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Ever since I can remember, African elephants have filled me with a sense of complete awe.
自从我能记事以来，非洲大象始终是一个令我充满敬畏之情的存在。
They are the largest land mammal alive today on planet Earth,
在这颗星球上，它们是陆地上现存最大的哺乳动物，
weighing up to seven tons, standing three and a half meters tall at the shoulder.
体重能达7吨，肩高有3.5米。
They can eat up to 400 kilos of food in a day,
它们一天可以吃足400千克的食物，
and they disperse vital plant seeds across thousands of kilometers during their 50-to-60-year life span.
而且在它们50-60年的生命中，它们要将非常重要的植物种子散播到千里外的地方。
Central to their compassionate and complex society are the matriarchs.
大象慈悲且复杂的社会核心是其女族长们。
These female, strong leaders nurture the young
这些强壮的女性领导培养年幼的象崽
and navigate their way through the challenges of the African bush to find food, water and security.
并且在挑战重重的非洲树林中指导象群去向，来找寻食物、水和安全。
Their societies are so complex, we're yet to still fully tease apart how they communicate,
它们的社会是如此复杂，以至于我们还未能够完全了解它们是如何沟通的，
how they verbalize to each other, how their dialects work.
它们是如何用语言表达自己的，它们的语言语调是如何起作用的。
And we don't really understand yet how they navigate the landscape, remembering the safest places to cross a river.
而且我们也还尚未能真正了解它们是如何导航自己横跨土地的，它们是如何记住渡河最安全的位置。
I'm pretty sure that like me, most of you in this room
我很确定，在座的各位，
have a similar positive emotional response to these most magnificent of all animals.
面对这最不可思议的动物有着相似的正面反应。
It's really hard not to have watched a documentary, learned about their intelligence
几乎大家都看过相关的纪录片，了解它们的智力，
or, if you've been lucky, to see them for yourselves on safari in the wild.
或者你足够幸运，在野外探险旅行的时候能够亲眼看到它们。
But I wonder how many of you have been truly, utterly terrified by them.
但我想，你们中间有多少人有真正地、完全地被它们吓到过。
I was lucky to be brought up in Southern Africa by two teacher parents who had long holidays but very short budgets.
我很幸运，在南非被两个从事教师的父母带大，他们有很长的假期，但很有限的预算。
And so we used to take our old Ford Cortina Estate, and with my sister, we'd pile in the back,
所以我们经常开着我们老旧的福特汽车，和我的姐姐，我们会一起塞满后备箱，
take our tents and go camping in the different game reserves in Southern Africa.
带上帐篷，去南非不同的野生动物保护区野营。
It really was heaven for a young, budding zoologist like myself.
对一个年轻并萌芽的动物学家来说，比如我，这项活动好比天堂。
But I remember even at that young age that I found the tall electric fences blocking off the game parks quite divisive.
但我记得即便我当时如此年轻，我已觉得将动物保护区隔离起来的高高的电围栏比较违和分裂。
Sure, they were keeping elephants out of the communities, but they also kept communities out of their wild spaces.
当然，电围栏是为了不让大象进入社区，但它们也把社区隔离在了野生世界之外。
It really was quite a challenge to me at that young age.
这对我来说确实是个挑战，尤其在那个年龄。
It was only when I moved to Kenya at the age of 14, when I got to connect to the vast, wild open spaces of East Africa.
直到我14岁那年搬去肯尼亚，我接触到了东非广阔的野生开放区域。
And it is here now that I feel truly, instinctively, really at home.
现在，正是这个地方，让我有一种切切实实在家的感觉。
I spent many, many happy years studying elephant behavior in a tent, in Samburu National Reserve,
我度过了很多很多个开心的年头，在桑布鲁国家保护区的一个帐篷里研究大象的行为，
under the guideship of professor Fritz Vollrath and Iain Douglas-Hamilton,
在弗里茨·弗拉拉斯教授和伊恩·道格拉斯·汉密尔顿的指导下，
studying for my PhD and understanding the complexities of elephant societies.
攻读博士学位并了解大象社会的复杂性。
But now, in my role as head of the human-elephant coexistence program for Save the Elephants,
但现在，我作为拯救大象中人象共存项目的负责人，
we're seeing so much change happening so fast that it's urged a change in some of our research programs.
