一詞日曆：有人跟蹤了一隻北極狐，結果驚呆了

2019.07.17

週三 Wednesday

far-flung
 ['fɑ:'flʌŋ] 
adj.遼闊的；漫長的；遙遠的

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圖片來源：視覺中國

At first, the scientists wondered whether it was a mistake.

一開始，科學家們在想這是不是個錯誤。

Just 21 days after leaving the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen, an arctic fox had arrived in Greenland. And in less than three months, it made it to Canada. 

僅僅在離開挪威的斯匹次卑爾根島的21天后，一隻北極狐就到達了格陵蘭島。不到三個月就到達了加拿大。

The fox averaged nearly 30 miles a day (50 kilometers) - some days, though, it walked almost 100 (160 kilometers).

這隻狐狸平均每天走將近30英里（50千米）。有幾天它走了近100英里（160千米）

"When it started happening, we thought 'is this really true?' " said Arnaud Tarroux, one of the researchers who tracked the female fox. Was there "an error in the data?"

“剛開始的時候，我們在想，這是真的嗎？”阿瑙德·塔羅克斯，一名追蹤這隻母狐的研究員說道。是不是“數據出錯了？”

The data was real, the scientists decided as the fox kept going. The creature's travels last year, documented in a recent paper, wowed Tarroux and his fellow Norwegian researcher Eva Fuglei, even though the animal is known for its endurance and ability to survive in harsh polar areas.

這隻狐狸繼續前進時，科學家們確定，數據是真的。這種生物去年的旅途被記錄在最近的一份文件上，讓塔羅克斯和他的挪威同事伊娃·弗格萊大吃一驚。雖然這種動物以耐力和在極地地區生存的能力聞名。

Scientists already knew that some of the foxes, native to Arctic areas all around the Northern Hemisphere, made long journeys: DNA exchange links far-flung fox populations in areas connected only by sea ice.

科學家們已經知道，北半球北極地區本土的有些狐狸會進行長途旅行：DNA交換將僅由海冰連接的地區的廣泛狐狸種羣連接起來。

But the fox these researchers followed stood out for just how fast it covered more than 2,700 miles (4,350 kilometers) - and shed light on far-north fox sightings that explorers wondered about as far back as the 1800s.

但是研究人員追蹤的這隻狐狸很突出，因爲它在極短的時間內走過了2700多英里（4350公里），並且闡明瞭讓探險家好奇的發生在十九世紀的遙遠北方狐狸目擊事件。

"We didn't really know how they would do that and how long it would take for an individual to do this kind of trip," Tarroux said.

“我們真的不知道他們會怎麼做，也不知道對個體來說，這種旅途需要耗費多久時間。”特洛克斯說道。

The coastal fox the researchers tracked, also known as a blue fox, landed in Ellesmere Island in Canada on 1 July 2018. Of the 50 or 60 animals the scientists put trackers on for a study, it was the only one that ventured outside of Norway.

研究人員追蹤的海岸狐狸也叫做藍狐，在2018年7月1日到達加拿大的埃爾斯米爾島。研究人員給50到60只動物戴上了追蹤器以便研究，這隻狐狸是其中唯一一隻在挪威外冒險的。

The researchers think the fox may have taken off because of a food shortage, but they're not sure. The tracker stopped working in February, so researchers no longer know the fox's whereabouts, but it was last detected on the same Canadian island in the Nunavut territory.

研究人員認爲，狐狸出發的原因可能是食物短缺，但是他們也不確定。追蹤器在二月份停止了運作，因此研究人員從此就不知道狐狸的行蹤了。但是最後一次探測到狐狸是在加拿大努勒維特的同一個島嶼上。

Families can be far-flung and relatively isolated.

一家人有時會天各一方，形單影隻。

這個詞由far+flung構成：

flung是fling的過去式和過去分詞：fling，v.（尤指生氣地）猛扔; 扔在一邊

Fling back the ball to me.  

把球扔給我。