Inside the island colony being tapped to help save Australia's koalas from deadly chlamydia.
探访这个被寄望于帮助澳大利亚考拉摆脱致命衣原体感染的岛屿种群。
Brandishing long plastic poles, a small team of researchers are trying to coax a female koala down from the gum trees she's comfortably perched on.
一小队研究人员挥舞着长塑料杆，试图把一只舒舒服服栖在桉树上的雌性考拉哄下来。
At first, she seems unfazed.
起初，她似乎毫不在意。
Then everything happens quickly.
随后，一切都迅速发生。
She clambers down the trunk, leaps onto the grass, and lets out a deep growl before rolling onto her back, claws raised in defence.
它顺着树干吃力地爬下来，跳到草地上，发出一声低沉的吼叫，然后翻身仰躺，举起爪子自卫。
In a series of well-practiced steps, the experts carefully lift her into a crate.
专家们按照一系列熟练的步骤，小心翼翼地把她抬进一个箱笼。
Once sedated, she is laid on a towel for a routine health check.
一经镇静，它就被放在一条毛巾上，接受常规健康检查。
"I think she has chlamydia," says Karen Burke Da Silva, a conservation biologist at Flinders University in South Australia.
“我觉得她感染了衣原体，”南澳大利亚弗林德斯大学的保护生物学家凯伦·伯克·达席尔瓦说。
Chlamydia has become a major epidemic among koalas, affecting up to 88% of individuals in some mainland populations.
衣原体感染已成为考拉群体中的一场重大流行病，在一些大陆种群中影响多达88%的个体。
Caused by the bacterium Chlamydia pecorum, it could lead to blindness, infertility, pneumonia and – unlike chlamydia in humans, which is rarely fatal – often death.
这种病由山羊衣原体细菌引起，可导致失明、不育、肺炎，并且不同于人类身上很少致命的衣原体感染，它常常会导致死亡。
Chlamydia has swept through the mainland, and this captured koala is one of about 40 inside South Australia's Belair National Park, near Adelaide, collared by scientists studying their health and genetics.
衣原体感染已经席卷澳大利亚大陆，而这只被捕捉的考拉，是阿德莱德附近南澳大利亚贝莱尔国家公园内约40只被科学家戴上项圈的考拉之一；这些科学家正在研究它们的健康和遗传状况。
Yet on a nearby island, the disease has never been recorded.
然而，在附近的一座岛上，从未记录到这种疾病。
Kangaroo Island is thought to host the world's largest chlamydia-free koala population, offering something of a living insurance policy for the species.
袋鼠岛被认为拥有世界上最大的无衣原体感染考拉种群，为这一物种提供了某种活体保险。
Still, these koalas are under a pressure of their own: more than a century of isolation has left them deeply inbred and genetically fragile.
不过，这些考拉也承受着自身的压力：一个多世纪的隔离使它们严重近亲繁殖，遗传上十分脆弱。
This is what brings Burke Da Silva and her colleague Julian Beaman to study koalas in the region.
这正是伯克·达席尔瓦和她的同事朱利安·比曼来到该地区研究考拉的原因。
They hope that by first improving the genetic diversity of Kangaroo Island's koalas, then introducing them to other low-chlamydia areas of Australia, they can help tackle the current plight facing the species.
他们希望先提升袋鼠岛考拉的遗传多样性，再将它们引入澳大利亚其他衣原体感染率较低的地区，从而帮助应对这一物种当前面临的困境。
Native to eastern and southeastern Australia, koalas are listed as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
考拉原产于澳大利亚东部和东南部，被国际自然保护联盟列为易危物种。
Though still numerous overall, with a population of between 398,000 and 569,000 according to official estimates, they have been declining steadily for decades and now mostly survive in small, fragmented populations.
尽管按官方估计，考拉总体数量仍然不少，约在 39.8 万至 56.9 万之间，但几十年来它们的数量一直在稳步下降，如今大多以小而碎片化的种群存活。
This has lowered their adaptability to the effects of climate change, habitat loss and disease.