我们正在见证许多正快速发生的变化，以至于我们有些研究项目也被敦促着改变。
No longer can we just sit and understand elephant societies
我们不再能仅是坐在那里去理解大象社会，
or study just how to stop the ivory trade, which is horrific and still ongoing.
或仅是研究如何阻止令人震惊并依旧在进行的象牙交易。
We're having to change our resources more and more to look at this rising problem of human-elephant conflict,
我们现在需要更多地改变我们的资源去看待这个日益严峻的问题：人象矛盾，
as people and pachyderms compete for space and resources.
在人类和厚皮动物争夺空间和资源之际。
It was only as recently as the 1970s that we used to have 1.2 million elephants roaming across Africa.
只是在20世纪70年代，我们曾经有120万头大象在整个非洲漫步。
Today, we're edging closer to only having 400,000 left.
如今，现存大象数量下降到了仅40万。
And at the same time period, the human population has quadrupled,
在同样的时间段中，人口增长了3倍，
and the land is being fragmented at such a pace that it's really hard to keep up with.
土地分裂的速度是如此之快，真的很难跟上。
Too often, these migrating elephants end up stuck inside communities, looking for food and water
在绝大多数的情况下，那些迁徙的大象会被困在社区中，找寻食物和水，
but ending up breaking open water tanks, breaking pipes and, of course, breaking into food stores for food.
但却破坏了公共水箱、水管，当然，还有为觅食而闯进食品店。
It's really a huge challenge.
这真的是一个很大的挑战。
Can you imagine the terror of an elephant literally ripping the roof off your mud hut in the middle of the night
你可以想想那种恐惧--一头大象在半夜掀掉你的土屋屋顶，
and having to hold your children away as the trunk reaches in, looking for food in the pitch dark?
或是它们在漆黑夜里寻找食物时把鼻子伸进了屋里，而不巧你的孩子们“拐走”的恐惧吗？
These elephants also trample and eat crops,
这些大象同时践踏和吃庄稼，
and this is traditionally eroding away that tolerance that people used to have for elephants.
这也就是为什么人类曾经对大象的容忍正在逐渐被消磨的传统原因。
And sadly, we're losing these animals by the day and, in some countries, by the hour
令人悲伤的是，我们每天都在失去这些动物，在有的国家，是每小时，
to not only ivory poaching but this rapid rise in human-elephant conflict as they compete for space and resources.
不仅因为象牙偷猎，也是因为由空间和资源争夺而起的日益激增的人象矛盾。
It's a massive challenge. I mean, how do you keep seven-ton pachyderms, that often come in groups of 10 or 12,
这是一个巨大挑战。我的意思是，你怎么把7吨重并且通常10-12只成群的厚皮动物
out of these very small rural farms when you're dealing with people who are living on the very edge of poverty?
隔离在规模很小的乡村农场之外，尤其当你在和生活在贫困边缘的人打交道的时候？
They don't have big budgets. How do you resolve this issue?
他们没有什么预算。你怎么解决这个问题？
Well, one issue is, you can just start to build electric fences,
一个议题是，你可以只是开始建造电围栏，
and this is happening across Africa, we're seeing this more and more.
整个非洲现在都在这么做，我们看到越来越多的社区采用这样的“解决方式”。
But they are dividing up areas and blocking corridors.
但是他们正在划分区域、堵塞通道。
And I'm telling you, these elephants don't think much of it either,
我现在告诉你，这些大象不会思考这么多，
particularly if they're blocking a really special water hole where they need water,
尤其是，如果社区堵住一条极为特殊的--大象需要在那里涉水的水坑，
or if there's a very attractive female on the other side.
或是在过道另一边，有一头很有吸引力的母象。
It doesn't take long to knock down one of these poles.
破坏那些围栏杆子并不费劲。
And as soon as there's a gap in the fence, they go back, talk to their mates and suddenly they're all through,
只要围栏有个空档缺口，大象们就会走回去，告诉它们的同伴，突然之间，所有的大象都穿过了围栏，
and now you have 12 elephants on the community side of the fence. And now you're really in trouble.
于是现在，被围栏包围的社区内有12头大象。你现在是真的遇到麻烦了。
People keep trying to come up with new designs for electric fences.
关于电围栏的设计不断推陈出新。
Well, these elephants don't think much of those either.
然而这些大象并不会思考那么多。
So rather than having these hard-line, straight, electric, really divisive migratory-blocking fences,
所以除了使用这些强硬的、直接的、带电流的、十分具有分裂性的防迁移围栏之外，
there must be other ways to look at this challenge.
