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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
Iraq War Veteran Battles Rhino1 Poachers in Africa
Two years ago, after surviving 12 tours of duty in Iraq, former Australian Special Forces soldier Damien Mander was searching for a fresh challenge.
He found it in an unlikely place.
“A week before I arrived in Zimbabwe, I couldn’t have shown you where it was on a map. My visit to the country was just part of an adventure, really. Sitting in Melbourne after Iraq, I had an idea to visit Africa, as I’d never been there before,” Mander explained.
While traveling through Zimbabwe, though, he witnessed something that he said “flipped a switch” in his mind.
“We saw an elephant that had been poached in a national park and for me that was the catalyst,” said the tall, burly man, whose work in Iraq for an elite2 military squad3 included the protection of politicians, foreign diplomats4 and other VIPs.
Mander had come to Africa to escape the death and destruction he’d seen in the Middle East. Instead, he found himself staring at more horror – in the form of the bloodied5, rotting carcass of an elephant, riddled6 with bullets and its tusks7 hacked8 off.
He told VOA, “I know what it feels like to be hunted by humans and so I’m able to sympathize with animals that are hunted by poachers.”
A white guy in the African bush…
Mander began gathering9 information about the poaching scourge10 that’s swept southern Africa in recent years. The ex-soldier heard that sophisticated international criminal networks are targeting rhinos11, in particular, for their horns. The slaughter12 is driven by a scientifically disproven belief in some parts of Asia that ground rhino horn cures cancer. Rhino horn now costs about $57,000 a kilogram on the black market, according to the International Rhino Foundation.
The enemies of wildlife in southern Africa are no less ruthless than the guerilla insurgents13 he faced in Iraq, said Mander. The poachers are using military equipment, such as night vision goggles14, assault rifles and helicopters, to target rhinos more efficiently15 in their efforts to claim massive profits. They either shoot the rhinos dead or dart16 them with high doses of veterinary drugs before hacking17 their horns off and leaving them to bleed to death.
In the past few years, poachers have butchered more than 1,300 of the rare creatures in southern Africa. Most of them were killed in South Africa and Zimbabwe.
During his tour of the region, Mander became increasingly convinced that his specialized18 military skills could contribute significantly to efforts to prevent poaching.
“One of the things I noticed the most when traveling through Africa…is that rangers20 just are not trained to do their jobs properly,” he said. “And these guys are going out and putting their lives on the line every day, and they deserve to have the training that’s going to give them their best chance of survival and their best chance of achieving in their job.”
Mander offered to provide this training, free of charge, to wildlife rangers throughout southern Africa. “I knocked on doors in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and Zambia, but I couldn’t get a start with an anti-poaching unit,” he said.
Mander now acknowledges that the suspicion with which he was treated by regional wildlife authorities in 2010 was “justifiable.” He said, “I mean, you’ve got some guy from Australia coming and knocking on doors in Africa and saying, ‘I want to help you with your problems’ – a white guy with a Special Forces background trying to run around the bush in Africa.”
Baghdad tactics applied21 to Africa
But Mander refused to give up … his desire to help to save Africa’s rhinos. Because no game reserve would take a chance on allowing a person with no previous experience in the wildlife industry to train their staff, he made what he now calls a “crazy but correct” decision. He sold his assets in Australia and used all the money he’d earned in Iraq to fund the establishment of his own ranger19 training center. After talks with Zimbabwean authorities, he based it at Victoria Falls and named it the International Anti-Poaching Foundation.
Some of the wildlife parks that initially22 didn’t trust the Iraq War veteran now send their rangers to him to be trained to use military tactics against the poachers.
Mander explained, “We haven’t got the funding to purchase helicopters and other aircraft that would enable us to meet the (poaching) threat head on in terms of force, so we have to rely on the way we prepare ourselves for this fight. It comes down to skills and training to enable us to stop the poachers.”
In Iraq, he was also project manager for the Iraq Special Police Training Academy in northern Baghdad, where he helped train hundreds of paramilitary police officers.
“Baghdad is very different to the bush of Africa but many of the principles of security and policing that we applied there can be applied against poachers in Africa,” said the former Special Forces operative.
Mander said the instruction he gives to wildlife rangers is diverse. “It’s everything from search and arrest, to patrolling techniques, to survival in the bush, to navigation and radio use.”
Uniquely, his foundation provides the training free of charge. The organization is funded entirely23 by donations.
Navy Seals
Mander trains rangers using methods similar to those used by the United States Special Forces, including elite military squads24 such as the Navy Seals.
“If we’re to save the rhino, we really have no choice other than to employ these kinds of tactics against the poachers,” he said. “Rangers can no longer function like a bunch of boy scouts25 in the bush. We’re no longer dealing26 with amateurs here; we’re dealing with professional criminals who have access to the latest technology. They’ve militarized their assault on rhino so we must militarize our response against them.”
Mander puts rangers and prospective27 rangers through rigorous tests to assess attributes such as physical fitness, intelligence, trustworthiness, decisiveness, teamwork and motivation. They’re trained to navigate28 rough terrain29, carrying heavy loads of equipment. Mander teaches them how to conduct raids, ambushes30 and patrols and how to plan anti-poaching missions.
“Our best weapon is our tactics and our training and the way that we have prepared our rangers to deal with most situations that they come up against,” he said. “We’re working in very small teams that are very highly trained and we’re able to achieve a lot with a little.”
Lethal31 force
Mander said while his rangers are taught to avoid confrontation32, they’re also trained to use an assortment33 of firearms. He said, “The poachers know what the stakes are. We know that they’re prepared to shoot us as much as they’re prepared to shoot wildlife. Naturally then, a fairly hardline stance is needed to stop them.”
