With me here today I brought something beautiful. This is a feather from one of the most beautiful birds we have in Kenya, the crested guinea fowl. But this feather is more than just that. If you've taken time when you are outdoors to look at the feathers around you, you'll have noticed that there is this huge variety of different sizes, shapes and even colors. The feather is one of the most astonishing pieces of technology invented by the natural world, and for centuries, this feather has helped birds to keep dry, to keep warm and even power flight. Only one section of the tree of life can actually make a feather. Among all the world's animals, birds are the only ones who can make something like what I'm holding today. I personally have given them a nickname, and I like to call them the feathermakers. It is the major difference between birds and any other animals we have on earth, and if you can't make a feather, you cannot call yourself a bird.
今天我到這裡, 帶來了很美麗的東西。 這根羽毛,來自肯亞 最美麗的鳥類之一, 冠珠雞。 但這根羽毛不只如此。 如果你在戶外的時候花點時間, 去看看你周圍的羽毛, 你就會注意到, 它們的大小、形狀、甚至顏色, 都有很大的不同。 羽毛是自然世界所發明出來 最令人驚奇的技術之一, 數世紀以來,這羽毛 協助鳥兒們保持乾燥, 保持溫暖,甚至是飛行的助力。 生命之樹只有一個部份 可以真正做出羽毛來。 在世界上所有的動物當中, 只有鳥類可以做出像我現在 手上拿著的東西。 我個人給了牠們一個暱稱, 我喜歡叫牠們羽毛製造者。 鳥類和地球上所有 其他動物有很大的不同, 如果你無法做出羽毛, 你就不能稱你自己是鳥。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
For us humans, who are earthbound, birds represent freedom. This feather has enabled birds to conquer gravity and take to the air in an extraordinary way. Don't you sometimes wish you could fly like a bird?
對我們受限在陸地上的人類而言, 鳥兒代表自由。 羽毛讓鳥能夠克服地心引力, 並用很不凡的方式駕馭天空。 你們不會有時很希望自己 能像鳥兒一樣飛翔嗎?
Birds are my passion, and I want to change the way each one of you thinks about them. The easiest reason I love them so much is because they are beautiful. There are 10,000 species in the world, and each one of them is uniquely beautiful. Birds are amazing, and this talk is dedicated to all the birds of the world.
鳥類是我的熱情所在, 我想要改變每個人對於鳥的看法。 我這麼喜愛牠們, 最簡單的理由是牠們很漂亮。 世界上有 10,000 種鳥, 每一種都有獨特的美。 鳥類很不可思議, 這場演說,是要獻給 世界上所有的鳥。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
(Applause)
(掌聲)
Indeed, these birds have been part of our lives and cultures all over the world for centuries, and every society has a story about birds. You probably have heard childhood stories of different birds and how they relate with man. I personally recently learned that our human ancestors would follow flocks of vultures and then they would help them to identify where carcasses have been dropped by large carnivores, and these humans will scavenge and eat part of that meat. Birds have been used as brands and labels all over the world. You know the bald eagle? It was chosen as the national emblem for the US because of its majestic strength, beautiful looks and even a long lifespan. And just like us humans who have managed to live in virtually all habitats of this earth, birds have also conquered the world. From birds such as these beautiful penguins that live in the cold ice caps to even others like the larks, who live in the hottest deserts you can imagine. Indeed, these species have conquered this world.
的確,鳥一直是我們 生活和文化的一部份, 數世紀以來在全世界皆是如此, 每個社會,都有一個 和鳥有關的故事。 你們在兒時可能有聽過 一些故事,是關於鳥兒 以及牠們和人類的關係。 我自己最近才學到, 我們人類的祖先會跟隨著禿鷹群, 禿鷹會幫助人類 找出屍體被食肉動物丟在哪裡, 這些人就會去撿拾那些肉來食用。 世界各地都有用鳥 來設計的品牌和商標。 認得這隻白頭鷹嗎? 牠被選為美國的國徽, 因為牠有雄偉威嚴的力量、 漂亮的外表、 甚至有很長的壽命。 和我們人類一樣, 人類已經幾乎在地球上 所有可以居住的地方定居, 鳥類也同樣征服了世界。 從像這些漂亮的企鵝 住在寒冷的冰帽上, 到其他鳥類如百靈鳥, 住在你所能想像出最炎熱的沙漠。 的確,這些品種已經征服了世界。
Birds also build houses like us. The real pros in housebuilding are a group of birds we call the weaverbirds, and this name they were given because of the way in which they weave their nests.
鳥類也和我們一樣會蓋房子。 真正的蓋房子專家, 是被我們稱為織巢鳥的一種鳥, 牠們得到這個名字, 是因為牠們編織鳥巢的方式。
An interesting one: birds also love and date just like us humans. In fact, you'll be surprised to know that males dress to impress the women, and I'll show you how. So here we have a long-tailed widowbird, and this is how they would normally look. But when it comes to the breeding season, everything changes, and this is how he looks.
