VOA新闻杂志2023--得克萨斯州一女子拯救数百只蝙蝠免受寒冷

Texas Woman Saves Hundreds of Bats from Freezing

Recent cold weather in the Southwestern state of Texas almost claimed some unusual animal victims — bats.

Bats are the only mammals that can fly.

About 1,600 bats had gone into shock and fallen to the ground during unusually cold weather in the city of Houston.

But the bats found a temporary home for several days at the home of a director of the Houston Humane¹ Society, a nonprofit group.

The bats stayed in the attic² – an upper part of the house that served as a temporary recovery³ space.

Over 1,500 of the bats have been or will be released⁴ back to their homes -- two Houston-area bridges.

Mary Warwick is the wildlife director at the Houston Humane Society. She said she was out doing holiday shopping when the freezing winds reminded her that she had not heard how the area's bats were doing. So she drove to the bridge where over 100 bats looked to be dead as they lay frozen⁵ on the ground.

But during her 40-minute drive home, Warwick said they began to come back to life. The bats made sounds and moved around in a box she had placed on her heated passenger seat for warmth. She put the bats in incubators and returned to the bridge twice a day to collect more.

Two days later, she got a call about more than 900 bats rescued from a bridge in nearby Pearland, Texas. On the third and fourth day, more people showed up to rescue bats from the Waugh Bridge in Houston. A special transportation effort was set up to get the bats to Warwick.

Warwick said each of the bats were warmed in an incubator until their body temperature rose. Then, they received fluids⁶ given to them under their skin.

Warwick said there were too many bats for one person to feed and care for. The Humane Society's current buildings did not have the necessary space, so Warwick and others put the bats in her attic. The bats were separated by colony⁷ in containers usually used for dogs. There, they were able to reach a state of hibernation⁸ that did not require them to eat.

"As soon as I wake up in the morning I wonder: ‘How are they doing, I need to go see them,' " Warwick said.

Warwick said over 100 bats died because of the cold and the fall from the bridge but the others are being or have been released.

The humane society is now raising money to build a special room for bats at the society, Warwick added. Warwick said the society's entire animal rehabilitation⁹ team will be vaccinated¹⁰ against rabies and trained in bat rehabilitation as they prepare to move into a larger building with the special bat room.

"That would really help in these situations where we continue to see...strange weather...come through," she said. "We could really use more space to rehabilitate¹¹ the bats."

Words in This Story

mammal –n. a kind of animal that feeds milk to its young and has hair on its body

shock – n. medical : a serious condition in which the body is not able to get enough blood to all the parts of the body

incubator – n. a device¹² that is used to keep animals (especially young animals or babies) warm

colony – n. a group of plants or animals living or growing in one place

hibernate¹³ – v. (of an animal) to spend the winter sleeping or resting

rehabilitate – v. to bring (someone or something) back to a normal, healthy condition after an illness, injury or drug problem

1 humane   

adj.人道的，富有同情心的

参考例句：

• Is it humane to kill animals for food?宰杀牲畜来吃合乎人道吗？
• Their aim is for a more just and humane society.他们的目标是建立一个更加公正、博爱的社会。

2 attic   

n.顶楼，屋顶室

参考例句：

• Leakiness in the roof caused a damp attic.屋漏使顶楼潮湿。
• What's to be done with all this stuff in the attic?顶楼上的材料怎么处理？

3 recovery   

n.恢复，痊愈；追回，寻回，收复

参考例句：

• The doctors said that his recovery was a miracle. 医生们说他的复原是件奇事。
• The quick recovery was truly in response to medication.这次迅速康复确实是对药物治疗的反应。

4 released   

v.释放( release的过去式和过去分词 )；放开；发布；发行

参考例句：

• He was released on bail pending committal proceedings. 他交保获释正在候审。
• With hindsight it is easy to say they should not have released him. 事后才说他们本不应该释放他，这倒容易。

5 frozen   

adj.冻结的，冰冻的

参考例句：

• He was frozen to death on a snowing night.在一个风雪的晚上，他被冻死了。
• The weather is cold and the ground is frozen.天寒地冻。

6 fluids   

n.液体，流体( fluid的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He is taking cold fluids. 他正在喝冷饮。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• You can contract Aids if your bodily fluids come into contact with the bodily fluids of someone else who is infected with HIV. 如果你的体液与染有HIV者的体液接触，你就会染上艾滋病。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 colony   

n.殖民地；(同类人的)聚居地

参考例句：

• There lived a colony of bees on the tree.树上生活着一群蜜蜂。
• They live in an artists'colony.他们住在艺术家聚居区。

8 hibernation   

n.冬眠

参考例句：

• Bears wake up in the spring after a winter of hibernation.熊经过一个冬天的冬眠后在春季苏醒。
• The tortoise spends the winter months in hibernation.乌龟在冬眠中度过寒冬季节。

9 rehabilitation   

n.康复，悔过自新，修复，复兴，复职，复位

参考例句：

• He's booked himself into a rehabilitation clinic.他自己联系了一家康复诊所。
• No one can really make me rehabilitation of injuries.已经没有人可以真正令我的伤康复了。

10 vaccinated   

[医]已接种的，种痘的，接种过疫菌的

参考例句：

• I was vaccinated against tetanus. 我接种了破伤风疫苗。
• Were you vaccinated against smallpox as a child? 你小时候打过天花疫苗吗？

11 rehabilitate   

vt.改造(罪犯)，修复；vi.复兴，(罪犯)经受改造

参考例句：

• There was no money to rehabilitate the tower.没有资金修复那座塔。
• He used exercise programmes to rehabilitate the patients.他采用体育锻炼疗法使患者恢复健康。

12 device   

n.器械，装置；计划，策略，诡计

参考例句：

• The device will be in production by the end of the year.该装置将于年底投入生产。
• The device will save much time and effort for us.这种装置会使我们节省大量时间和气力。

13 hibernate   

v.冬眠，蛰伏

参考例句：

• Bears often hibernate in caves.熊常在山洞里冬眠。
• Some warm-blooded animals do not need to hibernate.一些温血动物不需要冬眠。