A fast-growing population of feral horses in an alpine national park needs to be substantially reduced in number, researchers argue.
研究人员认为，高山国家公园内快速增加的野马的数量需要大幅度地减少一些。
Up to 10,000 feral horses might be killed or removed from Australia’s largest alpine national park under a draft plan to control the rapidly growing population of non-native animals.
根据一项控制非本地动物快速增长的草拟计划，有近10000野马可能会被杀掉或者从澳大利亚最大的高山国家公园移走。
Scientists have welcomed the idea of removing them, but are alarmed that the plan still allows for thousands to remain, threatening endangered species and habitats.
科学家更赞成移走的主意，但是需要注意的是，这种方法仍然会保留上千匹马，对濒危物种和栖息地造成威胁。
The proposed cull, in Kosciuszko National Park, New South Wales (NSW), contrasts with a ban on lethal control measures in the United States, where large populations of wild horses known as mustangs also cause problems.
在新威尔士的Kosciuszko国家公园，提出的淘汰计划与美国禁止致命措施形成了对比，在那里大量被称为野马的野马也造成了问题。？？？
The draft plan, released last month, recommends reducing the park’s population of wild horses, known in Australia as brumbies, from an estimated 14,000 to about 3,000 through a combination of mostly ground-based shooting, as well as rounding up and rehoming.
上个月颁布的草拟计划，建议减少公园的野马数量，在澳大利亚的野马，通过捕杀、围捕和送回原栖息地，数量从大约14000减少到3000。
But the Australian Academy of Science argues that the number of horses should be rapidly reduced below 3,000.
但是澳大利亚科学院分析，马群的数量会很快降到3000以下。
In an open letter with 69 signatories including scientists and institutions sent to the NSW environment minister on Friday, they note that “alpine wetlands continue to degrade even with very small numbers of feral horses. Kosciusko cannot begin to recover from drought, extensive bushfires and overgrazing if, as currently proposed, 3,000 feral horses remain.”
在一封周五寄给新威尔士环境部的包含69名科学家和机构签字的公开信中，他们指出，即使只有少数量的野马，高山湿地也在持续的退化。如果按照之前提议的那样，保留3000匹野马，Kosciusko不可能开始从干旱、大规模的森林火灾和过度放牧中恢复过来。
Capitulating to lobby groups
资本主义游说团体？？？
Researchers say the draft plan capitulates to a small but vocal group that has lobbied the government to protect horses because of the animals’ heritage value.
研究人员说，该计划草案向一个小但是有发言权的全体投降了，该团体游说政府保护马，因为这些动物的遗产有价值。
The plan would allow the remaining brumbies to roam over one-third of the park.
该项计划可能会允许剩余的野马在公园三分之一内游荡。
That would include threatened alpine sphagnum bogs and the habitats of endangered and vulnerable species such as a fish called the stocky galaxias (Galaxias tantangara), the alpine tree frog (Litoria verreauxii alpina) and the broad-toothed rat (Mastacomys fuscus).
那样会受到包括高山泥炭沼泽和譬如 stocky galaxias、高山树蛙和broad-toothed老鼠在内的濒危和脆弱物种的习性的威胁。
Australia has no native mammals with hard hooves, and so horses do more damage to delicate vegetation and soils than soft-footed species, such as kangaroos and wallabies, as well as creating problems through over-grazing.
澳大利亚没有拥有坚硬蹄的本土哺乳动物，所以这些马对脆弱的植物和土壤造成损坏大于软足动物，比如袋鼠、小袋鼠，同时也会因为过度放牧带来新的问题。
David Watson, an ecologist at Charles Sturt University in Albury–Wodonga — which straddles NSW and the neighbouring state of Victoria — says the NSW government “couldn’t have picked a worse place” to allow feral horses to roam. He makes the point that Australia’s alpine environment covers just 1% of the continent and has many endemic and threatened species that are found nowhere else.
