英语新闻|啄木鸟在民宅墙内私藏650斤坚果,没想到…

China Daily Podcast - Podcast autorstwa China Daily

英语新闻|啄木鸟在民宅墙内私藏650斤坚果,没想到……A pest control company in California accidentally pulled 700 pounds of acorns from the walls of a home during a pest inspection.近日,美国加州一灭虫公司在一处民宅进行检查时,意外地从房屋墙内挖出约650斤橡子。Theexterminator later discovered that a pair of woodpeckers have stored acorns in this house for several years, and now the fruits of the birds’ labor have been cleared.后来发现,这些坚果是由一对橡树啄木鸟花了数年时间私藏的,如今它们的劳动成果被“一窝端”……The Sonoma County homeowners called on Nick Castro, owner of Nick’s Extreme Pest Control, when they spotted worms coming from a bedroom wall.索诺马县的房主们发现卧室墙上有虫子爬出来后,就去找了灭虫公司的老板尼克·卡斯特罗。When he cut a hole in the wall to find it, Castro witnessed something he’d never seen in more than 20 years in the business.卡斯特罗在墙上挖了一个洞来寻找虫子,没想到却看到了他从事这行20多年来从未见过的情形……Thousands of acorns spilled out of the wall, and more appeared whenever Castro stuck his hand into the hole.成千上万的橡子从墙里溢出来,每当卡斯特罗把手伸进洞里,就有更多的橡子滚出来……He soon discovered woodpeckers had stored tens of thousands of acorns, which he said weighed roughly 700 pounds, in a wall cavity, likely collected over the past two to five years.很快他发现,是啄木鸟在墙洞里储存了数万颗橡子,总共重约650斤(700磅),可能是过去两到五年收集的。Castro shared the bizarre experience in a post on social media:卡斯特罗在社交媒体发布帖子,分享了这个奇特的经历:“Came across this on a job. Bird was a bit of a hoarder. Filled up about 8 garbage bags full of acorns weighing in about 700 lbs. Unreal never came across something like this.”“接了个活儿,结果发现这鸟有点‘囤积狂’。装了8个大垃圾袋,差不多650斤的橡子。我可从来没遇到过这种情况。”Often woodpeckers store acorns on the outside of homes, sometimes in rain gutters, but rarely do they get them inside. In this case, Castro discovered the birds dropped their treasures through a hole in the chimney and entered the attic through a separate hole to feast on their stash.啄木鸟通常把橡子储存在房子外面,有时是雨水排水沟里,但它们很少把橡子拿进去。在这种情况下,卡斯特罗发现这些鸟把它们的宝贝从烟囱的一个洞里扔了出去,然后从另一个洞进入阁楼,尽情享用它们的宝藏。Paul Bannick, who has written two books about woodpeckers, said the acorn woodpecker, a species common on the West Coast, often amasses thousands of the nuts for winter. Acorn woodpeckers can drill small holes in almost anything — trees, birdhouses, cabins, houses — to hoard food, he said.西雅图野生动物保护组织“西北保护”的主管——保罗·班尼克(Paul Bannick)曾撰写过两本关于啄木鸟的书,他表示,橡树啄木鸟(acorn woodpecker)是美国西海岸常见的一种物种,通常会在冬天收集数千颗橡子。它们几乎可以在任何东西上钻小洞——树木、鸟舍、小屋、房屋——来储存食物。Acorns are vital for the birds’ breeding, Bannick said, because they help female woodpeckers stay plump and healthy throughout the winter.班尼克说,橡子对橡树啄木鸟的繁殖至关重要,因为它们可以帮助雌性啄木鸟在整个冬天保持丰满和健康。“It’s a compulsive process,” said Bannick, a director at Conservation Northwest, a Seattle wildlife preservation organization. If the woodpeckers know there are acorns on the ground, “they’re going to collect and store as many as they possibly can.”“这是一种强迫性的过程,如果橡树啄木鸟知道地上有橡子,它们就会尽可能多地收集和储存橡子。”班尼克解释说,他是西雅图野生动物保护组织“西北保护”的主管。It took creating another three holes in the home’s walls to remove all the acorns, which ultimately piled and reached about 20 feet high, Castro estimated.卡斯特罗估计,他们又在家里的墙上挖了三个洞,才把所有的橡子都搬走了,橡子最终堆了起来,高约20英尺。The acorns were thrown away as they were covered in droppings and bits of fiberglass from the wall’s insulation.橡子被扔掉了,因为它们上面覆盖着粪便和墙壁绝缘材料上的玻璃纤维碎片。Acorn英 [ˈeɪkɔːn]    美 [ˈeɪkɔːrn]n. 橡子Amass英 [əˈmæs]      美 [əˈmæs]v.积累Insulation英[ˌɪnsjuˈleɪʃn]  美[ˌɪnsəˈleɪʃn]n.隔离