一定还有其他的方法来克服这个挑战。
I'm much more interested in holistic and natural methods to keep elephants and people apart where necessary.
为了在必要时候能把人和大象分开，我对整体和自然的解决方案更感兴趣。
Simply talking to people, talking to rural pastoralists in northern Kenya who have so much knowledge about the bush,
通过简单地与人们交谈，和肯尼亚北部的有着丰富灌木知识的乡村牧民交谈，
we discovered this story that they had that elephants would not feed on trees that had wild beehives in them.
我们发现牧民口中的大象不会以有着野生蜂巢的树木为食。
Now this was an interesting story.
这是一个很有意思的故事。
As the elephants were foraging on the tree, they would break branches and perhaps break open a wild beehive.
当大象在树上觅食时，它们会折断树枝，也可能会破开野蜂窝。
And those bees would fly out of their natural nests and sting the elephants.
于是这些蜜蜂会飞出它们的自然巢穴并且蜇大象。
Now if the elephants got stung,
如果大象被蜜蜂叮了，
perhaps they would remember that this tree was dangerous and they wouldn't come back to that same site.
它们可能会记住这棵树是危险的，并且再也不会回到这个地方。
It seems impossible that they could be stung through their thick skin -- elephant skin is around two centimeters thick.
刺穿大象厚厚的皮肤看似不可能--大象皮肤大约有2厘米厚。
But it seems that they sting them around the watery areas, around the eyes, behind the ears, in the mouth, up the trunk.
但是蜜蜂蜇大象，似乎都是在含水的区域、眼部周围、耳朵后方、嘴巴里面、象鼻上方。
You can imagine they would remember that very quickly. And it's not really one sting that they're scared of.
你能想象大象会很快记住这个“被叮”的体验。而且让它们害怕的不仅是一次叮咬。
African bees have a phenomenal ability:
非洲蜜蜂有一个惊人的能力：
when they sting in one site, they release a pheromone that triggers the rest of the bees to come and sting the same site.
当它们叮咬某一处时，会释放一种能够吸引其他蜜蜂来同处叮咬的信息素。
So it's not one beesting that they're scared of
所以大象害怕的不是被一只蜜蜂蜇，
it's perhaps thousands of beestings, coming to sting in the same area -- that they're afraid of.
可能是上千的蜜蜂前来叮咬同一个地方，这是它们所害怕的。
And of course, a good matriarch would always keep her young away from such a threat.
当然，一个优秀的女族长一直都会保护小象，让它们免受如此的威胁。
Young calves have much thinner skins, and it's potential that they could be stung through their thinner skins.
幼崽们的皮肤薄得多，它们被叮的话，很有可能会刺穿它们较薄的皮肤。
So for my PhD, I had this unusual challenge
所以，我的博士学位有着不同寻常的挑战，
of trying to work out how African elephants and African bees would interact, when the theory was that they wouldn't interact at all.
在非洲大象和非洲蜜蜂毫无互动的理论背景下，尝试找到它们的相互作用机制。
How was I going to study this?
我要怎么进行这项研究？
Well, what I did was I took the sound of disturbed African honey bees,
我所做的就是拿着被干扰到的非洲蜜蜂的音带，
and I played it back to elephants resting under trees through a wireless speaker system,
跑到在树下休息的大象耳边，利用无线扬声器系统播放此音带，
so I could understand how they would react as if there were wild bees in the area.
来了解假设这块区域有野生蜜蜂大象会如何反应。
And it turns out that they react quite dramatically to the sound of African wild bees.
结果是，这些大象对非洲蜜蜂的声音反应很大。
Here we are, playing the bee sounds back to this amazing group of elephants.
我们在一直不停地在这群大象耳边播放蜜蜂的音带。
You can see the ears going up, going out, they're turning their heads from side to side,
你可以看到它们的耳朵竖了起来，它们在左右摇晃脑袋，
one elephant is flicking her trunk to try and smell.
一头大象在甩动鼻子尝试着闻气味。
There's another elephant that kicks one of calves on the ground to tell it to get up as if there is a threat.
还有一头大象踢了一下地上的一头幼崽，告诉它快站起来，宛如威胁正在逼近。
And one elephant triggers a retreat,
之后一头大象发出撤退指令，
and soon the whole family of elephants are running after her across the savannah in a cloud of dust.
