Shownotes Transcript
Hello everybody, and welcome to a new episode of News Bites!
I'm Ryan Drillsma…
And I'm Nancy Sun…
In today's news:
Cherry blossoms in Taiwan, an old tortoise on an island, and a rat passes away in Cambodia.
All that and more, coming up next.
櫻花季到了 Taiwan's Cherry Blossom Season
Wow… is that pink snow slowly drifting down (飄下) from the sky?
No, of course not!
It's the petals (花瓣) of the cherry blossom tree (櫻花樹).
Every year in Taiwan, from around January to April, the flowers of the cherry blossom tree bloom (開花).
People all over the country travel to different scenic spots (景點) to get the best view of their beautiful pink flowers.
And take pictures among them.
News reports say currently around 80 percent of cherry blossom trees in Kaohsiung's Taoyuan district are in full bloom.
據新聞報告，目前在高雄桃園區8成的櫻花樹全開花了。
There's around 2,000 cherry blossom trees there.
And the Kaohsiung City Government is holding a special event at Baoshan Cherry Blossom Park there, where there are stalls, and performances at the weekend.
It will last for a month.
But there are many other great places to see cherry blossom trees.
One of those places is the Alishan Forest Recreation Area.
There are more than 19,000 cherry blossoms in the area.
The best places to see them are near the Alishan Police Station and the Cherry Blossom Trail.
Oh… and don't forget Tianyuan Temple (無極天元宮) in Taipei's Tamsui District.
There are lots of cherry blossom trees there, and also a beautiful pagoda (塔).
We're sure you know more great places to view the trees… why don't you send in a voice note and let us know?
你一定知道更多觀看櫻花的好景點，歡迎留一個voice note告訴我們？
世界最老的陸生動物 The World's Oldest Land Animal
The world's oldest person is Kane Tanaka.
She is 119 years old and lives in Japan.
But the world's oldest land animal is much older.
Researchers think the oldest animal on the land is Jonathan the tortoise (烏龜).
And they don't know exactly how old he is, but they think he is 190 years old this year!
Jonathan lives on an island called St. Helena, in the South Atlantic Ocean.
It's believed he was taken there from Seychelles in 1882.
這隻名叫Jonathan的烏龜住在南大西洋的小島聖赫蕾拿，研究員認為他是在1882年被人類從塞席爾搬到那裏去。
Researchers found a black and white photograph of Jonathan from 1882, and in the photograph, he is already a fully grown adult.
This means he was already around 50-years-old at that time.
Jonathan has been recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records (金氏世界紀錄) for being the oldest land animal.
But what about animals that live in the ocean?
A kind of whale called the bowhead whale can live for longer than 200 years.
One caught in recent years was estimated (估計) to be 211 years old.
And then there's a Greenland shark people think is over 400 years old.
And there's a jellyfish people think is almost immortal - that means it never dies.
When it gets hurt it can turn back into a baby, attach to a rock, and then go back into a jellyfish later.
Phew… these things are really hard to imagine.
有一種水母受傷時可以回到水母幼蟲的樣子黏在石頭上，然後再變回成年水母的樣子回到大海裡…真是不可思議。
柬埔寨哀悼英雄老鼠 Cambodia mourns the death of Hero Rat Magawa
Cambodia is mourning (哀悼) the death of a "hero rat" (英雄老鼠) that saved thousands of lives for its efforts to clear landmines (地雷). The rat, named "Magawa," died recently. Magawa was important in efforts to get rid of more than 225 thousand square meters of landmines in Cambodia. Magawa是一隻會找地雷的英雄老鼠
Magawa's efforts won him a gold medal from a British animal charity. The organization that trains rats to find landmines said he spent most of his last week playing with lots of enthusiasm.
But then he slowed down and took lots of naps.
So, in today's News Bites:
Every year in Taiwan, from around January to April, the flowers of the cherry blossom tree bloom.
People all over the country travel to different scenic spots.
The Kaohsiung City Government is holding a special event at Baoshan Cherry Blossom Park, where there are stalls, and performances at the weekend.
And,
Researchers think the oldest animal on the land is Jonathan the tortoise.
And they don't know exactly how old he is, but they think he is 190 years old this year!
Jonathan lives on an island called St. Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean.
And,
Cambodia is mourning the death of a "hero rat" that saved thousands of lives for its efforts to clear landmines. The rat, named "Magawa," died recently. Magawa was important in efforts to get rid of more than 225 thousand square meters of landmines.
And that's today's episode of News Bites!