Chapter 10

CHAPTER 10 The man's name was Stephen Weiss. He was a wildlife scientist, studying grizzly bears. He worked at the University of Montana. He told them all about his work as they sat outside the snack bar of the Lake McDonald Lodge. It was the big hotel across the lake from the ranger station. Aunt Cassie had suggested that Steve join them

第十章这个人的名字叫斯蒂芬·韦斯。 他是一名野生动物科学家，研究灰熊。 他在蒙大拿大学工作。 当他们坐在麦当劳湖旅馆的小吃店外面时，他把自己的工作都告诉了他们。 那是护林站湖对面的一家大旅馆。 卡西姨妈建议史蒂夫加入他们

for lunch. Because it turned out they had a lot to talk about. They bought food and brought it to a picnic table near the lake. The water was so still it looked like a piece of light-blue glass. Mel ignored her cheeseburger and opened up a bag of Bugles. She popped one of the cone-shaped corn chips into her mouth. They were a brand-new kind of snack and were all the rage at school this year. "I want to know everything about the grizzly that followed you last night," Steve said. He'd pushed aside his burger and bottle of Coke to make room for a notebook. He scribbled away with his pen as Mel told him how the grizzly appeared from the woods and wound up on the porch. "You did exactly the right thing," Steve said, looking impressed. "You stayed calm. I don't think that bear was going to attack you."

吃午饭。因为事实证明他们有很多话要谈。 他们买了食物，带到湖边的野餐桌上。 水面如此平静，看起来就像一块浅蓝色的玻璃。 梅尔没有理会她的芝士汉堡，打开了一袋Bugles。 她把一个锥形的玉米片塞进嘴里。 它们是一种全新的小吃，今年在学校风靡一时。 “我想知道昨晚跟着你的灰熊的一切，”史蒂夫说。 他把汉堡和可乐放在一边，腾出地方放笔记本。 当梅尔告诉他灰熊是如何从树林里出现，然后在门廊上盘旋的时候，他拿着笔乱写乱写。 “你做得很对，”史蒂夫说，看起来很感动。 “你保持冷静。我不认为那只熊会攻击你。”

"But the way it rose up like that…" Mel said with a shudder. "That's actually not usually an aggressive stance," he said. "Bears stand up on their hind legs to get a better look at things. But if you had run… or if it had gotten into the cabin, I really don't know. Grizzlies are unpredictable. But I'd say you're lucky." Steve asked her how the bear looked, smelled, and sounded. He was especially interested in the claws. "How long were they?" he asked. Mel thought for a minute. She stared at one of her Bugles, then slipped it over her finger. It looked to be about an inch long. "Way longer than this," she said, holding up her Bugle-topped finger. Steve nodded as he wrote. "That makes sense. Grizzlies use their claws to dig for roots and little animals under the ground. It sounds like that grizzly isn't doing much digging."

“但它是那样升起来的……”梅尔打了个寒噤。 “这实际上通常不是一种咄咄逼人的立场，”他说。 “熊用后腿站起来，以便更好地看东西。 但如果你跑了，或者它进了小屋，我真的不知道。 灰熊是不可预测的。 但我得说你很幸运。” 史蒂夫问她熊的样子、气味和声音。 他对爪子特别感兴趣。 “它们有多长？”他问。 梅尔想了一会儿。她盯着她的一只小号，然后把它戴在手指上。 它看起来大约有一英寸长。 “比这长多了。”她说，举起她那顶着军号的手指。 史蒂夫边写边点头。“这是有道理的。 灰熊用爪子在地下挖树根和小动物。 听起来那只灰熊不怎么挖东西。”

Steve asked her a few more questions and then finally closed his notebook. "All summer there have been an unusually high number of reports of aggressive grizzlies," he said, picking up his burger. "You're not the only one who's had a frightening experience." "But why are the bears acting this way?" Mel asked. There had to be a reason. She gazed at the smoke rising over the north end of the park. "Is it the fires?" Steve shook his head. "It's not the fires," he said. "There have been wildfires in Glacier since before it was a park." He pointed to their table, which was now covered with half-eaten burgers, crumpled wrappers, ketchup-covered napkins, and bottles of soda. "This is the reason the bears are threatening humans." "Um… the bears want to eat our hamburgers?" Aunt Cassie said.

