《中英對照讀新聞》Mammoth moggy shot in Australia 巨大家貓在澳洲被射殺

◎ 俞智敏

A 35-kilogram cat shot in Australia earlier this year was not an exotic creature escaped from a zoo but a household moggy gone feral and grown very large, researchers said.

研究人員說，今年稍早在澳洲被射殺的一隻重達35公斤的貓科動物，並不是從動物園逃跑的異國生物，而是一種已經野生化、體形龐大的家貓。

The findings of researchers at Melbourne's Monash University suggested occasional sightings of panthers, leopards and jaguars are not hoaxes but cases of mistaken identities.

墨爾本蒙那什大學研究人員的發現顯示，有關看到黑豹、美洲豹和美洲虎等零星傳聞並非騙局，只是目擊者搞錯了。

Researcher Mike Williams said the animal that hunter Kurt Engel killed in the wilds of southeast Victoria might have been the world's largest feral cat.

研究人員威廉斯指出，獵人恩格爾在維多利亞省東南部野外所射殺的動物很可能是全世界最大的野貓。

"It's extraordinary that Australia has a mutated cat that can grow to the size of a leopard," he said. "This might explain why there are so many reports of monstrous black cats in Australia."

「澳洲有體形可大到相當於美洲豹的變種貓，實在令人嘖嘖稱奇，」他說。「這或許可以解釋澳洲為何有那麼多有關大黑貓的報導。」

At 65 centimetres, the feral cat's tail was twice as long as that of a domestic cat. Engel photographed the dead cat. He removed the tail before burying the animal and passed the sample tissue to Monash for DNA testing.

這隻野貓的尾巴是一般家貓的兩倍長，達65公分。恩格爾拍攝了死貓的照片，並在埋葬貓屍前取下其尾部，把組織樣本送到蒙那什大學進行DNA檢驗。

新聞辭典

mammoth：原指古生物長毛象，後引申為形容巨大的、龐大的事物，如 Building the new railroad will be a mammoth job.（修建那條新鐵路將是一項巨大工程。）

moggy：英式俚語，指普通或外貌有點邋遢的家貓。

feral：野生的，尤指曾被人馴養但已野生化的動物。

hoax：欺騙、愚弄、騙局，如 The bomb threat turned out to be a hoax.（炸彈威脅結果證實只是一場騙局。）