移除福壽螺的路徑， 就是在田區一直繞一直繞，
打轉到好似進入福壽螺的螺旋漩渦。
越繞，我們問題越多。
福壽螺到底是在什麼樣的狀況下， 從原產地阿根廷被帶到台灣？
福壽螺在原產地有造成危害嗎？ 為什麼到台灣變得這麼勢不可擋？ 從網路上找到的資料不知道轉過幾手，
看起來大同小異但又疑點重重， 芳儀跟我，還有人類學家晏霖， 我們開讀書會，
整天哎說好想去阿根廷看看， 就看到了一個南美洲交流計畫的補助。 很幸運的計畫過了， ＃跟螺交流果然也算
2020年，我們一人一顆大背包， 組成巡螺團， 到福壽螺的娘家進行田野調查。
這一趟我們拜訪了阿根廷研究福壽螺的學者， 觀察他們的稻作環境， 還有沿著螺的生活水域去找螺， 希望可以回答如同螺卵般黏附在我們心上， 快要爆漿的成串問題。
跟福壽螺回家
To eliminate apple snails, we keep going round and round in the rice paddies until we seem to enter a spiraling apple snail whirlpool.
The more we go round, the more questions emerge.
Under what circumstances were apple snails brought from their native home of Argentina to Taiwan? Did apple snails cause any damage in their homeland? Why did they become so invincible in Taiwan?
Most of the information found on the internet is not from first-hand sources, and while most of it says similar things, major doubts remain.
Fang-yee, anthropologist Yen-ling, and I have been holding a study group to research the apple snails.
We always talked about wanting to go to Argentina to see it for ourselves. Then, we found the South American Exchange Program grant and luckily, our funding proposal was accepted.
It seems that cultural exchange with snails also counts.
In 2019, with a large backpack each, we formed the "Snail Girl" team and traveled to the apple snail's home country to conduct field studies. We visited scholars in Argentina who research apple snails, observed their rice-growing environment, and searched for snails throughout their distribution range.
We hoped to answer the string of questions that stuck to our hearts like a cluster of snail eggs about to burst.
It was so far away! We took two 12-hour long flights to get there.
In May, it was late winter in the south of Argentina, far at the opposite end of the earth.
We searched for snails in the Les Encadenadas lagoon, the southernmost limit of their distribution range.
五月，到了阿根廷的南方， 地球的另一端， 是冬天的尾巴， 我們在一處福壽螺分佈南界的潟湖 （Les encadenadas）找螺。
#布蘭卡港的螺學者Silvana #可愛
We found out that the apple snails here are having a hard time.
Silvana is a scholar who studies snails at Universidad Nacional del Sur, Bahía Blanca
#Isn’t she cute?
發現這裡的福壽螺也過得太慘了。
Blowing cold winds made waves on the vast lagoon, and Fang-yee rolled up her pants and waded into the water, poking around like a bird.
冷風颼颼，把廣大的潟湖刮起浪， 芳儀捲起褲管下水， 像鳥一樣在湖里戳來戳去。
連隻活的也沒有。
在這個緯度，福壽螺沒什麼機會， 冬季氣溫零度以下， 福壽螺能撐過去的不多。
Finally, we found several wounded snail shells, but not even a single living snail. At this latitude, the temperature drops below zero in winter. Not many apple snails manage to survive.
好不容易才找到幾個傷痕累累的螺殼，
Unable to find live snails, we headed north toward warmer places, embarking on our snail searching road trip.
找不到活體， 我們開始北上， 往溫暖的地方去， 展開公路巡螺之旅。
沿著巴拉那河走， 這大致也是文獻中福壽螺分布的區域。
day, we’d shout, "Apple snails, your homeland is huge!"
路程非常長， 從布宜諾斯艾利斯出發， 最後的目的是伊瓜蘇瀑布， 不知道是不是春光乍洩中的路線。
但旅程沒有這麼浪漫， 一路上只想吶喊， 福壽螺你娘家也太大了吧！
We traveled along the Paraná River, which according to the academic literature is about the distribution range of the apple snails.
It was a long, long journey, starting from Buenos Aires all the way to the final destination of Iguazu Falls. Maybe we took the same romantic route as in the Hong Kong film “Happy Together.”
Our journey was not so romantic! Every
We changed hotels almost every day, visiting different people and places, with the scenery constantly moving before us.
幾乎每天換旅館， 拜訪不同的地方跟人， 眼前都是移動的風景。
我們參觀的農場的面積有一萬甲， （我的耕作面積大概是1甲） 展開了此生最壯闊的巡田水， 也改變了我們對螺與環境的想法。
During our visit to the rice-growing region in Santa Fe, Argentina, we toured a 10,000 acre farm. In Taiwan, I only grow about 1 acre. We experienced the most magnificent rice paddy tour of our lives and it changed our perception of the snails and their habitat.
來到阿根廷的稻米產區Santa Fe(聖塔 菲），
There were crocodiles in the irrigation canals by the rice paddies, which prey on apple snails.
農場裡的灌溉溝渠有鱷魚。 ＃鱷魚會吃福壽螺
#聖塔菲的蛙類學者Andrés #一看到蛇眼睛就射出愛的光芒 #因為有蛇就有蛙
We found a big snake on the roadside, reminding us of Taipei’s old snake meat shops on Huaxi Street.
# Snakes also eat apple snails
# Andrés, a professor who studies amphibians at University of Santa Fe, beamed with love when he saw this snake because, where there are snakes, there are frogs.
The farm staff pointed something out to us on the side of the road.
農場的工作人員指示我們看旁邊。
Under a wooden stake by the irrigation ditch, we saw what was left over from a snail kite’s feast: scattered apple snail shells all over the ground. It looked like a dining table after a meal of escargot.
