优胜美地Bear Tracker允许你从安全的距离追踪黑熊

 

This is What's Trending Today.

You can now follow the bears in California's Yosemite National Park online.

No, that does not mean the bears now all have Twitter profiles¹. But they are connected to the internet via satellite. They have their own website. It is keepbearswild.org.

The park has about 500 bears within its borders, and last year, had over 5 million visitors.

Now, about 20 bears are wearing collars with GPS trackers. You can follow their movements on a map of the park.

But if you go looking for them, you probably will not find the bears. For both the safety of the bears, and people, there is a delay.

The website also shows where 28 bears were hit by cars in 2016. Some of them were killed.

With the collars, park rangers² and wildlife scientists can keep track of the bears within the park. They can also learn some new things.

For example, bear experts were surprised to learn that the bears begin mating in May. That is over one month sooner than they thought.

They also found that the bears can travel up to 48 kilometers per day, and that includes climbing up steep mountains.

The collars will allow park rangers to know if bears are getting too close to campgrounds. The rangers want to keep both the bears and the humans safe.

The Yosemite Conservancy spent almost $300,000 on the mapping project.

Frank³ Dean⁴ is the president of the conservancy. He says the new information about the bears should keep them safer.

"People love to see the bears," he said. "Protecting them is something we can all do."

Jesse Garcia studies black bears for the state of California. He says visitors to the park need to understand that they are in the bears' home.

"You've got to give them their distance and always be aware, knowing that they're there," he said.

And that's What's Trending Today.

I'm Dan Friedell.

Dan Friedell adapted this story for Learning⁵ English based on an Associated Press report. Hai Do was the editor.

Are you worried about running into a bear someday? We want to know. Write to us in the Comments Section or on 51VOA.COM.

 

Words in This Story

collar – n. a band of leather, plastic, etc., worn around an animal's neck

GPS – n. a radio system that uses signals from satellites to tell you where you are and to give you directions to other places

track – v. to follow or watch the path of (something)

mate⁶ – v. of animals : to have sexual⁷ activity in order to produce young

conserve⁸ – v. to keep (something) safe or from being damaged or destroyed

1 profiles   

n.侧面( profile的名词复数 )；外形；印象；[建筑学]（建筑物等的）纵断面图v.扼要介绍( profile的第三人称单数 )；给…画侧面图；描…的轮廓；用数字图表（或量变曲线）表示

参考例句：

• The company's senior executives were insisting on low profiles. 公司的高级官员现在都尽量不抛头露面。 来自辞典例句
• A line of hills profiles against the night sky. 夜空衬托出隐约可见的群山。 来自辞典例句

2 rangers   

护林者( ranger的名词复数 )； 突击队员

参考例句：

• Do you know where the Rangers Stadium is? 你知道Rangers体育场在哪吗？ 来自超越目标英语 第3册
• Now I'm a Rangers' fan, so I like to be near the stadium. 现在我是Rangers的爱好者，所以我想离体育场近一点。 来自超越目标英语 第3册

3 frank   

adj.坦白的，直率的，真诚的

参考例句：

• A frank discussion can help to clear the air.坦率的谈论有助于消除隔阂。
• She is frank and outgoing.她很爽朗。

4 Dean   

n.(大学)院长，系主任，教务长

参考例句：

• The students much like the new dean.学生们很喜欢这位新系主任。
• Who is the dean of the Foreign Languages Department?外语系主任是谁？

5 learning   

n.学问，学识，学习；动词learn的现在分词

参考例句：

• When you are learning to ride a bicycle,you often fall off.初学骑自行车时，常会从车上掉下来。
• Learning languages isn't just a matter of remembering words.学习语言不仅仅是记些单词的事。

6 mate   

n.伙伴，同事；配偶；大副；v.(使)交配

参考例句：

• Where is the mate to this glove?这副手套的另一只在哪儿？
• She has been a faithful mate to him.她一直是他忠实的配偶。

7 sexual   

adj.性的，两性的，性别的

参考例句：

• He was a person of gross sexual appetites.他是个性欲旺盛的人。
• It is socially irresponsible to refuse young people advice on sexual matters.拒绝向年轻人提供性方面的建议是对社会不负责任。

8 conserve   

vt.保存，保护，节约，节省，守恒，不灭

参考例句：

• He writes on both sides of the sheet to conserve paper.他在纸张的两面都写字以节省用纸。
• Conserve your energy,you'll need it!保存你的精力，你会用得着的！