国家地理:Alaska: Bear Taxidermist 动物标本剥制师

Grizzly¹ bears once roamed much of the United States. But two centuries of hunting and habitat loss have devastated² their numbers. Today, less than 1,200 live in the Lower 48. If there is a last remaining stronghold for the North American Grizzly, it is in Alaska where estimated 32,000 grizzlies³ can be found.

Alaska boasts a wide range of habitat in which the grizzly can thrive, from rich coastal⁴ areas to barren arctic tundra⁵. Alaska's grizzlies can weigh up to 1,500 pounds and can consume as much as 35 pounds of food in a day. They eat just about anything in sight from flowers to whale carcasses.

It's their very size that gives grizzlies an aura of invincibility⁶, and in Alaska, it's also what makes them a valuable commodity.

As Joel discovers in downtown Anchorage, the bear business is booming. At Knight⁷'s Taxidermy, Russell Knight turns over more than 200 bear rugs and mounts a year.

We offer you the mounting services or expediting services. Whatever the client wants us to do, we are glad to do it.

How many bears they think there are in Alaska and how many are taken every year, do you know?

Roughly between 1,000 and 1,500 are taken a year.

But since bears are thriving in Alaska, some biologists believe that taking 1,500 bears a year is sustainable.

So there's plenty of bears in Alaska, right?

Plenty of bears in Alaska.

Making a bear into a rug takes time. Russell's clients can expect to wait up to a year for their merchandise.

So this is the skull⁸. And he's, he's skinned the skull out.
So now he's, he's doing the detail work. He's split the lips, turning the nose inside out. And now he's going to turn the ears inside out. They put them over a beam and they're fleshing the fat and meat off skin so that it can dry properly.

He had to have a bear sit in salt for 3 or 4 days. (OK). And then after the like the 4th day, if everything is looking good, then we hang them up.

And you kind of look (yeah) and see that the skin is turning white, which is a, the good sign that it's drying proper.

And once the head is mounted, then we gotta bring it back to the original size. We have to rehydrate the skin in water, repair all the holes and then he stretches it for size to get the maximum amount of size out of skin.

They want big?

They want... everybody wants the biggest thing in it.

So we've got a special clay that dries very hard. And, and, and once the, the clay is put on and roughed into shape, then we can come back and mold it and put it on a little details and the creases⁹ and we can still shape and move the eyes around and, and get the expression that we want.

We use plastic teeth and fake tongues. That's a black bear tongue, grizzly bear tongue. Now these would be ... this would be a bear eye.

I'm... I'm a wildlife artist. I work with wildlife, I work with all....
Taxidermy really is an art.


tundra: (n.) A treeless area between the icecap and the tree line of Arctic regions, having a permanently¹⁰ frozen subsoil and supporting low-growing vegetation such as lichens¹¹, mosses¹², and stunted¹³ shrubs¹⁴. 苔原
invincibility: (n.) 无敌
Taxidermy.: The art or operation of preparing, stuffing, and mounting the skins of dead animals for exhibition in a lifelike state. 动物标本剥制术(n)

1 grizzly   

adj.略为灰色的，呈灰色的；n.灰色大熊

参考例句：

• This grizzly liked people.这只灰熊却喜欢人。
• Grizzly bears are not generally social creatures.一般说来，灰熊不是社交型动物。

2 devastated   

v.彻底破坏( devastate的过去式和过去分词)；摧毁；毁灭；在感情上（精神上、财务上等）压垮adj.毁坏的；极为震惊的

参考例句：

• The bomb devastated much of the old part of the city. 这颗炸弹炸毁了旧城的一大片地方。
• His family is absolutely devastated. 他的一家感到极为震惊。

3 grizzlies   

北美洲灰熊( grizzly的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Suns beat the Memphis Grizzlies 127-113 earlier Tuesday night. 在周二晚上早些时候，太阳以127：113击败孟菲斯灰熊。
• Whatever you do, do not blink.They're like grizzlies. 无论你做什么，别眨眼。他们跟熊有点相象。

4 coastal   

adj.海岸的，沿海的，沿岸的

参考例句：

• The ocean waves are slowly eating away the coastal rocks.大海的波浪慢慢地侵蚀着岸边的岩石。
• This country will fortify the coastal areas.该国将加强沿海地区的防御。

5 tundra   

n.苔原，冻土地带

参考例句：

• The arctic tundra is at the top of the world around the North Pole.北极冻原是指北极点周边的地区，是世界最高的地方。
• There is a large amount of methane gas under the Siberian tundra.西伯利亚的冻土地带之下有大量的甲烷气体。

6 invincibility   

n.无敌，绝对不败

参考例句：

• The myth of his and Nazi invincibility had been completely destroyed. 过去他本人之神奇传说，以及纳粹之不败言论，至此乃完全破灭。 来自辞典例句
• Our image of invincibility evaporated. 我们战无不胜的形象化为泡影了。 来自辞典例句

7 knight   

n.骑士，武士；爵士

参考例句：

• He was made an honourary knight.他被授予荣誉爵士称号。
• A knight rode on his richly caparisoned steed.一个骑士骑在装饰华丽的马上。

8 skull   

n.头骨；颅骨

参考例句：

• The skull bones fuse between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five.头骨在15至25岁之间长合。
• He fell out of the window and cracked his skull.他从窗子摔了出去，跌裂了颅骨。

9 creases   

（使…）起折痕，弄皱( crease的第三人称单数 )； （皮肤）皱起，使起皱纹

参考例句：

• She smoothed the creases out of her skirt. 她把裙子上的皱褶弄平。
• She ironed out all the creases in the shirt. 她熨平了衬衣上的所有皱褶。

10 permanently   

adv.永恒地，永久地，固定不变地

参考例句：

• The accident left him permanently scarred.那次事故给他留下了永久的伤疤。
• The ship is now permanently moored on the Thames in London.该船现在永久地停泊在伦敦泰晤士河边。

11 lichens   

n.地衣( lichen的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The only plants to be found in Antarctica are algae, mosses, and lichens. 在南极洲所发现的植物只有藻类、苔藓和地衣。 来自辞典例句
• Litmus: Mixture of coloured organic compounds obtained from several species of lichens. 石蕊：从几种地衣类植物中获取的带色有机化合物的混合物。 来自互联网

12 mosses   

n. 藓类, 苔藓植物 名词moss的复数形式

参考例句：

• Ferns, mosses and fungi spread by means of spores. 蕨类植物、苔藓和真菌通过孢子传播蔓生。
• The only plants to be found in Antarctica are algae, mosses, and lichens. 在南极洲所发现的植物只有藻类、苔藓和地衣。

13 stunted   

adj.矮小的；发育迟缓的

参考例句：

• the stunted lives of children deprived of education 未受教育的孩子所过的局限生活
• But the landed oligarchy had stunted the country's democratic development for generations. 但是好几代以来土地寡头的统治阻碍了这个国家民主的发展。

14 shrubs   

灌木( shrub的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The gardener spent a complete morning in trimming those two shrubs. 园丁花了整个上午的时间修剪那两处灌木林。
• These shrubs will need more light to produce flowering shoots. 这些灌木需要更多的光照才能抽出开花的新枝。