史蒂夫又问了她几个问题，最后合上了笔记本。 “整个夏天都有很多关于攻击性灰熊的报道，”他说着拿起他的汉堡。 “你不是唯一一个有过可怕经历的人。” “但是熊为什么这样做呢？”梅尔·问道。 一定是有原因的。她凝视着公园北端升起的烟雾。 “是因为火吗？”史蒂夫摇了摇头。 “不是火灾，”他说。 “在冰川公园建成之前，这里就发生过野火。” 他指了指他们的桌子，桌上堆满了吃了一半的汉堡、皱巴巴的包装纸、涂着番茄酱的餐巾纸和几瓶苏打水。 “这就是熊威胁人类的原因。” “嗯……熊想吃我们的汉堡？”卡西姨妈说。

She glanced nervously at Mel. And Mel knew what she was thinking. That sounded, well, a little crazy. Steve shook his head. "Not exactly. The problem is garbage. Leftover food. There's trash everywhere in the park. On the trails. In the campgrounds. Dumped in ditches. It's become a bigger and bigger problem in Glacier." Mel thought of Mom, hollering at people who littered. She pictured her tiny mother standing on the trail, in her red bandanna and peace-sign T-shirt, scolding a gorilla-sized man for leaving his empty Coke bottle on the trail. Steve leaned forward. His eyes narrowed. "Grizzlies are eating the garbage. Some grizzlies have almost stopped hunting and eating berries and plants. They're now eating garbage and whatever food they can find at the campgrounds." Steve told them more about the research he'd been doing. And suddenly what he was saying

她紧张地瞥了梅尔一眼。 梅尔知道她在想什么。 这听起来，嗯，有点疯狂。 史蒂夫摇了摇头。“不完全是。 问题是垃圾。剩下的食物。 公园里到处都是垃圾。 在小路上。在露营地。 被扔进沟里。这在冰川已经成为一个越来越大的问题。” 梅尔想起了妈妈对乱扔垃圾的人大吼大叫。 她想象着她瘦小的母亲站在小路上，穿着红色的大手帕和印有和平标志的t恤，责骂一个大猩猩大小的男人，因为他把空可乐瓶留在小路上。 史蒂夫身体前倾。他眯起眼睛。 “灰熊在吃垃圾。 一些灰熊几乎停止了狩猎，转而吃浆果和植物。 他们现在吃垃圾和他们在露营地能找到的任何食物。” 史蒂夫告诉他们更多关于他一直在做的研究。 突然他说了什么

didn't sound crazy at all. "As part of my research, I've also been studying grizzly scat," Steve went on. Mel tried not to smile. Scat was another word for wild animal poop. And it had become Kevin's favorite word. "I have to go make a scat!" he'd said yesterday morning as he ran to the outhouse. But what Steve was saying was serious. "I've been finding grizzly scat with glass in it, pieces of metal and plastic," he continued. "Last month the rangers found a grizzly near a garbage dump. It had starved to death. It had glass embedded in its teeth. It probably couldn't eat." "How terrible!" Aunt Cassie said. Mel pushed away her food. She'd lost her appetite. "It is," Steve went on. "Some of these grizzlies are really suffering. And they're becoming more and more dangerous to people. They don't want to stay away from us. They think of us as a source of food."

听起来一点也不疯狂。 “作为我研究的一部分，我也一直在研究灰熊粪便，”史蒂夫继续说。 梅尔强忍着不笑。Scat是野生动物粪便的另一种说法。 它成了凯文最喜欢的词。 “我得去上厕所！”昨天早上他跑到外屋时说。 但史蒂夫说的是严肃的。 “我一直在寻找灰熊的粪便，里面有玻璃、金属和塑料碎片，”他继续说。 “上个月，护林员在一个垃圾场附近发现了一只灰熊。 它已经饿死了。它的牙齿里嵌着玻璃。 它可能不会吃东西。” “真可恶!”卡西姨妈说。 梅尔推开她的食物。她失去了食欲。 “是的，”史蒂夫继续说。“其中一些灰熊真的很痛苦。 它们对人类来说变得越来越危险。 他们不想远离我们。 他们认为我们是食物的来源。”