听力文本

This is Scientific American — 60-Second Science. I'm Steve Mirsky.
Today, November 4, is National Bison Day—celebrating the animal that last year Congress and the President designated as the official National Mammal of the United States. For good reason: the American bison, also called the buffalo, is the iconic animal that helped mold the ecology of the Great Plains and played a central role in the cultural life of multiple tribes of Native Americans, including the Arapaho and Lakota.
Today's healthy bison herds owe a lot to time their ancestors spent in, of all places, the Bronx, in New York City.
"Well, historically the Bronx Zoo played a very important role in saving bison."
Patrick Thomas, Vice President of the Wildlife Conservation Society and Associate Director of its Bronx Zoo.

"In the early 1900s when bison numbers were at their lowest and the species was facing extinction, the Bronx Zoo acquired as many bison as they could, bred them and then sent offspring from that breeding herd out west to re-establish herds in the wild."
Thomas is involved in efforts with the zoo's current herd of bison.
"Right now we're working to establish a herd of genetically pure bison at the zoo. Today there are about 500,000 bison in the U.S., but there's only about between 5- and 6,000 that are genetically pure bison. The rest have small trace amounts of domestic cow genes in them. So we're establishing a herd of pure bison, breeding them, and again our goal is to take offspring from those pure bison and establish pure bison herds out west."
In what would be a continuation of one of the earliest success stories in American conservation.
Ffor Scientific American — 60-Second Science. I'm Steve Mirsky.

参考译文

这里是科学美国人——60秒科学oIqJaQczQeOX;]A_7*3O。我是史蒂夫·米尔斯基WqKVkH_]w]g=iZ6(]EF6。
11月4日是美国国家野牛日，去年国会和总统正式确立野牛为美国国家哺乳动物，并以这一天来纪念它i41S|8G.WzV。此举有充分的理由：美洲野牛，又称水牛，是一种标志性动物，它帮助塑造了美国大平原的生态环境，并在阿拉巴霍人以及拉科塔族等多个美洲原住民部落的精神文化生活中发挥了核心作用1xnHpe+hu)。
野牛的祖先曾在纽约市布朗克斯区生活了很长时间，而如今的健康野牛群却没怎么在该区生活过a-o2z%8J3aKV8R。
“历史上，布朗克斯动物园在拯救野牛方面发挥了极为重要的作用7tR@xRfUeF)9。”
帕特里克·托马斯是野生动物保护协会副主席，同时也是布朗克斯动物园的副主任k;du_CvrmC[pNA2V9。
“20世纪初，野牛数量处于最低水平，物种濒临灭绝，布朗克斯动物园尽可能多地收留了野牛，并饲养繁育，然后让野牛后代离开繁殖群，送去西部的野生环境重新建立野牛群!C[K)H~JWmy%。”
托马斯参与了动物园当前的野牛群繁育工作S@c4UOy2]]_gFthgBA,-。
“目前我们正致力于在动物园里培育纯种基因的野牛群I#*ptJL@uKBcX。现在美国约有50万只野牛，但仅有约5000到6000只是纯种野牛&r_(j%!zpaQGM8E。其余野牛都有少量家牛基因x4qksT%+BeE_rhx。所以我们培养和繁育纯种野牛群，我们的目标依然是带走这些纯种野牛后代，在西部野生环境建立纯种野牛群Jp4@a%hA=(|。”
野牛是美国动物保护史上最早成功的案例之一，而我们的努力将延续这一成功=A6tEvO&6y~GNkz。
谢谢大家收听科学美国人——60秒科学B*01dc#n;2X_)UB^bGeP。我是史蒂夫·米尔斯基@B|hhD^C+~+![--3Xh1。

译文为可可英语翻译，未经授权请勿转载！

重点讲解

重点讲解：
1. designate as 标示；把…定名为；称呼；
例句：We're going to designate this room as a no-smoking area.
我们准备把这个房间指定为禁烟区=+OPuA~[Pv@y*ZP6jB。
2. be involved in 卷入的；参与的；与…有密切关联的；
例句：So I'm involved in a different kind of campaign, to try to change enough minds to make it a new reality.
所以我参与了另外一种运动，试图改变足够多的观念来创造一种新的认知diB-9w(ba7b)25E。
3. a herd of 兽群；畜群；
例句：A herd of elephants lolloped across the plains towards a watering hole.
一群大象缓慢而笨拙地穿过平原，朝水潭走去z-xpJ@9,Q*OW76kkn。