这降低了它们应对气候变化、栖息地丧失和疾病影响的适应能力。
"In each of those pockets, you get inbreeding and random population fluctuations that raise the risks each one will go extinct," says Beaman.
“在每一个这样的孤立小群体中，都会出现近亲繁殖和随机的种群波动，从而增加每个群体灭绝的风险，”比曼说。
"If we're not careful, it will be death by a thousand cuts."
“如果我们不小心，它们就会在一次次小打击中走向灭亡。”
Kangaroo Island is separated from Australia's southern coast by just 13km (eight miles) and is the country's third largest island and a biodiversity hotspot.
袋鼠岛距离澳大利亚南部海岸仅 13 公里（8 英里），是该国第三大岛，也是一个生物多样性热点地区。
A short ferry ride from the mainland, the island's rugged coastline makes way inland for a patchwork of sheep-dotted grassland and dense native bush.
从大陆乘一小段渡轮即可抵达这里；岛上崎岖的海岸线向内陆延伸，逐渐变成一片片散布着羊群的草地和茂密的本土灌木丛。
The koala population living here is entirely descended from a small group of around 20 individuals introduced from the mainland in the 1920s, at a time when conservationists feared that the fur trade would wipe out the species.
生活在这里的考拉种群全部源自 20 世纪 20 年代从大陆引入的一小群约 20 只考拉，当时保护人士担心皮毛贸易会使这一物种灭绝。
By 2019, the population had exploded to 50,000, so many that they were often described as a pest.
到2019年，这一数量已激增至5万只，多到常被称为有害动物。
"People talk about them negatively," says Beaman, as we walk through a native eucalyptus forest on the island.
“人们谈到它们时往往很负面，”比曼说，当时我们正穿过岛上一片本土桉树林。
"But it was actually a highly successful introduction."
“但这实际上是一次非常成功的引入。”
As chlamydia runs rampant through mainland populations, the island's isolation has shielded its koalas from infection.
随着衣原体感染在大陆种群中肆虐，这座岛的隔离状态保护了岛上的考拉，使其免受感染。
Natasha Speight, a koala researcher from the University of Adelaide and co-author of a 2019 study which found the Kangaroo Island population remains free of chlamydia, says this makes it "the largest population in Australia with this status".
阿德莱德大学考拉研究员娜塔莎·斯佩特是 2019 年一项研究的共同作者，该研究发现袋鼠岛考拉种群仍未感染衣原体；她说，这使其成为“澳大利亚拥有这一状态的最大种群”。
While chlamydia may have existed in Australia before Europeans arrived in the late 18th Century, research suggests that Westerners' livestock introduced new strains.
虽然衣原体可能在 18 世纪末欧洲人到来之前就已存在于澳大利亚，但研究表明，西方人的牲畜带来了新的菌株。
Combined with habitat loss and shrinking genetic diversity, this has fuelled an epidemic that today threatens the species' survival.
再加上栖息地丧失和遗传多样性萎缩，这助长了一场如今威胁该物种生存的流行病。
Chlamydia can be cured with antibiotics, but treatment is far from straightforward – it requires koalas to be captured, can fatally affect their ability to digest eucalyptus leaves, and provides no protection against reinfection.
衣原体感染可以用抗生素治愈，但治疗远非简单：这需要捕捉考拉，可能致命地影响它们消化桉树叶的能力，而且无法防止再次感染。
A vaccine approved in 2025 offers genuine hope, cutting mortality in wild populations by 65% – but vaccinating wild populations at scale remains a formidable challenge.
一种在 2025 年获批的疫苗带来了真正的希望，可将野生种群的死亡率降低 65%，但大规模为野生种群接种疫苗仍是一项艰巨挑战。
Researchers including Speight, though, think that protecting Kangaroo Island's koalas and using them to help repopulate the mainland could, alongside the new vaccine, ultimately ensure the survival of the species.
