本篇文章共分 12 段，討論關於蝙蝠這種帶著神秘色彩的飛行哺乳類動物，如何幫助馬達加斯加島上的農民對抗破壞作物的各種昆蟲，內容頗具知識性。

本篇考題英文原文與對應之中文翻譯整理如下。練習作答解題時若有對語意不清楚之處，請仔細查閱對照，以提升閱讀理解能力。

Bats to the rescue 蝙蝠出手相助

1. 環境背景

   How Madagascar’s bats are helping to save the rainforest

   There are few places in the world where relations between agriculture and conservation are more strained. Madagascar’s forests are being converted to agricultural land at a rate of one percent every year. Much of this destruction is fuelled by the cultivation of the country’s main staple crop: rice. And a key reason for this destruction is that insect pests are destroying vast quantities of what is grown by local subsistence farmers, leading them to clear forest to create new paddy fields. The result is devastating habitat and biodiversity loss on the island, but not all species are suffering. In fact, some of the island’s insectivorous bats are currently thriving and this has important implications for farmers and conservationists alike.

   馬達加斯加的蝙蝠是如何幫助拯救雨林的

   世界上很少有其他地方的農業和保育之間的關係比此地更加緊張。馬達加斯加的森林正以每年百分之一的速度被轉化為農業用地。這種破壞大部分是由於種植該國的主要主食作物—水稻—而加劇。造成這種破壞的一個關鍵原因是，蟲害正在破壞當地自給自足的農民所種植的大量作物，導致他們必須清除森林以創造新的稻田。其結果是破壞島上的棲息地和喪失生物多樣性，但並非所有的物種都受到影響。事實上，該島的一些食蟲蝙蝠目前正在茁壯成長，這對農民和保育人士雙方都具有重大意義。

2. 蝙蝠可緩解森林砍伐

   Enter University of Cambridge zoologist Ricardo Rocha. He’s passionate about conservation, and bats. More specifically, he’s interested in how bats are responding to human activity and deforestation in particular. Rocha’s new study shows that several species of bats are giving Madagascar’s rice farmers a vital pest control service by feasting on plagues of insects. And this, he believes, can ease the financial pressure on farmers to turn forest into fields.

   劍橋大學動物學家里卡多-羅沙此時登場。他對保育和蝙蝠充滿熱情。更具體地說，他對蝙蝠如何應對人類活動，特別是森林砍伐感興趣。羅沙的新研究顯示，有幾種蝙蝠通過捕食昆蟲，為馬達加斯加的稻農提供了重要的蟲害防制服務。他認為，這可以緩解農民把森林變成田地的經濟壓力。

3. 蝙蝠種類與數量

   Bats comprise roughly one-fifth of all mammal species in Madagascar and thirty-six recorded bat species are native to the island, making it one of the most important regions for conservation of this animal group anywhere in the world.

   蝙蝠約占馬達加斯加所有哺乳動物物種的五分之一，36 種記錄在案的蝙蝠物種原產於該島，使其成為世界上保護此類動物族群的最重要地區之一。

4. 蝙蝠滅蟲

   Co-leading an international team of scientists, Rocha found that several species of indigenous bats are taking advantage of habitat modification to hunt insects swarming above the country’s rice fields. They include the Malagasy mouse-eared bat, Major’s long-fingered bat, the Malagasy white-bellied free-tailed bat and Peters’ wrinkle-lipped bat.

   羅沙協同領導一個國際科學小組，發現有好幾種本土蝙蝠正在利用棲地的改變來捕食該國稻田上方蜂擁而至的昆蟲。它們包括馬達加斯加鼠耳蝙蝠、馬傑長指蝙蝠、馬達加斯加白腹自由尾蝠和彼得斯皺唇蝙蝠。

5. 實際案例

   ‘These winner species are providing a valuable free service to Madagascar as biological pest suppressors,’ says Rocha. ‘We found that six species of bat are preying on rice pests, including the paddy swarming caterpillar and grass webworm. The damage which these insects cause puts the island’s farmers under huge financial pressure and that encourages deforestation.’

   “這些成功物種作為生物害蟲抑制劑為馬達加斯加提供了寶貴的免費服務，” Rocha 說。“我們發現有六種蝙蝠正在捕食水稻害蟲，包括禾灰翅夜蛾和草地結網毛蟲。這些昆蟲造成的損害使該島的農民面臨巨大的經濟壓力，這也助長了森林的砍伐。”

6. 論文發表

   The study, now published in the journal Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment, set out to investigate the feeding activity of insectivorous bats in the farmland bordering the Ranomafana National Park in the southeast of the country.

   這項研究現在發表在《農業、生態系統和環境》雜誌上，旨在調查該國東南部與拉諾馬法納國家公園接壤的農田中食蟲蝙蝠的攝食活動。

7. 研究方法

   Rocha and his team used state-of-the-art ultrasonic recorders to record over a thousand bat ‘feeding buzzes’ (echolocation sequences used by bats to target their prey) at 54 sites, in order to identify the favourite feeding spots of the bats. They next used DNA barcoding techniques to analyse droppings collected from bats at the different sites.

