科学美国人60秒 SSS 人类让野生动物变得不那么警觉

This is Scientific American's 60-second Science, I'm Jason Goldman.

这里是科学美国人——60秒科学系列，我是杰森·戈德曼。

Wild animals are equipped with a variety of techniques to avoid becoming lunch for a bigger, toothier animal.

野生动物有各种各样的技巧来避免成为块头更大和牙齿更多的动物的午餐。

The most well-known methods include the classic “fight” and “flight,” as well as “freeze.”

最著名的方法包括经典的“战斗”、“逃跑”和“僵住反应”。

A team of researchers wondered how proximity¹ to people might impact those survival strategies.

一组研究人员想知道与人亲近会如何影响这些生存策略。

“We often see that animals are more tolerant around us in urban areas, but we don't really know why.”

“我们经常看到城市里的动物对我们更宽容，但我们真的不知道为什么。”

U.C.L.A. evolutionary² biologist Dan Blumstein.

加州大学洛杉矶分校进化生物学家丹·布鲁姆斯坦。

“Is it a filtering process where only the tolerant animals are there? Is it individual plasticity, meaning individuals change their fear of us, and that leads to tolerance³? Or can there be an evolutionary dynamic occurring?”

“这是一个过滤过程，只有宽容的动物在那里吗? 是个体的可塑性，即个体改变了他们对我们的恐惧，从而导致了宽容吗? 或者还是会发生进化动态?”

To find out, Blumstein and colleagues combined information from 173 studies of more than 100 species, including mammals, birds, reptiles⁴, fish and even mollusks.

为了找到答案，布鲁姆斯坦和他的同事综合了来自100多种物种的173项研究的信息，包括哺乳动物、鸟类、爬行动物、鱼类甚至软体动物。

Turns out that regardless of evolutionary lineage, the animals react in a similar way to life among humans: they lose their antipredator traits. That pattern is especially pronounced for herbivores and for social species.

事实证明，不管进化谱系如何，这些动物对人类生活的反应是相似的:它们失去了反捕食者的特征。 这种模式在食草动物和群居物种中尤为明显。

This behavioral change is perhaps unsurprising when it’s intentional⁵, the result of domestication⁶ and a controlled breeding paradigm⁷.

当这种行为变化是驯养和控制繁殖范式的结果时，它是有意的，也许并不令人惊讶。

But it turns out that urbanization alone results in a similar change, though much more slowly—around three times more slowly.

但事实证明，城市化本身也会导致类似的变化，尽管速度要慢得多——大约是城市化速度的三倍。

The results are in the journal PLOS Biology.

研究结果发表在《公共科学图书馆·生物学》杂志上。

“The main point is: we’re essentially⁸ domesticating⁹ animals by urbanization.

“重点是:我们基本上是通过城市化来驯化动物的。

We’re selecting for the same sorts of traits that we would if we were actually trying to domesticate¹⁰ them.”

如果我们真的试图驯化它们，我们正在选择相同类型的特征。”

If the urbanization process helps animals better coexist with people, it could be to their benefit.

如果城市化进程有助于动物与人类更好地共存，这可能对它们有利。

But if it makes them more vulnerable to their nonhuman predators¹¹, it could be a real problem.

但如果这让它们更容易受到非人类捕食者的攻击，那就真的有问题了。

Either way, these results mean that city living exerts enough of an influence on wild animals that evolutionary processes kick in.

无论如何，这些结果意味着，城市生活对野生动物产生了足够的影响，进化过程开始发挥作用。

Those reductions in antipredator traits become encoded in their genes¹².

这些反捕食者特征的减少被编码在他们的基因中。

“We’re changing the population genetics and changing genetic¹³ variation. We are reducing, we are eliminating variation. And if variation is a good thing and is a target of conservation, then that’s something to be concerned with.”

“我们正在改变种群遗传学和遗传变异。我们正在减少，我们正在消除变化。如果变异是一件好事并且是保护的目标，那么这就是值得关注的事情。”

What the researchers now wonder is whether the mere¹⁴ presence of tourists in less urbanized areas can instigate¹⁵ similar changes in wild animals.

研究人员现在想知道的是，在城市化程度较低的地区，仅仅是游客的出现，是否就会在野生动物中引发类似的变化。

If so, serious questions exist for the notion of ethical¹⁶, welfare-oriented ecotourism.

如果是这样，那么以道德和福利为导向的生态旅游的概念就存在严重的问题。

If we wish to help animals retain their antipredator defenses, the researchers say, we might have to intentionally¹⁷ expose animals to predators—or at least to predator-related cues.

研究人员说，如果我们希望帮助动物保持它们的反捕食防御，我们可能必须有意地让动物接触捕食者——或者至少接触与捕食者相关的线索。

“It’s just yet one other way that we’re changing the world around us.”