不过，包括斯佩特在内的研究人员认为，保护袋鼠岛的考拉，并利用它们帮助大陆重新恢复种群，再配合新疫苗，最终可能确保这一物种的生存。
Living on an island has not shielded these koalas from other threats.
生活在岛上并没有让这些考拉免受其他威胁。
Kangaroo Island's otherwise green forests are punctuated by the charcoal-black stems of Xanthorrhoea grass trees – neither grasses nor trees but succulents that develop trunk-like protective coatings in response to fires.
袋鼠岛原本一片绿色的森林中，点缀着炭黑色的刺叶树茎干；它们既不是草也不是树，而是多肉植物，会因应火灾形成类似树干的保护层。
They are visible reminders of Australia's 2019-20 Black Summer bushfires, which devastated the island and killed around 80% of its koalas, reducing the population to 10,000.
它们是澳大利亚2019至2020年“黑色夏季”丛林大火留下的可见痕迹；那场大火重创了这座岛，杀死了岛上约80%的考拉，使其数量降至10000只。
Flinders Chase National Park, a 32,800-hectare (81,000-acres) wildlife haven on the western edge of the island, was especially hard hit.
弗林德斯蔡斯国家公园位于该岛西端，是一片面积 32800 公顷（81000 英亩）的野生动物庇护地，受灾尤为严重。
Soon after the fires, Burke Da Silva and Beaman began to study Kangaroo Island's changing koala ecology.
火灾发生后不久，伯克·达席尔瓦和比曼开始研究袋鼠岛不断变化的考拉生态。
As the park's forests turned to ash, surviving koalas fled into nearby blue gum ( Eucalyptus globulus ) plantations in search of food, recalls Burke Da Silva.
伯克·达席尔瓦回忆说，随着公园的森林化为灰烬，幸存的树袋熊逃进附近的蓝桉（Eucalyptus globulus）种植园寻找食物。
But in 2021, Kiland, a logging company that owns over 18,000 hectares (44,000 acres) on the island, began clearing its blue gum trees and converting the land to agriculture.
但在2021年，伐木公司Kiland开始清除岛上的蓝桉树，并把土地改作农业用途；该公司在岛上拥有超过18000公顷，即44000英亩土地。
"Suddenly, they started clearing the plantations where our tracked koalas lived," says Burke Da Silva.
“突然之间，他们开始清理那些我们追踪的考拉生活的人工林，”伯克·达席尔瓦说。
Many died from injury or starvation.
许多考拉死于受伤或饥饿。
"It was horrific."
“那太可怕了。”
In 2024, with support from environmental philanthropist Alan Noble, who donated funds in memory of his late wife, Beaman and Burke Da Silva bought a 530-hectare (1,300-acre) tract of plantation land bordering the Flinders Chase National Park, before it could be cleared by Kiland.
2024 年，在环保慈善家艾伦·诺布尔的支持下，比曼和伯克·达席尔瓦买下了一片毗邻弗林德斯蔡斯国家公园、面积 530 公顷（1300 英亩）的人工林地，赶在 Kiland 清理这片土地之前完成了购买；诺布尔为纪念已故妻子捐出了资金。
Together with Noble, they co-founded The Koala Sanctuary, securing the habitat of roughly 1,000 koalas – around 10% of the island's remaining population.
他们与诺布尔共同创办了“考拉保护区”，为大约1000只考拉保住了栖息地，约占岛上剩余考拉数量的10%。
A Kiland spokesperson told the BBC that its contractors operate under a South Australian government-approved planned which aims to minimise impacts on koalas.
Kiland 的一名发言人告诉 BBC，其承包商按照一项经南澳大利亚州政府批准的计划作业，该计划旨在尽量减少对考拉的影响。
The company remains supportive of The Koala Sanctuary's conservation working, they added.
他们补充说，该公司仍然支持考拉保护区的保护工作。
The sanctuary will opens to tourists in spring 2026, providing vital funding for its research and conservation work, says Burke Da Silva.
