第2040期:Firefighting goats

Meat, milk, cheese – just some of the things provided by goats. But now we can also add fire safety to this list. As wildfires damage increasingly large areas of the planet each year, goat herds may offer a way of reducing the risk. 

肉、牛奶、奶酪——只是山羊提供的一些东西。 但现在我们还可以将消防安全添加到这个列表中。 随着野火每年对地球造成的损害越来越大，山羊群可能会提供一种降低风险的方法。 

Wildfires are made possible by hot, dry weather conditions as well as a supply of dead vegetation that serves as fuel. We may have limited control over the first factor, but we can control the second. Reducing the fuel load lowers the probability of wildfires occurring, as well as the amount of damage caused. This is where we can turn to goats to provide a solution. Goats are being used for landscape management in a number of places around the world, including Greece, Spain, Portugal, Chile and various parts of the United States. 

炎热、干燥的天气条件以及用作燃料的枯死植被使得野火成为可能。 我们对第一个因素的控制可能有限，但我们可以控制第二个因素。 减少燃料负载可以降低发生野火的可能性以及造成的损失程度。 这就是我们可以求助于山羊来提供解决方案的地方。 山羊在世界许多地方被用于景观管理，包括希腊、西班牙、葡萄牙、智利和美国各地。

Goats have a very tough digestive system. Many kinds of vegetation that are toxic to other animals can be easily eaten by goats. It's not just fully-grown plants that goats are able to deal with: any seeds that pass through a goat become non-viable and will not grow. Human clearance teams have to worry about getting to hard-to-reach vegetation patches – goats don't. They are skilled mountain climbers and when standing on their hind legs, can reach up to two metres to devour shrubs and grass that humans would struggle to reach. Because of this, using goats can reduce both the possibility of workplace accidents and the amount of money spent on fire protection measures. Goat herds have been found to clear some patches of land for a third of the price of human vegetation control teams. 

山羊有一个非常艰难的消化系统。 许多对其他动物有毒的植物很容易被山羊吃掉。 山羊不仅仅能够处理完全成熟的植物：任何通过山羊的种子都会变得无法存活并且无法生长。 人类清理小组必须担心如何到达难以到达的植被斑块，而山羊则不需要。 它们是熟练的登山能手，当用后腿站立时，它们可以达到两米远，以吞噬人类难以到达的灌木和草丛。 正因为如此，使用山羊既可以减少工作场所事故的可能性，也可以减少用于消防措施的资金。 人们发现，山羊群清理一些土地的费用是人类植被控制小组费用的三分之一。 

Cost and safety aren't the only benefits. Goats are quieter than lawnmowers and people usually prefer to see goats grazing rather than litres of herbicide being sprayed on the land. Children are often fascinated to see the goats at work and this provides an opportunity to educate people about preventing wildfires. 

成本和安全并不是唯一的好处。 山羊比割草机更安静，人们通常更喜欢看到山羊吃草，而不是在土地上喷洒数升除草剂。 孩子们常常着迷于看到山羊在工作，这为教育人们预防野火提供了机会。