   羅沙和他的團隊使用最先進的超音波記錄器，在 54 個地點記錄了超過 1000 個蝙蝠的 “進食嗡嗡聲”（蝙蝠用來瞄準獵物的回聲定位序列），以確定蝙蝠最喜歡的進食點。他們接下來使用 DNA 條碼技術來分析從不同地點的蝙蝠身上收集的糞便。

8. 研究觀察結果

   The recordings revealed that bat activity over rice fields was much higher than it was in continuous forest – seven times higher over rice fields which were on flat ground, and sixteen times higher over fields on the sides of hills – leaving no doubt that the animals are preferentially foraging in these man-made ecosystems. The researchers suggest that the bats favour these fields because lack of water and nutrient run-off make these crops more susceptible to insect pest infestations. DNA analysis showed that all six species of bat had fed on economically important insect pests. While the findings indicated that rice farming benefits most from the bats, the scientists also found indications that the bats were consuming pests of other crops, including the black twig borer (which infests coffee plants), the sugarcane cicada, the macadamia nut-borer, and the sober tabby (a pest of citrus fruits).

   錄音顯示，稻田上的蝙蝠活動比連續的森林要高得多—在平地上的稻田上的活動是七倍，而在山坡上的稻田上的活動是十六倍—毫無疑問，這些動物優先在這些人造的生態系統中覓食。研究人員認為，蝙蝠偏愛這些田地，因為缺水和營養物質的流失使這些作物更容易受到蟲害的侵襲。DNA 分析顯示，所有六種蝙蝠都曾以具有重要經濟價值的害蟲為食。雖然研究結果表明，水稻種植從蝙蝠那裡受益最多，但科學家們也發現有跡象表明，蝙蝠正在吞食其他作物的害蟲，包括黑色枝小蠹（侵擾咖啡植物）、甘蔗蟬、粗腳姬捲葉蛾和 sober tabby（一種柑橘類水果的害蟲）。

9. 蝙蝠效益

   ‘The effectiveness of bats as pest controllers has already been proven in the USA and Catalonia,’ said co-author James Kemp, from the University of Lisbon. ‘But our study is the first to show this happening in Madagascar, where the stakes for both farmers and conservationists are so high.’

   “蝙蝠作為害蟲控制者的有效性已經在美國和加泰羅尼亞得到了證明，” 共同作者、里斯本大學的詹姆斯-坎普說。“但我們的研究是第一次顯示這種情況發生在馬達加斯加，這對當地的農民與保育人士都具有重大的利害關係。”

10. 蝙蝠防治疾病

    Local people may have a further reason to be grateful to their bats. While the animal is often associated with spreading disease, Rocha and his team found evidence that Malagasy bats feed not just on crop pests but also on mosquitoes – carriers of malaria, Rift Valley fever virus and elephantiasis – as well as blackflies, which spread river blindness.

    當地人可能有進一步的理由感謝他們的蝙蝠。雖然這種動物經常與傳播疾病聯繫在一起，但羅沙和他的團隊發現，馬達加斯加蝙蝠不僅以作物害蟲為食，還以蚊子—瘧疾、裂谷熱病毒和象皮病的載體—以及傳播河盲症的黑蠅為食。

11. 人與蝙蝠關係複雜

    Rocha points out that the relationship is complicated. When food is scarce, bats become a crucial source of protein for local people. Even the children will hunt them. And as well as roosting in trees, the bats sometimes roost in buildings, but are not welcomed there because they make them unclean. At the same time, however, they are associated with sacred caves and the ancestors, so they can be viewed as beings between worlds, which makes them very significant in the culture of the people. And one potential problem is that while these bats are benefiting from farming, at the same time deforestation is reducing the places where they can roost, which could have long-term effects on their numbers. Rocha says, ‘With the right help, we hope that farmers can promote this mutually beneficial relationship by installing bat houses.’

    羅沙指出，這種關係很複雜。當食物匱乏時，蝙蝠成為當地人的重要蛋白質來源。甚至孩子們也會獵殺它們。除了在樹上棲息外，蝙蝠有時也在建築物中棲息，但不受歡迎，因為它們會把建築物弄骯髒。然而，與此同時，它們與神聖的洞穴和祖先有關連，所以它們可以被視為陰陽兩界之間的生命，這使得它們在當地人的文化中非常重要。而一個潛在的問題是，當這些蝙蝠從農業中受益的同時，森林砍伐正在減少它們可以棲息的地方，這可能對它們的數量產生長期影響。羅沙說，“藉由正確的協助，我們希望農民能夠通過設置蝙蝠屋來促進這種互利關係。

12. 蝙蝠有助增產

    Rocha and his colleagues believe that maximising bat populations can help to boost crop yields and promote sustainable livelihoods. The team is now calling for further research to quantify this contribution. ‘I’m very optimistic,’ says Rocha. ‘If we give nature a hand, we can speed up the process of regeneration.’

    羅沙和他的同僚們認為，儘可能地增加蝙蝠的數量可以幫助提高作物產量，促進永續的生計發展。該團隊現在呼籲進一步研究以量化此一貢獻。“我非常樂觀，” 羅卡說。“如果我們助大自然一臂之力，我們就能加快再生的進程。”