伯克·达席尔瓦说，该保护区将于2026年春季向游客开放，为其研究和保护工作提供重要资金。
It's also here that researchers are using a koala conservation approach never before attempted at this scale.
研究人员也正是在这里采用一种以前从未以如此规模尝试过的考拉保护方法。
At Flinders University's biology lab in Adelaide, molecular biologist Katie Gates opens a small white box from a deep freezer.
在阿德莱德的弗林德斯大学生物实验室，分子生物学家凯蒂·盖茨从一台超低温冰柜中取出并打开一个白色小盒子。
Vapour spills from the testing tubes inside.
蒸汽从里面的试管中溢出。
"These are tissue samples from Kangaroo Island's koalas," she explains.
“这些是来自袋鼠岛树袋熊的组织样本，”她解释道。
The scientists have sequenced DNA from these samples – tiny pieces of skin collected from the koalas' ears – to measure the population's genetic variation.
科学家们已经对这些样本中的DNA进行了测序；这些样本是从树袋熊耳朵上采集的小片皮肤，用于衡量这一种群的遗传变异。
The results confirm what the team had already suspected: Kangaroo Island's koalas shows very low genetic diversity, "We've found males with one testicle, or none," says Beaman.
结果证实了团队早已怀疑的情况：袋鼠岛的考拉遗传多样性非常低。“我们发现有些雄性只有一个睾丸，或者一个也没有，”比曼说。
"And we've seen spinal deformities."
“而且我们还见过脊柱畸形。”
This makes Kangaroo Island's koalas highly vulnerable to a phenomenon geneticists call the "extinction vortex", Beaman says.
比曼说，这使袋鼠岛的考拉极易受到遗传学家所称的“灭绝漩涡”这一现象的影响。
In small, isolated populations, the random loss of genetic variation accelerates, while at the same time inbreeding brings harmful mutations to the surface.
在规模小且彼此隔绝的种群中，遗传变异的随机丧失会加速，同时近亲繁殖会使有害突变显现出来。
As numbers fall, random demographic swings become more significant, increasing the risk of sudden decline.
随着数量下降，随机的种群数量波动会变得更加重要，从而增加突然衰退的风险。
"All the data we have shows this population is highly inbred," says Carolyn Hogg, chair of the Australasian Wildlife Genomics Group at Sydney University.
“我们掌握的所有数据都表明，这一群体高度近亲繁殖，”悉尼大学澳大拉西亚野生动物基因组学小组主席卡罗琳·霍格说。
It means, she says, that genetic rescue is critically important for the koalas on Kangaroo Island.
她说，这意味着遗传拯救对袋鼠岛上的考拉至关重要。
Genetic rescue involves introducing unrelated, genetically healthy individuals to reduce inbreeding and is increasingly recommended as a conservation strategy.
遗传拯救包括引入没有亲缘关系且基因健康的个体，以减少近亲繁殖，并且正越来越多地被推荐为一种保护策略。
But it has typically been reserved for very small populations on the brink of extinction.
但这种方法通常只用于濒临灭绝的极小种群。
While koala translocations are relatively common in Australia, they have historically been driven by population management and habitat loss rather than genetic considerations.
虽然在澳大利亚转移考拉相对常见，但从历史上看，这些转移主要是出于种群管理和栖息地丧失的需要，而不是基因方面的考虑。
Burke Da Silva and Beaman plan to restore the genetic health of Kangaroo Island's koala population.
伯克·达席尔瓦和比曼计划恢复袋鼠岛考拉种群的遗传健康。
"It's the first time [genetic rescue] will have been done for koalas at this scale," says Hogg.
“这是首次以这种规模对考拉进行[基因拯救]，”霍格说。
If successful, the project would be a critical step to establishing the only large koala population that is both genetically healthy and chlamydia-free in Australia.
如果成功，该项目将是建立澳大利亚唯一一个既基因健康又无衣原体感染的大型考拉种群的关键一步。
The first step will be to bring genetically diverse, chlamydia-free male koalas from the mainland to breed with local females in the sanctuary.
