The jaguar, Panthera onca – the largest cat in the Americas and the third largest in the world – still prowls the rangelands of the Pantanal, a 190,000-square-kilometer mosaic of rivers, forests and seasonally flooded savannas that spill from Brazil into neighboring Bolivia and Paraguay.
美洲最大貓科動物，也是全球第三大貓科物種美洲豹，依舊在「潘特納爾」放牧區遊蕩。潘特納爾面積19萬平方公里，由河流、森林、雨季時洪水氾濫的熱帶大草原組成，從巴西延伸到鄰國玻利維亞與巴拉圭。

From the jaguar’s perspective, this vast, wildlife-rich area probably seems close to a slice of heaven – or, at least it would if the big cats were not routinely hunted down in retaliation for cattle losses.
在這些美洲豹眼中，要不是因為牛隻被殺，這些大貓因此定期遭到報復獵殺的話，這片充滿野生物的廣袤地區就像天堂。

The importance of the Pantanal was emphasized last October when Thomas Kaplan, executive chairman of the foundation Panthera, an emerging force in big cat conservation, finalized the purchase of two large ranches and signed an agreement to buy a third, creating a property that will soon total more than 160,000 hectares.
去年10月，在凸顯潘特納爾的重要性後，當時大貓保育生力軍「美洲豹」基金會執行主席湯瑪士‧卡普蘭，拍板定案買下兩個大牧場，並簽約準備買第三個。再過不久，這片產物的面積將超過16萬公頃。

The ranches, which will be run by Panthera, are particularly important because they connect previously isolated wildlife preserves. Now, jaguars will be able to travel safely from one sanctuary to the other.
這些牧場將由「美洲豹基金會」管理，牧場地理位置特別重要，是因它們與原本孤立的野生物保育區銜接。現在，美洲豹可從一個棲息地安全邁步到另一個。

Dr. Kaplan, an entrepreneur and financier who in 2006 founded Panthera, said that the plan was to continue running cattle on the ranches while testing a broad range of techniques for reducing livestock-jaguar interactions. The results, he hopes, will encourage others to adopt range management practices that encourage co-existence over conflict.
2006年創立「美洲豹」的企業家與金融家卡普蘭說，他們的計畫是繼續在牧場養牛，同時以降低牲畜與美洲豹互動為目標，進行廣泛技術測試。他希望測試結果可以鼓勵其他人採取能促進衝突共存的農場管理措施。

At stake in the Pantanal, conservationists say, is a significant fraction – perhaps 15 percent – of the world’s remaining population of jaguars.
保育人士指出，潘特納爾與全球殘存美洲豹的重大比例息息相關，該地美洲豹約占全球15%。

Cattle ranching and jaguar conservation do not need to be mutually exclusive, said Alan Rabinowitz, executive director of the science and exploration program at the Wildlife Conservation Society, based in the Bronx, New York.
總部在紐約布朗克斯區的「野生動物保育協會」科學與探險計畫執行長艾倫‧拉比諾威茲說，養牛場與美洲豹的保育未必相互排斥。

“Cattle open up the landscape,” Dr. Rabinowitz said, and enhance habitat for the jaguar’s wild prey. “If you were to take out the cattle and let large areas revert to scrubby vegetation, you’d have far fewer jaguars in the Pantanal than you do today.”
拉比諾威茲說，「養牛可開闊景觀」，同時讓美洲豹的野生獵物棲息地變更好。他說：「假使不養牛，讓這大塊大塊地區回復枝繁葉茂，潘特納爾的美洲豹會比今天少得多。」

Jaguars can also provide ranchers with an additional source of income. For example, several ranches in the Pantanal run ecotourism operations that have turned a liability into a valuable asset.
美洲豹還可成為牧場主人的額外收入來源。例如，潘特納爾有幾個牧場搞生態旅遊，化負債為資產。

Conservationists say that the next decade will be pivotal for jaguars, in the Pantanal and throughout its range, which runs from northern Argentina to the borderlands shared by Mexico and the United States. No one knows the precise rate at which the number of jaguars is declining or just how many jaguars there are. But the World Conservation Union estimates the total free-ranging population at fewer than 50,000 adults and classifies the animal as near threatened.
保育人士說，在潘特納爾一整塊放牧區中，未來十年是美洲豹數量的關鍵期。放牧區從阿根廷北部直到美墨共同邊界。目前無人知道美洲豹衰減的確切速度，或者還有多少美洲豹。但世界保育聯盟估計，成豹總放養數量不到五萬頭，並將美洲豹列為瀕臨生存威脅的動物。

Even though jaguars kill and eat cattle, they do so less often than one might imagine.
儘管美洲豹會殺害吃掉牛隻，牠們以牛為獵物的比例比想像中少得多。