很有趣的一點: 鳥類也和我們人類一樣, 會戀愛、會約會。 事實上,很讓人驚訝的是, 公鳥會用穿著來讓母鳥印象深刻, 讓我來展示牠們怎麼做。 這裡有一隻長尾巧織雀, 這是牠們平常看起來的模樣。 但到了繁殖季, 一切就改變了, 牠會變成這個樣子。
(Audience murmurs)
(觀眾低語)
Yeah? Birds also, multiple species of them, do love to touch and cuddle just like humans. And I know you're wondering about this one. Yes, they kiss too, sometimes very deeply.
是吧? 此外,有數種鳥類 和人類一樣喜歡接觸和摟抱。 我知道你們很想知道。 是的,牠們也會接吻, 有時候是深吻。
(Applause)
(掌聲)
Some have even learned to cheat on their spouses.
有些鳥甚至學會欺騙配偶。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
For example, the African jacana: the females will mate with multiple males and then she takes off to find other males to mate with and she leaves the male behind to take care of the chicks.
比如,長腳雉鴴: 母鳥會和不只一隻公鳥交配, 接著牠會落跑,去找其他公鳥交配, 牠丟下公鳥,讓公鳥照顧小鳥。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
(Applause)
(掌聲)
And birds help us so much, and they play very crucial roles in our ecosystems each day. Vultures clean up our environment by literally digesting disease-causing pathogens, and they finish carcasses that would otherwise cost us lots of money to clear from the environment. A sizable flock of vultures is capable of bringing down a carcass the size of a zebra straight to the bone within just about 30 minutes. Owls help to rid the environments of rodents and this helps us a lot because it saves us money -- we don't lose our crops -- and secondly, we don't have to buy harmful chemicals to handle these rodents. The beautiful sunbirds we see in our environments are part of nature's pollination crew, and they help our plants to form fruits. Together with other pollinators like insects, they have actually helped us to get most of the food crops that we depend on for many years.
鳥類也會幫我們很多忙, 牠們在我們的日常生態系統中 扮演關鍵的角色。 禿鷹會清理我們的環境, 牠們真的會把造成疾病的 病原體給消化掉, 牠們也會把屍體解決掉,為我們省下 大筆清理環境的錢。 一大群的禿鷹可以把斑馬大小的 屍體吃到剩骨頭, 只要不到三十分鐘。 貓頭鷹能幫忙擺脫 齧齒目動物的環境, 這能幫助我們省下很多錢── 作物不會損失── 再者,我們也不用買有害的化學藥物 來對付齧齒目動物。 在我們的環境中能看到的漂亮太陽鳥 隸屬大自然的授粉團隊, 牠們協助植物長出水果。 牠們和其他的授粉團隊成員合作, 如昆蟲,就能協助我們 收穫我們多年來 一直賴以為生的作物。
Unfortunately, the story of birds is by far not perfect. They are faced by numerous challenges every day wherever they live. Top on the threats facing birds is habitat loss and reduced food availability. Birds are also hunted, especially migratory species and ducks that congregate in water bodies. Poisoning is happening to flocks that like to stick together, especially in places like rice schemes. Moreover, power lines are electrocuting birds and wind farms are slicing birds when they fly through the blades. Recently, we've heard the talk of climate change making a lot of headlines, and it's also affecting birds, because birds are being forced to migrate to better breeding and feeding grounds because unfortunately where they used to live is no longer habitable.
不幸的是,目前, 鳥類的故事並不完美。 牠們不論住在哪裡, 每天都要面對許多挑戰。 鳥類要面對的挑戰之首, 就是失去棲息地, 可得食物也在減少。 鳥類也會被獵殺,特別是候鳥 以及在水中群聚的鴨子。 喜歡團結在一起的鳥群 特別容易被毒害, 特別是在稻田中。 此外,電線會讓鳥類觸電而死, 鳥類飛過風電廠的風車葉片間時 會被切到而受傷死亡。 最近,我們聽到 許多氣候變遷的言論, 登上許多頭條新聞, 這也會影響鳥類, 因為鳥類被迫遷離 較佳的繁殖地及飼育地, 因為,很不幸地,牠們過去的居住地 不再適合棲息。
My own perspective towards birds was changed when I was a small boy in high school, and there was this boy who struck, injuring the wing and the leg of a bird we called the augur buzzard. I was standing there, just a mere 14-year-old, and I imagined a human being in a similar situation, because this bird could not help itself. So even if I was hardly any biologist by then, I gathered with three of my friends and we decided to house the bird until it had regained strength and then let it free. Interestingly, it accepted to feed on beef from our school kitchen, and we hunted termites around the compound for its dinner every day. After a few days, it had regained strength and we released it. We were so happy to see it flap its wings and fly off gracefully. And that experience changed the way we looked at birds. We went on to actually make a magazine, and we called it the Hawk Magazine, and this was in honor of this bird that we had helped within our own high school.
