchers who tracked the female fox. Was there "an error in the data?"

“刚开始的时候，我们在想，这是真的吗？”阿瑙德·塔罗克斯，一名追踪这只母狐的研究员说道。是不是“数据出错了？”

The data was real, the scientists decided as the fox kept going. The creature's travels last year, documented in a recent paper, wowed Tarroux and his fellow Norwegian researcher Eva Fuglei, even though the animal is known for its endurance and ability to survive in harsh polar areas.

这只狐狸继续前进时，科学家们确定，数据是真的。这种生物去年的旅途被记录在最近的一份文件上，让塔罗克斯和他的挪威同事伊娃·弗格莱大吃一惊。虽然这种动物以耐力和在极地地区生存的能力闻名。

Scientists already knew that some of the foxes, native to Arctic areas all around the Northern Hemisphere, made long journeys: DNA exchange links far-flung fox populations in areas connected only by sea ice.

科学家们已经知道，北半球北极地区本土的有些狐狸会进行长途旅行：DNA交换将仅由海冰连接的地区的广泛狐狸种群连接起来。

But the fox these researchers followed stood out for just how fast it covered more than 2,700 miles (4,350 kilometers) - and shed light on far-north fox sightings that explorers wondered about as far back as the 1800s.

但是研究人员追踪的这只狐狸很突出，因为它在极短的时间内走过了2700多英里（4350公里），并且阐明了让探险家好奇的发生在十九世纪的遥远北方狐狸目击事件。

"We didn't really know how they would do that and how long it would take for an individual to do this kind of trip," Tarroux said.

“我们真的不知道他们会怎么做，也不知道对个体来说，这种旅途需要耗费多久时间。”特洛克斯说道。

The coastal fox the researchers tracked, also known as a blue fox, landed in Ellesmere Island in Canada on 1 July 2018. Of the 50 or 60 animals the scientists put trackers on for a study, it was the only one that ventured outside of Norway.

研究人员追踪的海岸狐狸也叫做蓝狐，在2018年7月1日到达加拿大的埃尔斯米尔岛。研究人员给50到60只动物戴上了追踪器以便研究，这只狐狸是其中唯一一只在挪威外冒险的。

The researchers think the fox may have taken off because of a food shortage, but they're not sure. The tracker stopped working in February, so researchers no longer know the fox's whereabouts, but it was last detected on the same Canadian island in the Nunavut territory.

研究人员认为，狐狸出发的原因可能是食物短缺，但是他们也不确定。追踪器在二月份停止了运作，因此研究人员从此就不知道狐狸的行踪了。但是最后一次探测到狐狸是在加拿大努勒维特的同一个岛屿上。

 

今日词汇

far-flung
 ['fɑ:'flʌŋ] 
adj.辽阔的；漫长的；遥远的

 

Families can be far-flung and relatively isolated.

一家人有时会天各一方，形单影只。

这个词由far+flung构成：

flung是fling的过去式和过去分词：fling，v.（尤指生气地）猛扔; 扔在一边

Fling back the ball to me.  

把球扔给我。