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南美安第斯山脉发现新的哺乳动物物种
From：
News —English On
Scientists have discovered a new species of carnivores in the Andes mountains of Columbia and
Ecuador. It is the first discovery of this mammal in over 30 years.
科学家们在哥伦比亚和厄瓜多尔的安第斯山脉发现了一种新的食肉动物物种。这是30多年来
首次发现这种哺乳动物。
The new animal is called olinguito. It has face like a teddy bear with big eyes and an orange fur。
The new mammal belongs to the raccoon family and looks like a mixture of cats and bears.
Olinguitos live in the cloud forests forests in the Andesmountains. They are active at night and share
their living space with other members of the raccoon family. Although olinguitos are carnivores they
mostly eat fruit. Females produce on
这种新的动物叫做 olinguito。脸看上去像泰迪熊，大眼睛，橙色毛皮，属浣熊家族，外表既
像猫又像熊。Olinguitos 生活在安第斯山脉云雾笼罩的森林中，夜间出来活动，与其他浣熊家族
分享生活空间。虽然olinguitos是食肉动物，但他们主要以水果为食。雌性 Olinguitos 一次只产一个
小仔。
Researchers say that the mammal species has been known to people for over a hundred years.
However, it has been wrongly identified and falsely labelled in museums. Recently scientists who
work on specimens in Washington’s Smithsonian Museum came across a specimen with skin and
bones that they had never seen before.They found out that it was different to olingos, a close relative
member of the olinguito which has been on display for some time.
研究人员说，其实人们知道这种哺乳动物物种已有一百多年了，只是在博物馆里一直被错误
地标识。直到最近华盛顿史密森尼博物馆工作的科学家们偶然发现了一个以前他们从未见过的皮
肤和骨头标本。他们发现标本与尖吻浣熊标本不同，尖吻浣熊与 olinguito 是近亲家族成员，已在
馆中展出已有一段时间了。
With new technologies and DNA testing, they came to the conclusion that the 35 cm long specimen
was not an olingo but something new. It had a smaller body and skull and smaller eyes too. They
named the new mammal species olinguito.
经用新技术和DNA测试，他们得出结论：这块35厘米长标本不是尖吻浣熊的标本，而是一种
哺乳动物新物种的标本。这种新哺乳动物身体和头颅小，眼睛也小。他们给这个新的哺乳动物起名
olinguito。
An expedition team set out to South America to find the habitat of the new mammal. An Ecuadorian
zoologist managed to film the animal and prove that it really existed.
一支考察队动身去南美洲寻找新哺乳动物的栖息地。一位厄瓜多尔的动物学家成功摄影到了这
种新的哺乳动物，证明了它的真实存在。
While discoveries of new insects are frequent, scientists very rarely discover new mammal species.
It shows that we still do not know everything about nature and many remote areas remain to be explored.
虽然经常发现昆虫的新物种，但科学家们却很少发现哺乳动物的新物种。这表明我们
对自然界并不全然了解，许多偏远地区仍有待探索。
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