As she strides purposefully through an African forest in leopard-print Wellingtons, Essex girl Rachael Murton is pursued by six excitable elephants. Together, the lumbering animals weigh a combined 500 stone, but Chelmsford-born Rachael retains her composure.
For these young orphaned elephants, this devoted young British woman is their surrogate mum, and each wants to be first for a cuddle. Tenderly, these colossal beasts — years from being fully grown — raise their trunks to 33-year-old Rachael's face, seeming to wrap her in an embrace.
你這一輩子，願意為了什麼堅持而努力？一名英國女孩 Rachael Murton 為了守護大象遠走他鄉，來到遙遠的非洲尚比亞（Zambia）。非洲盜獵大象的現象一直都很嚴重，如果市場需求不停止，盜獵對於象群的威脅只會與日俱增。Rachael Murton，決定不再只是坐著感傷自己什麼都做不了，而是為了中止這樣殘忍的現象做出具體行動！
- stride (v.) 大步走過
He strode out of the room. 他大步走出房間。
- leopard-print 豹紋印花
- excitable (adj.) 容易興奮的；容易激動的
A puppy is naturally affectionate and excitable. 小狗生性親熱好動。
- lumbering (adj.) 笨重的
- composure (n.) 鎮靜，沉著 =calmness
Keep calm: don't lose your composure! 保持鎮靜，不要慌張。
- surrogate (adj.) 代理的；代替的
Uncle Giles became a sort of surrogate father to them after the accident.
在那次事故以後Giles叔叔便成了他們的代理父親。
- cuddle (n.) 擁抱，摟抱
My little daughter came to me for a cuddle. 我的小女兒走過來要我撫抱。
- colossal (adj.) 巨大的；龐大的 =huge, vast, enormous, gigantic
This is indeed a colossal success. 這確實是個巨大的成功。
- trunk (n.) 象鼻
A biology graduate who left the UK after university, Rachael has dedicated her life to saving baby elephants left without their real mums by poachers killing indiscriminately for ivory and bush-meat in Zambia. Not only does she nurse the severely traumatised animals back to health, she is also on 24-hour call to mount dangerous rescue operations to bring abandoned elephants to safety.
'I've always loved animals and I left my white stilettos in Essex,' jokes Rachael, who came to Zambia in 2008 after working on animal conservation projects around the world.
She manages the Lilayi Elephant Nursery, the only orphanage of its kind in southern Africa, for anti-poaching organisation Game Rangers International, which has links to the International Fund For Animal Welfare.
The orphanage, near the capital Lusaka, performs a vital role in a country where ivory poachers who sell tusks to dealers for the Far East market are unlikely to be arrested. When adult females are killed for their tusks, their babies quickly become emaciated because they need maternal milk to grow until the age of two or three.
Forlorn and confused, they are shunned by their herds because their weak state means they are more likely to attract lions. Without human intervention, orphaned elephants would quickly die.
Rachael Murton 來自英國的艾塞克斯郡（Essex），大學時期主修生物，畢業後隨即毅然決然來到尚比亞 ，投入照顧幼象的任務，24 小時 on call 的守護大象族群，同時也負責照顧嚴重負傷的幼象恢復健康。
Rachael 於尚比亞首都路沙卡（Lusaka）創建幼象孤兒院（Lilayi Elephant Nursery），是南非唯一一處的幼象照護所，為流離失所的小象提供安全而穩定的環境。幼象孤兒院的成立，提供許多失去母親的幼象臨時的家，對於幼象來說，照護牠們的生活、天天陪伴在牠們身邊的 Rachael 就像牠們第二個媽媽。
Rachael 說：「在尚比亞地區，非法獵捕成象的案例相當常見，當成象因珍稀的象牙而遭獵殺，幼象就會頓失依靠。而一般幼象在兩、三歲前，都得依賴成象的母乳餵養。」頓失母親的幼象除了困惑和無助，相對地大象族群的生存也面臨著相當嚴重的威脅。牠們甚至無法在象群的保護下成長，因為牠們虛弱的身體狀態可能招致獅群的覬覦，極有可能替整個象群帶來無法負荷的威脅。因此若是沒有獲得人類的援助，失去母親的幼象通常活不久。
- dedicate to 奉獻…
He dedicated his whole life to music. 他把自己的一生都獻給了音樂。
- poacher (n.) 偷獵者
- indiscriminately (adv.) 隨意地；任意地
- traumatised (adj.) 受到創傷的
- mount (v.) 發動；進行
The Opposition mounted another attack on the government. 反對黨又對政府發起進攻。
- stilettos (n.)【複數】表是高跟鞋
- tusk (n.) 象牙
- dealer (n.) 業者，商人
- emaciated (adj.) 消瘦的；憔悴的；衰弱的
- maternal (adj.) 母親的；母性的 =motherly ﹡paternal (adj.) 父親的
She showed her daughter's picture with maternal pride.
她懷著作為母親的自豪感拿出女兒的照片給人看。
- Forlorn (adj.) 被遺棄的
- shun (v.) 躲開，避開，迴避 =avoid
She was shunned by her former friends after she went astray.
她偏離正道後，從前的朋友都迴避她。
- intervention (n.) 介入；干預
The government's intervention in this dispute will not help.
政府介入這場爭端將於事無補。
Until 2012, when the orphanage was opened, she was based in the bush, living without modern conveniences for many months of the year. Her passion to help was fuelled after she found two-year-old female Suni, who was attacked with an axe when her mother was poached. Rachael and her Zambian keepers now dote on the young elephant who had horrific injuries.
Once sufficiently recovered, the orphans will be returned to the wild in Zambia's Kafue National Park. In this gigantic wilderness the size of Wales, they are initially kept safe from harm in a controlled area. But eventually they will be free to roam with the herds.
While the international ivory trade continues to kill thousands, it is left to brave animal lovers like Rachael to pick up the pieces. She makes a formidable ally for the elephants.
Rachael 特別提起一次她發現了一隻僅兩歲的幼象 Suni, 牠被斧頭砍傷，大象媽媽則慘遭獵殺。Suni 的腿跛了，無法自由行動。在那個當下，Rachael 震驚地發現人類有多麼殘忍，而動物又有多麼無助。我們為了一己之私傷害了太多生命，一根漂亮的象牙背後，又有多少血腥的過程。
在悉心照料後，若幼象身體恢復健康，將會被安置於贊比亞規模最大的卡富埃國家公園（Kafue National Park）。初回野外，總會有些風險，最初幼象仍會受到看守，以確保牠的平安，一段時間後，幼象就能健康地回到象群大團圓。
象牙交易屬非法行為，但仍有不少人非法盜獵販售象牙，就在像 Rachael 一樣的動保人士默默付出的同時，全世界仍有數千頭大象因此不幸死亡。
- fuel (v.) 激起；刺激
His rude remarks fueled her anger. 他粗魯的言詞使她怒上加怒。
- dote on 溺愛
She dotes on her youngest son. 她溺愛幼子。
- gigantic (adj.) 巨大的，龐大的
The entire area looked like a gigantic rubbish heap. 整個地區看上去像一座大垃圾堆。
- roam (v.) 漫步；漫遊
We spent the day roaming around in the city . 我們漫步街頭度過了一天。
- pick up the pieces 收拾殘局
Their lives were shattered by the tragedy and they are still trying to pick up the pieces.
他們的生活被這場悲劇摧垮了, 但他們仍盡力重新整頓。
- formidable (adj.) 巨大的；傑出的
- ally (n.) 同盟者；伙伴
