美國動物園飼養員向《侏羅紀世界》致敬
If you've seen the summer box office hit, “Jurassic World,’’ you know that it is a sensitive portrayal of the essence of zookeeping thinly veiled as a blockbuster action film set in a theme park of genetically engineered dinosaurs.
如果你已經看過夏季票房的熱門影片《侏羅紀世界》(Jurassic World)，想必知道它表面上是一部以轉基因恐龍主題公園爲背景的動作大片，其實卻很容易看出來，它對動物馴養的本質進行了細膩描述。Or maybe you don’t. But there is little doubt that the movie has struck a chord with members of the zookeeping tribe, who have flooded the Internet with photographs of themselves reenacting a scene involving the lead actor, Chris Pratt, and the three velociraptors with whom his character shares an uneasy bond.
你也可能看不出這點。但它明顯引起了不少動物飼養員們的共鳴，他們在網絡上大量發佈自己重現電影場景的照片，模仿的是男主角扮演者克里斯·普拉特(Chris Pratt)和三隻迅猛龍在一起的一幕。這一角色在電影中和迅猛龍建立了情感紐帶，但他們的相處並不總是一帆風順。
The character, Owen Grady, is an animal expert who has – sort of – trained the vicious dinosaurs by interacting with them. Yet as he says to one of the many humans who don't seem to really get his raptors, “It's not about control. It's a relationship based on respect."
男主角歐文·格雷迪(Owen Grady)是一名動物專家，他通過與生性兇猛的恐龍互動，算是訓練了它們。但是就像他跟一個不懂這些迅猛龍的人（這樣的人有不少）所說的，“這跟控制無關，它是基於尊重而建立起來的一種關係。”
In one memorable scene, Mr. Pratt stretches out his arms, lion-tamer-like, managing to keep them at bay so that a newbie feeder who had fallen into their cage could escape unharmed.
在一個讓人印象深刻的場景中，普拉特像馴獅者一樣伸展雙臂，努力穩住這些猛龍，好讓掉進籠子裏的飼養員新手能完好無損地逃出來。The homages circulating under the #JurassicZoo and #JurassicZookeeper hashtags are on one level tongue-in-cheek nods to the relative risk of handling dinosaurs famous for mauling human prey and, say, otters.
恐龍以獵食人類和水獺等動物而爲人所知，馴養它們有一定風險，網絡上流傳的標籤“侏羅紀動物園”(#JurassicZoo)和“侏羅紀動物飼養員”(#JurassicZookeeper)在一個層面是在半開玩笑地表達敬意，以肯定這種這種風險的存在。“Thanks @prattprattpratt for teaching us how to wrangle our ferocious red pandas,’’ read the caption on a picture tweeted by the Elmwood Park Zoo in Norristown, Pa., depicting a keeper striking the same pose as three reddish cuddleballs eye him quizzically.
“感謝普拉特(@prattprattpratt)教會我們如何管教我們這兒的兇猛的小熊貓，”這是賓夕法尼亞州諾里斯頓鎮(Norristown)的埃爾姆伍德公園動物園(Elmwood Park Zoo)在Twitter上發佈的一張照片的說明文字，拍攝對象的是一名飼養員和三隻紅棕色小毛球，它們用疑惑的眼神看着他。But zookeeper enthusiasm for the meme, which blossomed first on a Facebook group for keepers, appears to be rooted in the genuine delight of seeing the under-appreciated challenge of caring for zoo animals reflected in Mr. Pratt’s balancing act.
動物飼養員們對於這種模仿的熱情，最初涌現在Facebook上的一個飼養者羣組裏，但它似乎來源於一種由衷的喜悅。因爲這些人看到，普拉特的平衡之舉反映了此前不甚爲人理解的一項挑戰：對動物園動物的照顧。“It’s such an iconic moment for zookeepers, when you see that character establish a connection with those animals – that’s a big part of our life,’’ said Rick Schwartz, a zookeeper at the San Diego Zoo. “You can’t just go in there and boss things around, animals don’t work that way.’’
“看到電影主角和那些動物們建立起聯繫，對動物飼養員來說是一個標誌性時刻，因爲那是我們生活中很重要的一部分，”聖地亞哥動物園的飼養員裏克·施瓦茨(Rick Schwartz)說。“你不能就那麼走進籠子，然後發號施令，動物們可不吃那一套。”He said he hopes that the public’s embrace of #JurassicZoo will help correct a common misconception of zookeeping as a kind of 1930s circus act, complete with whips. Or at least show people that they have a sense of humor.
他表示，希望公衆對“侏羅紀公園”標籤的追捧能幫助消除人們對動物園飼養動物存在的一種普遍誤解，即把這一行看作類似於1930年代的那種馬戲表演，需要用鞭子才能完成。或者至少讓人們明白，他們其實也是有幽默感的。For a movie that blissfully ignores the scientific consensus that dinosaurs were feathered, it may come as no surprise that the authenticity of its animal-trainer ethos ends when Mr. Pratt agrees to round up his raptors to hunt down the blood-thirsty Indominus Rex marauding through the park. “We wouldn’t go running after another animal with our animals,’’ noted Mr. Schwartz. “After that, everything is very Hollywood.’’
對於這樣一部樂得忽略科學共識的電影（恐龍是有羽毛的），你可能不會感到詫異，當其中出現普拉特召集他的迅猛龍去追捕嗜血成性、在公園裏四處獵食的混合基因恐龍“暴虐霸王龍”(Indominus Rex)的場景時，相關動物馴養理念的真實性也就煙消雲散了。“我們不會利用動物追捕其他動物，”施瓦茨表示。“從這兒開始，所有的一切就變得非常好萊塢了。”