Over the course of nearly two years, Fernando Azevedo, a postdoctoral fellow at the University if São Paulo, and his field assistants collared 11 adult jaguars and tracked their movements. They also methodically collected their scats and examined the carcasses of their prey.
在將近兩年中，聖保羅大學博士後研究學者費南杜‧阿齊維多和田野研究助理替11隻成豹戴上偵測頸圈以追蹤牠們的行蹤。他們同時有系統收集美洲豹糞便，檢查牠們獵物的屍體。

The contents of the scats revealed that the giant rodents known as capybaras were the jaguars’ most common prey, followed by caimans and marsh deer. Of 113 carcasses confirmed as jaguar kills, capybaras made up 35; caimans, 23, and cattle, 32.
糞便內容物顯示，巨大齧齒動物如水豚，是最常見的美洲豹獵物，再來是大鱷魚與沼澤鹿。在確認是美洲豹獵殺的113具死屍中，水豚35隻、大鱷魚23隻、牛32隻。

Dr. Azevedo then measured the cattle that were killed against a larger background.
阿齊維多稍後計算一個較大地區死牛數目。

In all, 169 cattle deaths occurred at Fazenda San Francisco, a 12,000-hectare cattle ranch, rice farm and wildlife reserve during the study period, he and his former thesis adviser, Dennis Murray of Trent University in Canada, reported in the September issue of The Journal of Wildlife Management. Nineteen percent were lost to jaguars. Out of a 5,000-head cattle herd, the jaguar’s take amounted to less than 1 percent.
根據他和前論文指導教授、加拿大特倫特大學的丹尼斯‧穆瑞發表於9月號《野生動物管理期刊》的報告，研究期間，面積1萬2千公頃，內有牧場、稻田、野生物保育區的「舊金山法桑達」地區共有169頭牛被殺。其中19%死於美洲豹攻擊。在五千頭牛中，美洲豹殺死的數量還不到1%。

Nonetheless, problem jaguars do exist. Some conservationists concede that hunting a problem animal may sometimes be a solution.
話雖如此，肇禍的美洲豹還是存在。有些保育人士承認，獵殺有問題的動物，有時可一勞永逸。

But in the Pantanal, jaguar hunting is also part of a tradition as deeply ingrained as fox hunting once was in the English countryside – except that here, it is not the affluent landowners who most enthusiastically join the chase but their employees, the Pantaneiro cowboys.
但在潘特納爾，獵豹一如英國鄉村一度存在的獵狐活動，是根深柢固傳統的一環，只是在此地，最熱中追殺美洲豹的不是有錢的地主，而是他們的員工–潘特納爾的牛仔。

For them, jaguar hunting is a form of entertainment, said Sandra Cavalcanti, a jaguar expert who will soon receive her Ph.D. from Utah State University. “Killing a jaguar is considered a manly thing to do,” Ms. Cavalcanti said.
不久將在猶他州立大學取得博士學位的美洲豹專家珊德拉‧卡瓦康提說，對他們來說，獵殺美洲豹是一種娛樂。卡瓦康提說：「殺死美洲豹被視為很man的事。」

Later this year, Ms. Cavalcanti, who has joined the staff that Panthera is assembling, hopes to begin addressing this problem by starting a cowboy outreach program, which could include things like medical services, instruction in range management and depredation control.
在「美洲豹基金會」號召下加入員工行列的卡瓦康提，希望今年底從一項牛仔出擊計畫出發，開始解決獵豹問題。這項計畫包括提供醫療服務、放牧區指導管理及掠食管控。

Given the stakes, Ms. Cavalcanti said, researchers no longer have the luxury to just study these elegantly patterned beasts. To save them, she said, “we have to act.”
卡瓦康提說，從這些風險來看，研究人員已不能再單純地研究這些有美麗花紋的野獸。為了拯救牠們，她說：「我們必須行動。」

關鍵字句

學名為Panthera onca的美洲豹，為大自然的掠食者（predator），但保育人士（conservationist）憂心，世界最大的巴西濕地（wetland）潘特納爾（Pantanal）的美洲豹，可能因持續遭到獵殺（hunt down）而有銳減（in sharp decline）之虞。

儘管在保育等級中，美洲豹僅被列為（classify）「瀕臨生存威脅」（near threatened），屬於低危險級（lower risk），作者指出，由於獵豹是潘特納爾的傳統，牛仔認為它是很man的行為（a manly thing to do），如果這項人與動物的衝突（conflict）無法解決，美洲豹很快將步上亞洲虎（Asian tigers）與非洲獅（African lions）後塵（trace a similar trajectory）。

除了獵豹是傳統的娛樂（entertainment），美洲豹會攻擊牧場的牛，是牠變成獵物（prey）的另一原因。但保育人士再次認為，牧牛（cattle ranching）與美洲豹保育（conservation）不一定相互排斥（mutually exclusive），並指稱如果沒有牛，今天美洲豹數目可能更少。 

原文參照
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/01/science/01jag.html
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/01/01/america/jaguar.php

2008-01-14/聯合報/B6版/NEW YORK TIMES 王麗娟 原文請見1月14日紐時周報六版右上