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Big ears! 大耳朵!
By Catherine Thomas
STAFF WRITER
Sunday, Jun 17, 2007,Page 14
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Five South African bat-eared fox kits outside their birthing den at the San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park on June 8, 2007. 六月八日，美國聖地牙哥野生動物園裡的五隻小南非大耳狐聚集在出生的洞穴外。
PHOTO: AP
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The animals in this picture are baby bat-eared foxes. Like other types of foxes the babies are called kits. Bat-eared foxes can only be found in Africa.
If you look carefully at the picture you will see that the kits have ears which seem too big for their heads. Lots of baby animals like puppies and kittens start off with really big ears. Bat-eared foxes are different because their ears stay really big even after they grow up. That is why they are called bat-eared.
Unlike other foxes, dogs and dingos, bat-eared foxes mainly eat insects. They grow to about 60cm long, and their tails add another 30cm. They are pretty small — they only grow to about 40cm tall.
Bat-eared foxes like to live in the woods and on grasslands. They mainly come out at night. They usually live in pairs and both parents raise the kits. Mommy bat-eared foxes have between 1 and 5 kits at a time, so the family in the picture is a big one! They were born sometime in April but have only just started coming out to play.
照片上的動物是小小大耳狐。大耳狐的小寶寶和其他品種的幼狐一樣都叫「kit」。大耳狐是非洲特有的動物。
如果仔細看照片，你會發現這些幼狐的耳朵似乎大到跟自己的頭不成比例。小狗、小貓等許多小動物出生時，也都有著一雙大耳朵，但大耳狐不同的是，即便長大後，那對耳朵還是很大，這是「bat-eared」之所以得名。
和其他狐、狗及澳洲犬不同的是，大耳狐的主食是昆蟲。成狐身長約六十公分，尾長三十公分，體型很小，身高僅有四十公分左右。
大耳狐喜歡生活在樹林裡或草原上，屬夜行性動物的牠們常成雙成對生活，並由雙親共同撫育幼狐。母大耳狐一次可生一到五胎，因此照片上的小小大耳狐是個大家庭！四月左右出生的牠們，直到最近才開始外出玩耍。
(翻譯：林倩如）
| TODAY'S WORDS 今日單字 |
| 1. bat n.
蝙蝠 (bian1 fu2)
例: Bats fly in the dark. They use sound to navigate.
(在黑暗中飛行的蝙蝠利用聲波辨識方位。)
2. grow up v. phr.
成長 (cheng2 zhang3)
例: When I grow up I want to be a wizard.
(我長大後要當巫師。)
3. dingo n.
澳洲丁哥犬 (ao4 zhou1 ding1 ge1 chuan3)
例: I saw lots of dingos in Australia.
(我在澳洲看見好多丁哥犬。)
4. grassland n.
草原 (cao3 yuan2)
例: You can often see for miles across grasslands.
(草原往往一望無際。)
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