很快整个大象家族都跟着它撤退，在尘埃中穿越稀树大草原。
Now I've done this experiment many, many times, and the elephants almost always flee.
我已经做过这个实验好几次了，大象几乎每次都会逃跑。
Not only do they run away, but they dust themselves as they're running, as if to knock bees out of the air.
它们不仅会逃跑，而且会在逃跑的时候用尘土弄脏自己，好像想要把蜜蜂从自己的身上拍掉。
And we placed infrasonic microphones around the elephants as we did these experiments.
在进行这些实验时，我们把次声传声器放置在大象周围。
And it turns out they're communicating to each other in infrasonic rumbles
结果发现它们在用次声进行交流，
to warn each other of the threat of bees and to stay away from the area.
来警告彼此蜜蜂的威胁并且远离蜜蜂所在区域。
So these behavioral discoveries really helped us understand how elephants would react should they hear or see bee sounds.
所以这些行为的发现，确实帮助我们了解了大象在被蜜蜂声音包围的时候会做出怎样的反应。
This led me to invent a novel design for a beehive fence,
这启发我发明了一种新颖的围栏设计--蜂巢围栏，
which we are now building around small, one-to-two-acre farms
我们现在正在围绕着1-2英亩的小农场建造这样的围栏，
on the most vulnerable frontline areas of Africa where humans and elephants are competing for space.
这些围栏位于非洲最脆弱的、人象空间争夺严重的前线地区。
These beehive fences are very, very simple.
这些蜂巢围栏非常非常简单。
We use 12 beehives and 12 dummy hives to protect one acre of farmland.
我们用12个蜂巢和12个假蜂巢来保护1英亩的农田。
Now a dummy hive is simply a piece of plywood which we cut into squares, paint yellow and hang in between the hives.
一个假蜂巢只是一块被切成正方形、涂成黄色、并且悬挂在蜂巢间的胶合板。
We're basically tricking the elephants into thinking there are more beehives than there really are.
我们基本上是在捉弄大象，希望它们认为这里有比实际数量更多的蜂巢。
And of course, it literally halves the cost of the fence.
当然，这能削减围栏一半的成本。
So there's a hive and a dummy hive and a beehive and now dummy hive, every 10 meters around the outside boundary.
所以是一个真一个假，再一个真，再一个假蜂巢，每隔10米，放在围栏之外。
They're held up by posts with a shade roof to protect the bees,
这些蜂巢被带有遮阳棚顶的柱子所支撑以保护蜜蜂，
and they're interconnected with a simple piece of plain wire, which goes all the way around, connecting the hives.
用一根钢丝把它们连接起来，串联整圈的蜂巢。
So if an elephant tries to enter the farm, he will avoid the beehive at all cost,
如果一头大象尝试着进入农场，它将会不遗余力地避开蜂巢，
but he might try and push through between the hive and the dummy hive,
但是它可能会尝试从真假蜂巢的间隙处通过，
causing all the beehives to swing as the wire hits his chest.
当它的胸部触碰到钢丝时，所有蜂巢会同时晃动。
And as we know from our research work, this will cause the elephants to flee and run away
而且根据我们的研究，我们知道大象会因此逃跑，
and hopefully remember not to come back to that risky area.
希望它们会记得不要再回到这块危险的区域。
The bees swarm out of the hive, and they really scare the elephants away.
蜜蜂从蜂巢中涌出，它们真的能把大象们吓走。
These beehive fences we're studying using things like camera traps
我们使用相机陷阱等技术在研究这些蜂巢围栏，
to help us understand how elephants are responding to them at night time, which is when most of the crop raiding occurs.
来帮助我们理解大象在夜间碰到围栏会有何反应，夜间是大多数农作物被侵袭的时候。
And we found in our study farms that we're keeping up to 80 percent of elephants outside of the boundaries of these farms.
而且在我们进行研究的农场中，我们发现我们正把高达80%的大象隔离在这些农场边界外。
And the bees and the beehive fences are also pollinating the fields.
这些蜜蜂和蜂巢围栏也同时在给土地传授花粉。
So we're having a great reduction both in elephant crop raids
所以我们的设计同时减少了大象对农作物的侵袭，
and a boost in yield through the pollination services that the bees are giving to the crops themselves.
并且通过蜜蜂给农作物授粉，刺激了农场产量。
The strength of the beehive fences is really important -- the colonies have to be very strong.
