2006年VOA标准英语-Florida Residents Face Tough Discipline for Fee

By Lisa Ferdinando
Miami
21 July 2006

Flordia warning sign   
  
Officials with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission recently went undercover to crackdown on people feeding alligators². Experts warn that interacting with alligators can create conditions that can be potentially dangerous for humans. But feeding the wildlife is not the only thing disrupting the balance of nature in Florida. Exotic animals that were once pets and have been released into the wild are thriving and creating major problems.

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Officer Jorge Pino, with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, was part of a recent three-day operation to catch people feeding the alligators. "The main purpose of the sting was just to get a message out, and that message is simple: don't feed the wildlife. And there are many reasons for that. People think that they may be doing the right thing by feeding alligators or feeding ducks or feeding dolphins or any wildlife. But in reality what you're doing is altering their behavior," he said.

Feeding alligators is a second-degree misdemeanor punishable by up to a $500 fine and/or 60 days in jail.

Wildlife expert Ron Magill, who is the communications director at Miami's zoo, says alligators lose their instinctive³ fear of humans when they are fed by them. "When you remove an alligator¹'s natural fear, you're really removing your first defense⁴. When that alligator comes to you and loses it's fear, that's a problem. To add to that problem, it's associating people with food," he said.

The Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission says such alligators are often associated with deadly attacks against humans. Alligators that no longer fear humans are trapped and killed by authorities due to the grave threat they pose.

Florida officials say alligators have killed 17 people in the state since 1948. The wildlife commission says the figure does not include three cases from earlier this year that are still under investigation⁵.

In Florida, a boom in population and development has brought wildlife, literally⁶, into the backyard of residents.

Wildlife expert Todd Harwick operates a business that traps those animals. He says there are more than one-million alligators throughout the state of Florida, hundreds in the Miami area alone. "We catch them in downtown Miami, we catch them on the fringes of Miami, we catch them on the streets of Miami. The alligator is here to stay and he can turn up just about anywhere, and he has," he said.

Harwick also deals with exotic animals that were once pets and are now reproducing in the wild. He explains the problem. "Besides the danger to the public, they pose a danger to the environment. These animals have no natural predator⁷ in south Florida or even in the United States, and they are very voracious⁸ feeders, they gobble up all the available food in the area that some of these other native or even endangered animals would eat. So the negative impact from these animals can be far-reaching," he said.

The problem animals include parrots, iguanas⁹ and Burmese pythons. The pythons, which can grow to some six meters long, have made a home in the Florida Everglades and have battled with resident alligators.

Magill says non-native animals are destroying fruit and vegetable crops and could even threaten the existence of native plants and animals. "You don't know the extent of the damage sometimes until years down the road. The bottom line is if it doesn't belong here, it shouldn't be introduced here. There's a reason nature made things the way it does and having these exotic animals in our environment is causing stresses," he said.

But enforcement is difficult. Experts and officials hope greater education and awareness¹⁰ will get out the message that it is in everyone's best interest to enjoy wildlife from a distance and not to interfere¹¹ with the natural balance of the environment.

1 alligator   

n.短吻鳄(一种鳄鱼)

参考例句：

• She wandered off to play with her toy alligator.她开始玩鳄鱼玩具。
• Alligator skin is five times more costlier than leather.鳄鱼皮比通常的皮革要贵5倍。

2 alligators   

n.短吻鳄( alligator的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Two alligators rest their snouts on the water's surface. 两只鳄鱼的大嘴栖息在水面上。 来自辞典例句
• In the movement of logs by water the lumber industry was greatly helped by alligators. 木材工业过去在水上运输木料时所十分倚重的就是鳄鱼。 来自辞典例句

3 instinctive   

adj.(出于)本能的；直觉的；(出于)天性的

参考例句：

• He tried to conceal his instinctive revulsion at the idea.他试图饰盖自己对这一想法本能的厌恶。
• Animals have an instinctive fear of fire.动物本能地怕火。

4 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

5 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

6 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

7 predator   

n.捕食其它动物的动物；捕食者

参考例句：

• The final part of this chapter was devoted to a brief summary of predator species.本章最后部分简要总结了食肉动物。
• Komodo dragon is the largest living lizard and a fearsome predator.科摩多龙是目前存在的最大蜥蜴，它是一种令人恐惧的捕食性动物。

8 voracious   

adj.狼吞虎咽的，贪婪的

参考例句：

• She's a voracious reader of all kinds of love stories.什么样的爱情故事她都百看不厌。
• Joseph Smith was a voracious book collector.约瑟夫·史密斯是个如饥似渴的藏书家。

9 iguanas   

n. 美洲蜥蜴 名词iguana的复数形式

参考例句：

• Galapagos land iguanas belong to the genus Conolophus, of which there are currently three recognised species. 加拉帕戈斯陆栖鬣蜥属于鬣蜥属，其中目前得到确认的有三个物种。
• Feral cats in the region could be eating eggs and young iguanas, Gentile speculates. 这一区域的野猫可能正在吃鬣蜥蛋及其幼崽，金泰尔猜测。

10 awareness   

n.意识，觉悟，懂事，明智

参考例句：

• There is a general awareness that smoking is harmful.人们普遍认识到吸烟有害健康。
• Environmental awareness has increased over the years.这些年来人们的环境意识增强了。

11 interfere   

v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰

参考例句：

• If we interfere, it may do more harm than good.如果我们干预的话，可能弊多利少。
• When others interfere in the affair,it always makes troubles. 别人一卷入这一事件，棘手的事情就来了。