“这只是我们改变周围世界的另一种方式。”

Thanks for listening for Scientific American's 60-second Science. I'm Jason Goldman.

谢谢大家收听科学美国人——60秒科学。我是杰森·戈德曼。

1 proximity   

n.接近，邻近

参考例句：

• Marriages in proximity of blood are forbidden by the law.法律规定禁止近亲结婚。
• Their house is in close proximity to ours.他们的房子很接近我们的。

2 evolutionary   

adj.进化的；演化的，演变的；[生]进化论的

参考例句：

• Life has its own evolutionary process.生命有其自身的进化过程。
• These are fascinating questions to be resolved by the evolutionary studies of plants.这些十分吸引人的问题将在研究植物进化过程中得以解决。

3 tolerance   

n.宽容；容忍，忍受；耐药力；公差

参考例句：

• Tolerance is one of his strengths.宽容是他的一个优点。
• Human beings have limited tolerance of noise.人类对噪音的忍耐力有限。

4 reptiles   

n.爬行动物，爬虫( reptile的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Snakes and crocodiles are both reptiles. 蛇和鳄鱼都是爬行动物。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Birds, reptiles and insects come from eggs. 鸟类、爬虫及昆虫是卵生的。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

5 intentional   

adj.故意的，有意（识）的

参考例句：

• Let me assure you that it was not intentional.我向你保证那不是故意的。
• His insult was intentional.他的侮辱是有意的。

6 domestication   

n.驯养，驯化

参考例句：

• The first was the domestication of animals. 第一个阶段是驯养动物。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• In northwestern China, there is no evidence for endemic domestication of any animals. 在中国西北，没有任何当地动物驯化的迹象。 来自辞典例句

7 paradigm   

n.例子，模范，词形变化表

参考例句：

• He had become the paradigm of the successful man. 他已经成为成功人士的典范。
• Moreover,the results of this research can be the new learning paradigm for digital design studios.除此之外，本研究的研究成果也可以为数位设计课程建立一个新的学习范例。

8 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

9 domesticating   

v.驯化( domesticate的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Domesticating rabbits are the basis of a profitbale fur industry. 驯养野兔是赚钱的毛皮工业的基础。 来自互联网
• In addition, the extent of a facsimile of culture, foreignizing and domesticating are important in translation. 此外，翻译中“文化传真”度的把握，以及译语的异化与归化都至关重要。 来自互联网

10 domesticate   

vt.驯养；使归化，使专注于家务

参考例句：

• Many thousand years ago people learned how to domesticate animals.数千年以前人们就学会了饲养动物。
• If you domesticate this raccoon,it will have trouble living in the wild.如果你驯养这只浣熊，它生活在野外将会有困难。

11 predators   

n.食肉动物( predator的名词复数 )；奴役他人者（尤指在财务或性关系方面）

参考例句：

• birds and their earthbound predators 鸟和地面上捕食它们的动物
• The eyes of predators are highly sensitive to the slightest movement. 捕食性动物的眼睛能感觉到最细小的动静。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 genes   

n.基因( gene的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• You have good genes from your parents, so you should live a long time. 你从父母那儿获得优良的基因，所以能够活得很长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Differences will help to reveal the functions of the genes. 它们间的差异将会帮助我们揭开基因多种功能。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 生物技术的世纪

13 genetic   

adj.遗传的，遗传学的

参考例句：

• It's very difficult to treat genetic diseases.遗传性疾病治疗起来很困难。
• Each daughter cell can receive a full complement of the genetic information.每个子细胞可以收到遗传信息的一个完全补偿物。

14 mere   

adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过

参考例句：

• That is a mere repetition of what you said before.那不过是重复了你以前讲的话。
• It's a mere waste of time waiting any longer.再等下去纯粹是浪费时间。

15 instigate   

v.教唆，怂恿，煽动

参考例句：

• His object was to instigate a little rebellion on the part of the bishop.他的目的是，在主教方面煽起一场小小的造反。
• It would not prove worthwhile to instigate a nuclear attack.挑起核攻击最终是不值得的。

16 ethical   

adj.伦理的，道德的，合乎道德的

参考例句：

• It is necessary to get the youth to have a high ethical concept.必须使青年具有高度的道德观念。
• It was a debate which aroused fervent ethical arguments.那是一场引发强烈的伦理道德争论的辩论。

17 intentionally   

ad.故意地，有意地

参考例句：

• I didn't say it intentionally. 我是无心说的。
• The local authority ruled that he had made himself intentionally homeless and was therefore not entitled to be rehoused. 当地政府裁定他是有意居无定所，因此没有资格再获得提供住房。