蜂巢围栏的强度很重要--蜂群需要非常强健。
So we're trying to help farmers grow pollinator-friendly crops
所以我们正在尝试帮助农民种植授粉友好的作物，
to boost their hives, boost the strength of their bees and, of course, produce the most amazing honey.
来加强加固它们的蜂巢，增强蜜蜂的力量，当然，还有生产最佳的蜂蜜。
This honey is so valuable as an extra livelihood income for the farmers.
作为农民额外的生计收入，这个蜂蜜是如此宝贵。
It's a healthy alternative to sugar, and in our community,
这是糖的健康替代品，而且在我们社区，
it's a very valuable present to give a mother-in-law, which makes it almost priceless.
蜂蜜是一个给岳母/婆婆非常珍贵的礼物，这几乎是无价之宝。
We now bottle up this honey, and we've called this wild beautiful honey Elephant-Friendly Honey.
我们现在将这蜂蜜密封到瓶中，我们把这野生美丽的蜂蜜称之为大象友好蜂蜜。
It is a fun name, but it also attracts attention to our project
这是一个风趣的名字，但也吸引了不少人对我们项目的关注，
and helps people understand what we're trying to do to save elephants.
并且帮助人们了解我们正在尝试做的事情--拯救大象。
We're working now with so many women in over 60 human-elephant conflict sites in 19 countries in Africa and Asia to build these beehive fences,
我们现在和许多女性合作，在非洲和亚洲的19个国家，60余存在人象矛盾的地点建造这些蜂巢围栏，
working very, very closely with so many farmers but particularly now with women farmers,
非常紧密地和许多农民协作，主要是女性农民，
helping them to live better in harmony with elephants.
在帮助她们建立一个与大象和平共处的生活。
One of the things we're trying to do is develop a toolbox of options
我们在做的一件事就是开发一个选项工具箱
to live in better harmony with these massive pachyderms.
使人们能更好地和这些巨型厚皮动物和谐相处。
One of those issues is to try and get farmers, and women in particular,
其中的一个问题就是让农民加入我们的行列，尤其是女性，
to think different about what they're planting inside their farms as well.
从不同角度思考他们正在自己的农场中种着什么作物。
So we're looking at planting crops that elephants don't particularly want to eat, like chillies, ginger, Moringa, sunflowers.
所以我们寻找一种大象通常不会想要吃的作物，例如辣椒、姜、辣木和向日葵。
And of course, the bees and the beehive fences love these crops too, because they have beautiful flowers.
当然，蜜蜂和蜂巢围栏也非常喜爱这些作物，因为这些作物会长出美丽的花。
One of these plants is a spiky plant called sisal -- you may know this here as jute.
其中的一种带刺的植物，名为剑麻--你可能知道它的“黄麻布料”身份。
And this amazing plant can be stripped down and turned into a weaving product.
这种奇妙的植物可以砍下来制成织物。
We're working with these amazing women now who live daily with the challenges of elephants
我们正在在和这些优秀的女性合作，她们每天的生活都受到了大象的挑战，
to use this plant to weave into baskets to provide an alternative income for them.
现在她们用这种植物编织成篮筐作为她们的一种替代收入。
We've just started construction only three weeks ago on a women's enterprise center
我们在3周前在女性企业中心刚刚开始动工，
where we're going to be working with these women not only as expert beekeepers but as amazing basket weavers;
在那里，我们将要和这些女性协作，不仅作为专业养蜂人，还作为技艺精湛的篮筐编织者；
they're going to be processing chili oils, sunflower oils, making lip balms and honey,
她们将会生产辣椒油、葵花籽油，制造润唇膏和蜂蜜，
and we're somewhere on our way to helping these participating farmers
而我们也在帮助这些参与项目的农民
live with better eco-generating projects that live and work better with living with elephants.
打造生态驱动项目，让他们和大象共存的同时能过上更好的生活，做更好的工作。
So whether it's matriarchs or mothers or researchers like myself,
所以不论是女族长，母亲，或是像我这样的研究人员，
I do see more women coming to the forefront now to think differently and more boldly about the challenges that we face.
我确实看到更多的女性来到前线，为我们面对的挑战提供更加不同且大胆的想法。
With more innovation, and perhaps with some more empathy towards each other,
随着更多的创新，可能还有对彼此更多的一些共鸣，
I do believe we can move from a state of conflict with elephants to true coexistence. Thank you.
我确实相信我们可以从一个人象矛盾之国转变为可以真正人象共存的国家。谢谢。