第一步将是从大陆引入基因多样且无衣原体感染的雄性考拉，让它们在保护区内与当地雌性交配繁殖。
Rather than managing breeding in captivity, which would be impractical at this scale, the team plan to fence off patches of forest where animals can interact naturally.
团队并不打算管理圈养繁殖，因为在这样的规模下这并不现实；他们计划把若干片森林围起来，让动物可以自然互动。
Gates programmed to respond to radio collars will eventually allow only the genetically rescued animals to enter Flinders Chase National Park.
经过程序设定、能对无线电项圈作出响应的闸门，最终将只允许经过基因拯救的动物进入弗林德斯蔡斯国家公园。
"The aim would be to get as many first-generation individuals out in the new population as possible without there being many inbred animals in the area of release, which is why post-fire is a good time to doing the genetic rescue," says Burke Da Silva.
伯克·达席尔瓦说：“目标是让尽可能多的第一代个体进入新种群，同时确保释放区域内没有太多近亲繁殖的动物，这就是为什么火灾之后是进行基因救援的好时机。”
• A rogue mushroom is tearing through US forests
• 一种失控蔓延的蘑菇正在席卷美国森林
• The deep cave bacteria resistant to modern medicine
• 对现代医学具有耐药性的深洞细菌
• The former Soviet reserve where snow leopards roam
• 雪豹漫游的前苏联保护区
Genetic rescue attempts can backfire if poorly planned, for example by undermining the genetic integrity of either population.
如果规划不当，遗传救援尝试可能适得其反，例如会破坏任一群体的遗传完整性。
Recent studies suggest those risks have been overstated, but Beaman and Burke Da Silva are taking precautions.
近期研究表明，这些风险被夸大了，但比曼和伯克·达席尔瓦仍在采取预防措施。
For the first translocation, planned for the second half of 2026, the team has identified a wild koala colony near the border between South Australia and Victoria with particularly high genetic diversity.
对于计划于2026年下半年进行的首次迁移，该团队已经确定了一个位于南澳大利亚州和维多利亚州交界附近、遗传多样性特别高的野生考拉种群。
To test whether they are a genetically diverse match, males from this colony have been paired with Kangaroo Island females at Cleland Wildlife Park, near Adelaide.
为了测试它们在基因多样性上是否匹配，来自这一种群的雄性考拉已在阿德莱德附近的克利兰野生动物园与袋鼠岛的雌性考拉配对。
The DNA of their joeys is currently being sequenced.
它们幼崽的 DNA 目前正在测序。
The researchers are also building a computer simulation to test how the characteristics of the koala groups chosen to breed together might shape outcomes."
研究人员还在建立一个计算机模拟模型，用来测试被选中共同繁殖的树袋熊群体的特征可能会如何影响结果。"
You can look at how big the population target and source are, sex ratios, age structure, and workshop those different scenarios to see what matters most," says Beaman.
比曼说：“你可以查看目标种群和来源种群的规模、性别比例、年龄结构，并推演这些不同情景，看看哪些因素最重要。”
If diversity remains too low, a second cohort from a different mainland population will follow.
如果多样性仍然过低，将会再从另一个大陆种群引入第二批考拉。
"We'll need to analyse the genetics after the first round and use the models to decide whether another introduction is needed," says Burke Da Silva.
“第一轮之后，我们需要分析基因情况，并利用模型来决定是否还需要再次引入，”伯克·达席尔瓦说。
Once the required diversity is achieved, the plan is to introduce these genetically healthy, chlamydia-free koalas to the mainland in areas where chlamydia rates remain low.
一旦达到所需的多样性，计划就是把这些遗传健康、无衣原体感染的树袋熊引入澳大利亚大陆上衣原体感染率仍然较低的地区。
(Exposing any of the koalas involved to infection could undo the conservation gains entirely.)
（让任何参与其中的考拉接触到感染，都可能彻底抵消保护工作取得的成果。）
The government of New South Wales, where koalas are declining rapidly, has already expressed interest in using these koalas for future reintroductions, according to Burke Da Silva.