田邊的木樁下，有螺鷹吃過， 散落一地的螺殼，
很像快炒店有點鳳螺的那一桌。
Many animals including snail kites, limpkins, snakes, crocodiles and raccoons prey on apple snails.
＃ I didn't bring a zoom lens, so I had to make up for it by drawing.
螺鷹、秧鶴、蛇、鱷魚、浣熊、 一堆動物會吃福壽螺。
在台灣，福壽螺是吃到飽， 但是在阿根廷，福壽螺是“被”吃到飽， 是生態鏈中重要的一環。
再加上乾式直播的耕種法， 福壽螺造成的稻作危害微乎其微。
In Taiwan, apple snails enjoy an all-youcan-eat lifestyle.
But in Argentina, they are the ones on the menu, enjoyed by other creatures and serving an important role in the ecosystem.
Combined with dry field sowing practices, the damage caused by apple snails to rice cultivation is negligible.
這讓我們意識到， 在台灣，尤其是在宜蘭， 福壽螺根本是我們一手養起來的。
水田放水的時間， 恰巧配合到螺的活動週期， 餓了一個冬天， 氣溫回暖，螺伸出觸鬚活動， 我們就插下幼嫩的秧苗。
如果再施用農藥化肥， 讓可以吃福壽螺的生物變少， 水田成為真空狀態， 也就成了福壽螺的新樂園。
This made us realize that in Taiwan, especially in Yilan, we are the ones raising the snails.
The timing of rice paddy flooding coincides with the snail's life cycle. They starve all winter, but when the temperature warms up, they emerge and start extending their antennae. This is when we transplant our young, juicy,
rice seedlings.
If we continue to apply pesticides and fertilizers, the creatures that eat apple snails will become fewer and fewer. Without these predators, the paddies become an apple snail paradise.
但這一趟最讓我深刻的， 除了福壽螺的探索之外， 我也見識到這些學者探索世界的熱情。
旅途中因為得了皮蛇， 我在車後座昏睡。
聽到晏霖跟芳儀， 邊開車邊聊生物這個學科。
芳儀說生物學不只是生理研究或技術， 其實生物學最終是一種認識世界的方 法。
#帶我們開了100公里到潟湖找螺的 Silvana
#正在分享巴西的福壽螺研究資料 #她羨慕我們福壽螺很多（？
Aside from the snails, the most memorable part of this trip was witnessing the passion of these scholars in exploring the world.
While suffering from shingles that I got during our journey, I fell asleep in the back seat of the car and heard Yen-ling
and Fang-yee chatting about biology as they drove.
Fang-yee said that biology is not just about physiology research and techniques, but ultimately a way to understand the world.
#Silvana, who drove us 100 kilometers to find snails in a lagoon, shares her research on apple snails in Brazil.
#She envied us for having many apple snails in Taiwan?!
＊拉普拉塔大學的學者Ana
Ana is a scholar who slept with snails to observe them day and night. She has conducted research on an invasive snail from Taiwan in Argentina.
＃ What a mirrored world
＃ Ana, a scholar at University of La Plata
跟福壽螺一起睡覺， 沒日沒夜觀察螺的學者Ana，
＃她也進行台灣田螺跑到阿根廷的外
還有這個研究室的人， 他們會爬到瀑布頂端，
研究一種從瀑布中的石頭摳下來， 大概跟耳屎差不多大的螺。
＃全研究室帶我們去河邊找螺 ＃以為是海
＃福壽螺娘家的親戚生活場景好廣闊
＊波薩達斯的學者Roberto的研究室 #所以學者還要會爬瀑布
Researchers at this lab climb to the top of waterfalls to study a snail species about the size of a piece of earwax that they pick off rocks in the waterfall.
＃The whole lab team took us to the riverside to find snails
＃ The river was so vast it looked like an ocean
＃ Roberto's Lab at Posadas
＃ I guess scholars need to know how to climb waterfalls?
Drinking yerba mate and chatting with different people (about apple snails) in various places.
在各種地方喝瑪黛茶， 跟不同的人聊天（談福壽螺）。
In the later part of the journey, I-Han came to join us, leaving their children in Taiwan
＃ Their kids were just starting school at the time…
＃ What a decisive way to handle the stresses of the start of the school year…
Even at the Iguazu Falls......
Our first stop near the lagoon in Argentina, was a famous place surveyed by Darwin, a place with dinosaur fossils.
我們在阿根廷第一站， 潟湖那附近，
是達爾文調查過的地方， 也是有恐龍化石的地方。
一路上，
芳儀習慣隨手紀錄看到的鳥跟生物， 她說，在南半球，
每個看到的生物紀錄對她來說都是新 的。
人好像就是會為了親身經驗要找的事 物，
因為好奇心，
這樣千里跋涉的跑來跑去。
Our first stop near the lagoon in Argentina, was a famous place surveyed by Darwin, a place with dinosaur fossils.
Fang-yee kept recording the birds and wildlife she saw along the journey. She said, everything she saw in the southern hemisphere was new to her.
It seems that curiosity leads people on distant journeys, seeking new experiences.
沒有想到，
會被福壽螺帶出來看這個世界， 心裡其實很感謝福壽螺（？？？
＃只是沿路會一直停下車來看鳥 ＃他們兩個在車上還會查文獻 ＃做研究體力都要這麼好嗎
I never expected that I would appreciate apple snails for leading out to see the world.
＃ Fang-yee and Yen-ling kept stopping the car to look at birds along the way
＃ These two even read academic papers in the car
＃ Do all researchers have this much energy?
＃ To be continued…