David Watson说，新威尔士政府不可能选择一个差点的地方让这些马游荡。他指出，澳大利亚的高山环境只覆盖了1%的欧洲大陆，有许多没有地方性和物种威胁的地方。
“These areas are just too fragile to have large herbivores trampling around in them,” adds Don Driscoll, an ecologist at Deakin University in Melbourne.
这些区域太脆弱了，不能承受大型的食草动物在上面踩踏。
Management of feral horses has been a long-running issue in Australia’s mountainous alpine region, which extends across three states.
野马的管理在澳大利亚多山的高山地区成为了一个长期的问题，甚至延伸到三个州。
The Australian Capital Territory, which shares a border with Kosciuszko National Park, has a zero-tolerance approach to feral horses and uses methods including aerial shooting.
澳大利亚首都地区和Kosciuszko国家公园接壤，对野马零容忍，并采取了包括空中射击的方式。
Victoria also shares an alpine border with New South Wales, but its latest management plan, released on 1 November, recommends using culling and other measures to remove all feral horses in the most delicate alpine environments, and the steady reduction of numbers elsewhere.
Victoria也和新威尔士的高山接壤，但是它在11月1号最新发布的管理办法中，建议使用淘汰和其他方式去移走最脆弱的高山环境中的所有野马，并稳步降低其他地区的数量。
Brumbies and mustangs
The NSW state government had previously tried to control the brumbies by rehoming them on private land, but was never able to find a place for more than a few hundred horses a year, rehoming only about 1,000 since 2002.
新威尔士政府之前曾尝试通过将它们返回原栖息地的方式去控制brumbies，但是无法找到一个一年能容纳超过几百匹马的地方，从2002年以来，返回的只有1000匹。
Jamie Pittock, an environmental scientist at the Australian National University in Canberra, says that the government’s acknowledgement that the exponentially growing population cannot be managed with rehoming alone is at least “a step forward”.
Jamie Pittock说，政府承认对比以指数形式增长的数量来说，遣返远远不够，但起码向前走了一步。
But Watson says that 3,000 horses would breed rapidly enough that 1,000 would still need to be removed or killed every few years, meaning that even a small population will create a continuing headache in terms of damage to the park and removal requirements.
但是，Watson说，3000匹马可能会迅速繁殖，每隔几年就有1000匹马需要被移走或者杀掉，意味着即使是一个小的数量在损坏公园和转移方面都会持续的令人头痛。
A spokesperson for the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service said the proposed target of 3,000 horses would maintain the “environmental values of the park” and that removing horses from two-thirds of the park would provide “effective protection” for threatened species. They did not respond to Nature’s specific questions about scientists’ criticisms of the draft plan.
XXXX的发言人说，提出的3000匹马的目标会保持“公园的环境价值”并且从公园内移走的三分之二的马匹会对被威胁的物种提供有效的保护。他们并没有回答Nature的关于科学家对该计划草案批评的具体问题。
The United States is grappling with similar issues with mustangs in national parks, says ecosystem scientist John Derek Scasta at the University of Wyoming in Laramie.
美国正在应对国家公园内相似的野马问题，经济学家John Derek说。
“The goal is to get within an agreed-upon number of horses that are sustainable,” he says, but not everybody agrees on what that number is.
目标就是得到一个可持续保持的野马的数量，他说，但是不是每个人都同意那个数字。
Because legislation bans culling, the US Bureau of Land Management instead relies on rounding up, sterilization, rehoming or paying to keep the horses on either private or federal holdings.
因为法律禁止淘汰，US土地管理局依靠围捕、绝育、遣送或者付费将这些马放到私人领地或者联邦管控。
But Scasta says rising numbers, and the costs of looking after them, might mean the United States has to face its own reckoning with wild horses in the not-too-distant future.
但是Scasta说，不断攀升的数量、照看的花费，可能意味着美国在不久的将来必须去面对自己带来的野马问题。
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