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Maria matthes can spot koalas in trees even while driving 50 miles an hour down roads riddled with potholes. “Did you see them? ” she asked me.
玛丽亚·马特斯甚至可以在以每小时50英里的速度行驶在布满坑洼的道路上时，发现树上的考拉。“你看到它们了吗？”她问我。
“There were at least five koalas, just down that stretch. ” (I had seen zero.)
“至少有五只考拉，就在那段路上。”（我一只也没看到。）
Matthes, an ecologist who works with Friends of the Koala, grew up naming the koalas that loafed around in her backyard. Now she spends her time surveying wild koalas.
马西斯是一位与考拉之友合作的生态学家，她从小就给在自家后院闲逛的考拉取名。现在，她把时间花在调查野生考拉上。
When she spots a sick one, she sets out to trap it.
当她发现一只生病的动物时，她就开始设陷阱捕捉它。
The day we met, Matthes was attempting, for the third time, to snare Dumpling, a koala that had been lurking for weeks on the property of her friends Jo Walton and Peter Boucher. Dumpling was clearly not well.
我们见面的那天，马西斯第三次试图诱捕“饺子”，这只考拉已经在她的朋友乔·沃尔顿和彼得·鲍彻的地盘上潜伏了好几个星期。“饺子”显然状态不佳。
She looked frail. The fur on her rump was wet and stained reddish brown—an indication that she suffered from an inflammatory condition called cystitis.
她看起来很虚弱。她臀部的皮毛湿漉漉的，还沾着红棕色的污渍——这表明她患有膀胱炎。
Matthes had seen these signs before: Dumpling had chlamydia, and she’d had it for a while.
马特斯以前见过这些迹象：饺子患有衣原体感染，而且她已经感染了一段时间。
In all likelihood, Matthes said, the bacterial pathogen had spread to her reproductive tract, lining it with cysts that can be as big as oranges.
马西斯说，极有可能是细菌性病原体传播到了她的生殖道，在上面布满了囊肿，这些囊肿可能有橙子那么大。
At this stage of the disease, Dumpling was likely dehydrated and in serious pain, struggling to move or even eat.
在这个疾病阶段，饺子可能已经脱水，并且处于剧痛之中，难以移动甚至进食。
Sexually transmitted infections have never been just a human problem: Dolphins have genital herpes; pigs exchange brucellosis; rabbits, notoriously promiscuous, get syphilis.
性传播感染从来都不只是人类的问题：海豚会感染生殖器疱疹；猪会传播布氏杆菌病；众所周知滥交的兔子会感染梅毒。
For the most part, STIs are not hastening the decline of entire species. But for koalas, chlamydia is a scourge.
在大多数情况下，性传播感染不会加速整个物种的衰退。但对于考拉来说，衣原体是一种祸害。
They lack immunity to the pathogen, which some researchers suspect was introduced to koalas by imported livestock in the 18th century.
它们对这种病原体缺乏免疫力，一些研究人员怀疑这种病原体是在18世纪由进口牲畜引入考拉的。
Retroviral infections, too, may be speeding the spread of the deadly disease.
逆转录病毒感染也可能加速这种致命疾病的传播。
At FOK, the majority of koalas admitted with chlamydia must be euthanized shortly after they arrive.
在FOK，大多数感染衣原体的考拉在到达后不久就必须被安乐死。
Among those that receive treatment, fewer than half survive: The drugs that kill the pathogen can also destroy koalas’ fragile gut microbes.
在那些接受治疗的考拉中，只有不到一半的考拉存活下来：杀死病原体的药物也会破坏考拉脆弱的肠道微生物。
The threat of chlamydia is also growing as the disease seeps into just about every corner of the species’ northern range.
衣原体的威胁也在增加，因为这种疾病已经渗透到该物种北部范围的几乎每个角落。
In 2008, scientists tracking one population around the town of Gunnedah, New South Wales, which calls itself the “koala capital of the world,” found chlamydia in less than 10 percent of the koalas they tested.
2008年，科学家在新南威尔士州冈尼达镇周围追踪一个考拉种群，这里自称“考拉之都”。他们发现，在接受检测的考拉中，衣原体感染率不到10%。
Now the disease is thought to be present in nearly every koala there; within just a few years, researchers expect Gunnedah’s population to entirely disappear.
现在，这种疾病被认为几乎存在于那里的每只考拉身上；研究人员预计，在短短几年内，冈尼达的考拉种群将完全消失。
Peter Timms, a microbiologist at the University of the Sunshine Coast, and his colleagues have been developing a chlamydia vaccine that’s now being administered to small numbers of koalas in Queensland and New South Wales on a trial basis.
阳光海岸大学的微生物学家彼得·蒂姆斯和他的同事一直在开发一种衣原体疫苗，目前正在昆士兰州和新南威尔士州对少量考拉进行试验性接种。
It can’t prevent infection, but it does seem to curb the disease’s severity.
它不能预防感染，但似乎确实能抑制疾病的严重程度。
Vaccinating a fifth of one koala population, Timms said, appears to have improved survival by at least 60 percent. The vaccine is still in limited supply, though.
蒂姆姆斯说，为五分之一的考拉种群接种疫苗似乎使存活率至少提高了60%。不过，疫苗的供应仍然有限。
Northern Rivers Koala Hospital receives just 100 doses a year; when I visited in March, the facility had only 10 left for the next four months.
北河考拉医院每年仅收到100剂；我3月份访问时，医院在接下来的四个月里只剩下10剂了。
Jodie Wakeman, a veterinarian at FOK, saves the shots for young, healthy animals, which likely have many reproductive years ahead.
朱迪-瓦克曼，FOK的一名兽医，为年轻健康的动物保留了疫苗，这些动物可能还有很多年的繁殖期。
I watched Wakeman administer doses 91 and 92 to two male joeys—Droplet, who was recovering after falling from a tree, and Kelso, who came in with a mild-enough case of chlamydia that it left no lingering damage, and was now disease-free.
我看着韦克曼给两只雄性幼考拉——水滴和凯尔索——注射了91号和92号疫苗。水滴是从树上掉下来后正在恢复的，而凯尔索是带着轻微的衣原体感染进来的，感染的还不是很严重，现在已经变健康了。
In late April, Emerson received one too.
在四月下旬，爱默生也接种了疫苗。
But vaccines can’t help animals that have already been infected for months or years—which ended up being the case for Dumpling, who finally crawled down into her trap about a day and a half after Matthes set it.
但是疫苗无法帮助那些已经感染数月或数年的动物——饺子就是这种情况，在马特斯设置陷阱大约一天半后，它终于爬进了陷阱。
An exam at Northern Rivers confirmed what Matthes had guessed: a bladder burning with cystitis, and a reproductive tract so full of cysts that it was no longer functional.
在北河医院的检查证实了马西斯的猜测：膀胱炎导致膀胱灼烧，生殖道布满囊肿，已无法正常运转。
A veterinarian euthanized Dumpling and later handed the body back over to Matthes, at her request.
一位兽医对饺子实施了安乐死，随后应马特斯的要求将尸体交还给了她。
