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John Thorbjarnarson 约翰瑟布贾纳森; John Thorbjarnarson,saviour of crocodilesdied， onFebruary 14th, aged 52; 鳄鱼救助者约翰瑟布贾纳森于2月14日去世，英年52岁。 THE rippling fire of the tiger, the cuddliness of thepanda, the viridian flash of the green-cheekedparrot, all argue that these most-endangeredspecies should be saved. It s harder to make thecase for crocodilians. That bony, hideous head, withits unblinking yellow eye; those huge teeth, smellywith fish-debris, overhanging the long, cruel, curling smile; the slithering slide of the whiteunderside down a muddy slope, into the water where those jaws, the strongest in Nature,will smash round the leg of a man and pull him under, thrashing and screaming. 所有人都坚决主张，拥有火焰般花纹的虎、让人禁不住想拥抱的熊猫、闪着翠绿光芒的绿颊鹦鹉这些最濒危的物种应得到保护。而保护鳄鱼更困难。鳄鱼它骨骼突出、头部奇丑、头部有着不眨的黄眼晴，它牙齿巨大，且嵌有难闻的鱼碎片，显出长长的、无情的、撅唇的冷笑，它摇摆着白色的腹部向泥泞的斜坡下滑去，没入水中。在水里，自然界最强壮的生物鳄鱼的嘴会在人四肢反复挣脱和凄漓尖叫中，绞断人的腿并把人拖入水中。 John Thorbjarnarson knew he could not end men s fear of crocodilians, hard-wired sincehominids first ventured down from the trees into swamps that seethed with them. But in his20-odd years working for the Wildlife Conservation Society he did more than anyone else totry. He commended the grace of their straight, silent swimming, their camouflagemottlings of yellow, grey and olive green, and the jewelled beauty of new, damp hatchlingsno bigger than the span of his hand. He stressed their cultural importance, even magic: thedragon of China, bringer of good fortune, and the water god of ancient Egypt who made thegrasses green. He extolled their niceness, snapping them as they basked companionably onwarm mud or on a favourite bank of long grass, the forefoot of one embracing the back ofanother. Most crocodilians, he reminded people, preferred to dine on fish or molluscs ratherthan farmers. Most were sensitive, even shy. | 
