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科学美国人60秒 SSS Guppy Groups Provide Friendly Protection against Foes

时间:2017-03-15 05:56:32

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(单词翻译)

 

Humans aren't the only species that forms friendships. Lots of animals prefer to spend their time only with certain individuals. 

"It's all very well showing that you do get social relationships and social bonds forming, but why on earth would you form them in the first place?"

University of Exeter animal behavior researcher Rob Heathcote. He and his team wanted to find out what benefit animals derive1 from close social relationships. To do it, they set out for the Caribbean island of Trinidad, home of a small freshwater fish called the Trinidadian guppy.

"These guppies live in environments that have tons of predators3 around, so basically it really sucks to be a guppy. In some places they live, you'll be watching these shoals of guppies and a predator2 is attacking them every twenty or thirty seconds or so." 

One common idea is that such animals form social groups to reduce the risk of being gobbled up. But Heathcote wanted to see whether the benefits of social living might come from the strength of individual social relationships rather than simple safety in numbers.

The researchers caught 240 female Trinidadian guppies and divided them into groups of fifteen, each group in its own small pool. While some of the fish were left alone, others were exposed to what looked like a predator—a doll version of a guppy-eating fish called a pike cichlid.

Those guppies exposed to the ersatz predator were more likely to establish stronger social bonds. But the groups formed by those guppies were on average smaller than the groups formed by the fish that were not exposed to predators. [Robert J. P. Heathcote et al., Fear of predation drives stable and differentiated4 social relationships in guppies, in Scientific Reports]

Heathcote thinks that the tighter-knit friendships that come from small groups allow guppies to more effectively cooperate in their predator avoidance activities.

“You can either hang out with a load of guppies, and every time these predators attack, you're unlikely to be the one that gets eaten. But obviously the first thing that happens when you form a big shoal is that this attracts every single predator in the vicinity… The alternative is you can be inconspicuous in a small social groups of three [or] four individuals. Everyone's kind of looking out for each other, they've got each other's back."

So spending time with a few close friends could outweigh5 the benefits of blending in with the crowd, particularly in dangerous situations. 

"Friendship," said Winnie the Pooh writer A. A. Milne through his character Christopher Robin6, "is a very comforting thing to have." Especially when there's a big scary fish trying to eat you.

—Jason G. Goldman 


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点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 derive hmLzH     
v.取得;导出;引申;来自;源自;出自
参考例句:
  • We derive our sustenance from the land.我们从土地获取食物。
  • We shall derive much benefit from reading good novels.我们将从优秀小说中获得很大好处。
2 predator 11vza     
n.捕食其它动物的动物;捕食者
参考例句:
  • The final part of this chapter was devoted to a brief summary of predator species.本章最后部分简要总结了食肉动物。
  • Komodo dragon is the largest living lizard and a fearsome predator.科摩多龙是目前存在的最大蜥蜴,它是一种令人恐惧的捕食性动物。
3 predators 48b965855934a5395e409c1112d94f63     
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》
4 differentiated 83b7560ad714d20d3b302f7ddc7af15a     
区分,区别,辨别( differentiate的过去式和过去分词 ); 区别对待; 表明…间的差别,构成…间差别的特征
参考例句:
  • The development of mouse kidney tubules requires two kinds of differentiated cells. 小鼠肾小管的发育需要有两种分化的细胞。
  • In this enlargement, barley, alfalfa, and sugar beets can be differentiated. 在这张放大的照片上,大麦,苜蓿和甜菜都能被区分开。
5 outweigh gJlxO     
vt.比...更重,...更重要
参考例句:
  • The merits of your plan outweigh the defects.你制定的计划其优点胜过缺点。
  • One's merits outweigh one's short-comings.功大于过。
6 robin Oj7zme     
n.知更鸟,红襟鸟
参考例句:
  • The robin is the messenger of spring.知更鸟是报春的使者。
  • We knew spring was coming as we had seen a robin.我们看见了一只知更鸟,知道春天要到了。

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