我自己對於鳥類改觀的時間點, 是在高中時,我還是個小男孩, 當時有一個男孩 攻擊一隻棕鵟,傷了牠的翅膀和腳。 我站在那裡, 我才十四歲, 我想像著人類處在同樣的情境中, 因為這隻鳥無法幫牠自己。 雖然那時我實在算不上是生物學家, 我召集了三個朋友, 我們決定養這隻鳥, 直到牠重新恢復力氣,再放牠自由。 有趣的是,牠接受我們餵牠 吃從學校廚房拿來的牛肉, 我們每天也在圍牆建築 附近找白蟻來給牠當晚餐。 幾天之後,牠恢復力氣了, 我們就放牠走了。 我們好高興看到牠再次拍動翅膀, 優雅地飛走。 那次經驗改變了我們對鳥類的觀點。 我們接著創立了一本雜誌, 我們叫它「鷹雜誌」, 目的是在紀念這隻鳥, 我們在高中時幫助過的這隻鳥。
Those experiences in high school made me the conservationist I am today. And a passion for birds should especially matter for Africa and all Africans, because among all other continents, Africa hosts some of the most amazing bird species you can find anywhere in the world. Imagine having a name like "shoebill." That's the name of that bird. And there are countries like DR Congo, Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya who are leading the continent in highest numbers of diversity when it comes to the species. These birds continue to provide the continent with very crucial ecosystem services that Africa needs. Moreover, there is huge potential for Africa to lead the world in avian tourism. The economy will definitely benefit. Imagine how many communities will benefit from groups of tourists visiting their villages just to see the endemic birds that can only be found in those villages.
那些高中的經驗,導致我現在 成為一位自然環境保護主義者。 對於非洲以及非洲人而言, 對鳥類的熱愛應該是 特別有重要性的, 因為在所有的大陸當中, 非洲有一些最令人驚奇的鳥類品種, 是世界上其他地方找不到的。 想像一個叫做「鯨頭鸛」的名字。 這是那隻鳥的名字。 有些國家,像是剛果民主共和國、 坦尚尼亞、烏干達、肯亞, 它們在鳥類品種的數目及多樣性上, 是遙遙領先的。 這些鳥類持續提供非常關鍵的 生態系統服務,這些服務 是非洲大陸很需要的。 此外,非洲也很有潛力 能領導世界的鳥類觀光。 經濟方面一定會受惠。 想像一下有多少社區能夠受惠, 如果觀光團造訪他們的村落, 只是去看僅在這些村落中 才找得到的地方特有鳥類。
How can we help birds together? There is now a chance for all of you to turn your passion for birds into contributing to their continued survival, and you can do that by becoming a citizen scientist. Citizen science is a growing trend around the world, and we are having scenarios where people are sharing information with the rest of the community about traffic updates, security alerts and so on. That is exactly what we realized as bird-watchers, and we thought, because birds are found everywhere, if we've got all of you and everyone else in Africa to tell us the birds they find where they live, where they school, or even where they work, then we can be able to come up with a map of every single species, and from there scientists will be able to actually prioritize conservation efforts to those habitats that matter the most.
我們能怎麼合作幫助鳥類? 現在大家有個機會, 可以把對鳥類的熱情 轉成為牠們的持續生存做出貢獻, 你可以藉由變成一名 公眾科學家,來做到這一點。 公眾科學家的趨勢正在全世界成長, 已經可以看到的做法 包括人們會與社區中其他人 分享交通新資訊、 安全警告、等等。 那正是我們野鳥觀察家領悟到的, 我們認為,因為到處都能看到鳥類, 如果我們能讓你們所有人、 以及非洲的其他人, 能告訴我們,在他們居住、上學、 甚至工作的地方,能找到哪些鳥類, 那麼我們就能做出一張 有所有品種的地圖, 這麼一來,科學家就能夠 針對最重要的棲息地 優先投入做保育。
Take for example these two projects, the Africa Raptor DataBank, which is mapping all birds of prey in the continent of Africa, and the Kenya Bird Map, which is mapping about 1,100 species that occur in my country, Kenya. These two projects now have online databases that are allowing people to submit data, and this is converted into very interactive websites that the public can consume and make decisions from.