But he insisted that his rangers aren’t taught to be “trigger-happy.” Mander focuses on the “correct” use of force. He explained, “Many sub-Saharan African countries allow rangers to shoot armed poachers on sight. We try to step away from that.” He continued, “The use of lethal force (against poachers) is the absolute last option, and that is only to preserve someone’s life that’s in imminent34 danger.”
Mander said so far none of the many rangers the foundation has trained has had to use deadly force, even against bands of poachers armed with AK47s, machetes, axes and knives. “I’m proud of this because it shows that our rangers have been trained to negotiate their way out of trouble rather than going in with all guns blazing,” he said.
Big success
Mander cited one of his organization’s greatest successes as the arrests of several poachers in Zimbabwe in August last year. “They had AK47s and a lot of ammunition35 on them, and they were moving through one of our areas of operation in the middle of the night, during a full moon, trying to kill a rhino and its calf36.”
Rangers trained by Mander captured one of the suspects. “We got a lot of critical information out of him, which led us to do a raid on a house in one of the local towns, where we arrested another four suspects in conjunction with the Zimbabwe police.”
He added, “What’s great about this case is that we were able to save the lives of two rhino, rather than responding to the killing37 of rhino, which unfortunately has become the norm.”
The poachers have since been convicted and have received combined jail sentences of almost 100 years – one of the stiffest penalties yet for poaching in Africa.
‘Adapt or die’
But Mander isn’t content to rest on the laurels38 of past achievements. “If we’re to save the rhino then we constantly have to progress in order to stop the poaching,” he said. So, for example, his foundation is trying to secure funding for new technologies that can be used in anti-poaching operations, such as aerial drones to patrol the sky above areas that hold rhinos.
“An unmanned drone with a thermal39 imaging camera can cover in one hour what a ground team may cover in a week,” said Mander. Although aerial drones are able to carry weapons to attack targets, he plans to use them as reconnaissance vehicles to scan parks for signs of poachers. If the cameras pick up “unusual ground activity,” he said his rangers will “deploy to intercept40 and capture” suspected poachers.
The foundation is also not afraid to embrace strategies others would regard as risky41 as it tries to prevent poaching. Mander explained, “Some of the poachers we deal with are targeting rhinos simply to get a bit of money to feed their families. We go to great lengths to rehabilitate42 these subsistence poachers.”
Mander has gone as far as “reeducating and retraining” subsistence poachers to become rangers themselves. “We’ve actually got people who have already served their time (in prison) for poaching who’ve been retrained and are working in some of our anti-poaching units,” he said.
“Adapt or die – that’s war, mate,” he said, shortly before leaving for yet another excursion into the bush.
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1
rhino
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| n.犀牛，钱, 现金 | |
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2
elite
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| n.精英阶层；实力集团；adj.杰出的，卓越的 | |
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squad
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| n.班，小队，小团体；vt.把…编成班或小组 | |
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diplomats
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| n.外交官( diplomat的名词复数 )；有手腕的人，善于交际的人 | |
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bloodied
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| v.血污的( bloody的过去式和过去分词 )；流血的；屠杀的；残忍的 | |
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riddled
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| adj.布满的；充斥的；泛滥的v.解谜，出谜题(riddle的过去分词形式) | |
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tusks
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| n.（象等动物的）长牙( tusk的名词复数 )；獠牙；尖形物；尖头 | |
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hacked
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| 生气 | |
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gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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scourge
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| n.灾难，祸害；v.蹂躏 | |
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rhinos
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| n.犀牛（rhino的复数形式） | |
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12
slaughter
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| n.屠杀，屠宰；vt.屠杀，宰杀 | |
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13
insurgents
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| n.起义，暴动，造反( insurgent的名词复数 ) | |
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14
goggles
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| n.护目镜 | |
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efficiently
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| adv.高效率地，有能力地 | |
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dart
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| v.猛冲，投掷；n.飞镖，猛冲 | |
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hacking
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| n.非法访问计算机系统和数据库的活动 | |
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specialized
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| adj.专门的，专业化的 | |
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ranger
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| n.国家公园管理员，护林员；骑兵巡逻队员 | |
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rangers
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| 护林者( ranger的名词复数 )； 突击队员 | |
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applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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initially
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| adv.最初，开始 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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squads
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| n.（军队中的）班( squad的名词复数 )；（暗杀）小组；体育运动的运动（代表）队；（对付某类犯罪活动的）警察队伍 | |
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25
scouts
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| 侦察员[机，舰]( scout的名词复数 )； 童子军； 搜索； 童子军成员 | |
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26
dealing
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| n.经商方法，待人态度 | |
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prospective
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| adj.预期的，未来的，前瞻性的 | |
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28
navigate
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| v.航行，飞行；导航，领航 | |
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terrain
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| n.地面，地形，地图 | |
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30
ambushes
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| n.埋伏( ambush的名词复数 )；伏击；埋伏着的人；设埋伏点v.埋伏( ambush的第三人称单数 )；埋伏着 | |
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lethal
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| adj.致死的；毁灭性的 | |
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32
confrontation
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| n.对抗，对峙，冲突 | |
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assortment
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| n.分类，各色俱备之物，聚集 | |
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34
imminent
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| adj.即将发生的，临近的，逼近的 | |
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35
ammunition
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| n.军火，弹药 | |
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36
calf
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| n.小牛，犊，幼仔，小牛皮 | |
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killing
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| n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财 | |
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laurels
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| n.桂冠，荣誉 | |
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thermal
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| adj.热的，由热造成的；保暖的 | |
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intercept
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| vt.拦截，截住，截击 | |
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41
risky
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| adj.有风险的，冒险的 | |
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42
rehabilitate
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| vt.改造(罪犯)，修复；vi.复兴，(罪犯)经受改造 | |
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