2020年经济学人动物行为(2)（打印版）

What was needed to clear the point up was an experiment. And fish are easier to experiment on than mongooses or jays.

需要进行一次实验来弄清楚这一点。与猫鼬或松鸦相比，用鱼做实验更容易。

Jan Naef and Michael Taborsky of the University of Bern, in Switzerland,

瑞士伯恩大学的Jan Naef 和Michael Taborsky因此捕获了

therefore acquired 96 specimens of N. pulcher and created menages of a pair of dominant landlords

96个美新亮丽鲷试样，并在沙底水族馆创造了支配者房东

and a subordinate tenant in sand-bottomed aquaria.

和从属租客的模式。

Left alone, the fish behaved much as they would have done in the wild,

如果不去管它，这些鱼的行为和它们在野外的行为差不多，

with the tenant doing the grunt work of maintaining the hollows in the sand, and good relations pertaining between all.

而租客则干着维护沙坑的粗活，它们之间的关系也很好。

However, if a tenant was prevented for a time from fulfilling its duties,

但如果一名租客被困在插入鱼缸的隔板后面，

by trapping it behind a partition inserted into the aquarium for that purpose, things changed.

并且在一段时间内无法履行其职责，那么情况就会发生变化。

When the partition was removed, the landlords attacked it,

当隔离墙被拆除后，房东们就开始攻击它，

and it showed a big increase in submissive behaviour for several minutes before things returned to normal.

并且在事情恢复正常之前的几分钟内，它的服从行为会大幅增加。

Whether similar treatment would be meted out for a failure to defend the landlords' eggs has yet to be determined.

如果租户们没能保护好房东们的卵，房东们是否会采取类似的措施还有待确定。

When prevented by a partition from driving away predators,

当由于被隔离而无法赶走捕食者时，

tenants were not subsequently on the receiving end of aggression from landlords—

租客就不会受到房东的攻击—

but since there were no eggs to defend at the time, that may not have been part of the contract.

由于实验中没有需要保护的卵子，所以保护卵子不在合约当中。

The predators in question, a species called Telmatochromis vittatus,

上述提到的捕食者是一个被称为饰圈沼丽鱼的鱼种，

are not a threat to adult specimens of N. pulcher, only to eggs and fry.

对美新亮丽鲷试样没有威胁，只对卵和鱼苗有威胁。

It is nevertheless clear from Dr Naef's and Dr Taborsky's experiment that, for cichlids at least,

但从Naef博士和Taborsky博士的实验中，我们可以清楚地看到，至少对于美新亮丽鲷来说，

the rent must be paid in a timely fashion, or punishment will be faced.

房租必须及时交纳，否则就要受到处罚。