用兩個專案計畫來當例子, 「非洲猛禽資料庫」, 是針對非洲大陸上所有 捕食型鳥類製作地圖, 及「肯亞鳥類地圖」, 為我的祖國肯亞出現的 1,100 種鳥類製作地圖。 現在這兩項專案計畫 都有線上資料庫, 讓人們可以提交資料, 且還建立了一個非常互動式的網站, 民眾可以在網站上消費和做決策。
But when we started, there was a big challenge. We received many complaints from bird-watchers, and they will say, "I'm in a village, and I cannot access a computer. How do I tell you what birds live in my home, or where I school, or where I work?" So we were forced to renovate our strategy and come up with a sustainable solution. It was easy: we immediately realized that mobile phones were becoming increasingly common in Africa and most of the regions could get access to one. So we came up with mobile phone applications that you can use on your iPhone and on your Android phone, and we made them freely available for every bird-watching enthusiast out there. So we came up with BirdLasser, which is used by the Kenya Bird Map, and also we have the African Raptor Observations, which is now used by the African Raptor DataBank. This was a huge breakthrough in our work and it made us get enormous amounts of data from every birder out there in the regions. With this, we realized that citizen science is indeed very powerful, the reason being, citizen science is adaptive. And we were able to actually convert many bird-watchers to start sharing new information with us.
我們開始的時候遇到很大的挑戰。 很多野鳥觀察家向我們投訴, 他們會說: 「我在村落裡,我沒有電腦可以用。 我要如何告訴你在我家附近、 學校附近、工作地附近有什麼鳥類? 所以我們被迫要修改策略, 提出永續的解決方案。 方法並不難: 我們馬上想到, 手機在非洲變得越來越普及了, 在大部份的區域都會有手機可以用。 所以我們做了一個手機應用程式, 可以裝在 iPhone 或 Android 手機上, 這個應用程式是免費的, 讓外面的每個野鳥觀察家都能用。 我們推出了 BirdLasser 配合「肯亞鳥類地圖」使用, 還有 African Raptor Observations(非洲猛禽觀察) 配合「非洲猛禽資料庫」。 這是我們工作上的大突破, 讓我們能取得極大量的資料, 由外面各地的所有野鳥觀察家提供。 這讓我們了解到公眾科學 的確是非常強大的, 原因是,公眾科學是有適應性的。 我們也確實讓許多 野鳥觀察家做出轉變, 開始和我們分享新資訊。
When we were starting, we didn't know that birds could be a huge gateway to approaching conservation of other forms of animals. Interestingly, now in the Virtual Museum for Africa, we have maps for dragonflies and damselflies, butterflies and moths, reptiles, frogs, orchids, spiders, scorpions, and yes, we are even mapping mushrooms. Who could have imagined mapping mushrooms? So this showed us that indeed we've created a community of people who care about nature in Africa.
我們剛開始的時候, 我們沒有料到鳥類能夠成為 保育其他動物的一條途徑。 有趣的是,現在在非洲 「虛擬博物館」中, 我們有蜻蜓和蜻蛉的地圖、 蝴蝶和蛾的地圖、 還有爬行動物、青蛙、蘭花、蜘蛛、 蝎子、還有,是的, 我們甚至為菇類做了地圖。 誰能想像為菇類做地圖? 這表示,我們的確 創造出了一個社群, 關懷非洲大自然的社群。
I hereby call upon all of you to join me in promoting the value of birds within your communities. Please just tell your friends about birds, for we are always inclined to love and care for that which we know. Please spend a few minutes in your free time when you are at work, at school, or maybe at home, to at least look around you and see which beautiful birds are there. Come join us in citizen science and tell us the birds you're finding in the places where you visit. Even simpler, you could buy your child or your sibling a pair of binoculars or a bird book and let them just appreciate how beautiful these birds are. Because maybe one day they will want to care for that one which they know and love.
在此,我邀請所有人, 加入我,在你們的社區內,一起來 推動鳥類的價值, 請你們和朋友聊天時聊聊鳥類, 因為我們的傾向就是會去愛、 去關心我們知道的事物。 請花幾分鐘的空閒時間, 在工作時、在學校時、也許在家時, 至少看一下你的周圍, 看看能看到什麼漂亮的鳥類。 來加入我們的公眾科學, 告訴我們,在你去造訪的地方 你發現了哪些鳥類。 還有更簡單的, 你們可以為你們的孩子或兄弟姐妹 買一組雙筒望遠鏡, 或是一本鳥類書籍, 讓他們能夠欣賞到 這些鳥類有多漂亮。 也許有一天,他們會想要關懷 他們知道且喜愛的鳥類。
The children indeed are our future. Let us please teach them to love our feathermakers, because the love of birds can be a huge gateway to appreciating all forms of nature.
孩子的確是我們的未來。 請教導他們,要愛護 我們的羽毛製造者, 因為對鳥類的愛, 可能會是條途徑,通往對 各種形式之大自然的欣賞及感念。
Thank you very much.
非常謝謝。
(Applause)
(掌聲)
Thank you.
謝謝。