据伯克·达席尔瓦说，在考拉数量迅速下降的新南威尔士州，当地政府已经表示有兴趣将这些考拉用于未来的重新引入项目。
A cool wind moves through the trees at The Koala Sanctuary as Burke Da Silva and Beaman walk through a patchwork of former plantations and pockets of native forest.
一阵凉风穿过考拉保护区的树林，伯克·达席尔瓦和比曼走过一片由旧种植园和零星原生林交错组成的地带。
Over the coming years, they plan to gradually restore the land to indigenous vegetation.
在未来几年里，他们计划逐步让这片土地恢复本土植被。
They stop beneath a native brown stringybark tree, where a female munches on leaves.
他们停在一棵本土褐色硬皮桉树下，那里有一只雌性树袋熊正在嚼食叶子。
"She has a joey," says Beaman, pointing to the tiny ears peeking out from her back.
“她有一只幼崽，”比曼说，并指向从她背后探出来的小耳朵。
Restoring the genetic health of Kangaroo Island's koalas will take years.
恢复袋鼠岛考拉的基因健康需要数年时间。
But by 2027, Burke Da Silva and Beaman hope to have begun repopulating both Flinders Chase National Park and parts of mainland Australia with disease-free and, by then, genetically resilient koalas from the island.
但到 2027 年，伯克·达席尔瓦和比曼希望已经开始用来自该岛、无疾病且届时基因更具韧性的考拉，重新充实弗林德斯蔡斯国家公园以及澳大利亚大陆部分地区的种群。
The project is "more than achievable with careful planning", despite the unprecedented size of the population they hope to rescue, says Hogg.
霍格说，尽管他们希望拯救的种群规模前所未有，但只要精心规划，这个项目“完全可以实现”。
Preserving Kangaroo Island's reservoir of chlamydia-free koalas will also complement broader national efforts, she says, including habitat protection, planting of genetically diverse trees for the koalas' food, a robust chlamydia vaccine, and genetic rescue of other populations with low diversity.
她说，保护袋鼠岛这个无衣原体感染树袋熊的储备种群，也将补充更广泛的全国性努力，包括栖息地保护、种植基因多样的树木作为树袋熊食物、研发有效的衣原体疫苗，以及对其他低多样性种群进行基因拯救。
If it succeeds, the project could serve as a model for managing other genetically fragile wildlife populations before they reach crisis point.
如果成功，该项目可成为一个范例，用于在其他遗传脆弱的野生动物种群达到危机点之前对其进行管理。
Despite numbering in the hundreds of thousands, Australia's koalas are "fragmented, isolated and genetically vulnerable", notes Beaman.
比曼指出，尽管澳大利亚的考拉数量有数十万只，但它们“分散、孤立，并且在遗传上很脆弱”。
"What we're doing here is testing how to manage that before it's too late."
“我们在这里所做的，就是测试如何在为时过晚之前管理这一问题。”
Burke Da Silva and Beaman also want the sanctuary to model a wider ethic of coexistence.
伯克·达席尔瓦和比曼还希望这座保护区能够示范一种更广泛的共存伦理。
They are working with the Ngarrindjeri community and other Aboriginal groups for whom Kangaroo Island holds deep cultural significance, sharing access to the land for ceremonies.
他们正与恩加林杰里社区以及其他原住民群体合作；对这些群体来说，袋鼠岛具有深厚的文化意义，他们也共享进入这片土地举行仪式的权利。
For Burke Da Silva, that idea sits comfortably alongside the sanctuary's scientific mission.
对伯克·达席尔瓦来说，这一理念与保护区的科学使命可以自然并行。
"Ultimately, it's not just on us to healed nature," she says.
“归根结底，疗愈自然并不只是我们的责任，”她说。
"We need to rediscover what it means for us to be healed by nature as well."
“我们也需要重新发现，被自然疗愈对我们意味着什么。”
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