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科学美国人60秒 SSS 海獭用强大的触觉感知猎物

时间:2019-09-29 08:44:35

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(单词翻译)

This is Scientific American — 60-Second Science. I'm Christopher Intagliata.

这里是科学美国人——60秒科学。我是克里斯托弗·因塔利亚塔。

Sea otters2 are pretty petite compared to other marine3 mammals. Which means that, despite their fur coats, they tend to lose heat quickly, and need lots of energy to stay warm.

与其它海洋哺乳动物相比,海獭的体型相当娇小。这就意味着,尽管它们身上有皮毛,但它们会迅速消耗掉热量,因此需要大量能量来保暖。

"So they need to eat 25 percent of their body weight every day." Sarah McKay Strobel, a sensory4 ecologist at U.C. Santa Cruz. "So we noticed they eat that much, but in order to eat that much food, that means sea otters need to find all that food. And that's where we come in."

“所以它们每天需要吃掉相当于自身体重25%的食物。”加州大学圣克鲁兹分校的感觉生态学家萨拉·麦凯·施特罗贝尔说到。“我们注意到了它们这种大量进食的情况,但要吃那么多食物,意味着海獭得先找到所有食物。而这就是我们研究的切入点。”

She and her team studied the otter1's senses, to solve the mystery of how they're such efficient foragers. Vision isn't reliable, she says—it's pretty dark and murky5 underwater, and crabs6 and clams7 tend to hide. Hearing is also tough for otters, in the noisy underwater environment. And sniffing's no good either. "When they're underwater they're holding their breath."

她和团队研究了海獭的感觉能力,以揭开海獭高效觅食的谜团。她表示,对海獭来说视觉并不可靠,因为水下既黑暗又浑浊,而且螃蟹和蛤蜊往往会藏起来。由于水下环境非常嘈杂,海獭的听觉也会受限。嗅觉同样不起作用。“当它们在水下时,它们会屏住呼吸。”

What's left is touch. So Stroble and her team measured the sensitivity of the otters' paws and whiskers. They blindfolded8 an otter named Selka, then presented her with plastic plates engraved9 with tiny grooves10, like corduroy. Selka's job was to select the plate with two-millimeter grooves, which she'd been trained to associate with tasty shrimp11, instead of plates with differently sized grooves.

剩下的就只有触觉了。于是,施特罗贝尔和团队测量了海獭爪子和胡须的敏感度。他们将一只名为“塞尔卡”的海獭的眼睛蒙上,然后让她触摸刻有小凹槽的塑料盘子,那有点像灯芯绒。塞尔卡要做的是选出刻有两毫米凹槽的盘子,她被训练成将这种盘子与美味的虾联系到一起,而不是认为这只是凹槽大小不同的盘子而已。

Turns out, Selka could perceive just a quarter millimeter difference in the grooves' width with her paws—above and below water—and half a millimeter difference with her whiskers. "The fact she was able to perform so well while moving incredibly quickly I think is really interesting and suggests that sea otters have very quick decision making abilities, and very quick sensory processing abilities, which makes sense when you think about the type of lifestyle they lead and how quickly they need to find food."

结果发现,无论在水上还是在水下,塞尔卡的爪子都能感觉到仅有0.25毫米差异的凹槽宽度,而她的胡须能感觉到0.5毫米的差异。“事实上,她在迅速移动时还能精准地感觉到细微差异,我认为这很有趣,这表明海獭拥有极为快速的决策能力和感觉处理能力,考虑到它们的生活方式以及需要快速觅食的情况,这点就可以说得通了。”

The full details—and a cute photo of Selka—are in the Journal of Experimental Biology.

这项研究的完整细节以及塞尔卡的萌照刊登在《实验生物学》期刊上。

For the record, humans can feel the difference too, but it takes us 30 times longer. Which might make sense. After all, we evolved in environments where touch was less important in a hunt than were sight and sound.

其实,人类也可以感觉到这种差异,只不过我们所需的时间是海獭的30倍。这可能也是合理的。毕竟,在我们所处的进化环境中,狩猎时触觉不如视觉和听觉重要。

Thanks for listening for Scientific American — 60-Second Science. I'm Christopher Intagliata.

谢谢大家收听科学美国人——60秒科学。我是克里斯托弗·因塔利亚塔。


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点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 otter 7vgyH     
n.水獭
参考例句:
  • The economists say the competition otter to the brink of extinction.经济学家们说,竞争把海獭推到了灭绝的边缘。
  • She collared my black wool coat with otter pelts.她把我的黑呢上衣镶上了水獭领。
2 otters c7b1b011f1aba54879393a220705a840     
n.(水)獭( otter的名词复数 );獭皮
参考例句:
  • An attempt is being made to entice otters back to the river. 人们正试图把水獭引诱回河里去。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • Otters are believed to have been on Earth for 90 million years. 水獭被认为存活在地球上已经9千多万年。 来自互联网
3 marine 77Izo     
adj.海的;海生的;航海的;海事的;n.水兵
参考例句:
  • Marine creatures are those which live in the sea. 海洋生物是生存在海里的生物。
  • When the war broke out,he volunteered for the Marine Corps.战争爆发时,他自愿参加了海军陆战队。
4 sensory Azlwe     
adj.知觉的,感觉的,知觉器官的
参考例句:
  • Human powers of sensory discrimination are limited.人类感官分辨能力有限。
  • The sensory system may undergo long-term adaptation in alien environments.感觉系统对陌生的环境可能经过长时期才能适应。
5 murky J1GyJ     
adj.黑暗的,朦胧的;adv.阴暗地,混浊地;n.阴暗;昏暗
参考例句:
  • She threw it into the river's murky depths.她把它扔进了混浊的河水深处。
  • She had a decidedly murky past.她的历史背景令人捉摸不透。
6 crabs a26cc3db05581d7cfc36d59943c77523     
n.蟹( crab的名词复数 );阴虱寄生病;蟹肉v.捕蟹( crab的第三人称单数 )
参考例句:
  • As we walked along the seashore we saw lots of tiny crabs. 我们在海岸上散步时看到很多小蟹。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • The fish and crabs scavenge for decaying tissue. 鱼和蟹搜寻腐烂的组织为食。 来自《简明英汉词典》
7 clams 0940cacadaf01e94ba47fd333a69de59     
n.蛤;蚌,蛤( clam的名词复数 )v.(在沙滩上)挖蛤( clam的第三人称单数 )
参考例句:
  • The restaurant's specialities are fried clams. 这个餐厅的特色菜是炸蚌。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • We dug clams in the flats et low tide. 退潮时我们在浅滩挖蛤蜊。 来自辞典例句
8 blindfolded a9731484f33b972c5edad90f4d61a5b1     
v.(尤指用布)挡住(某人)的视线( blindfold的过去式 );蒙住(某人)的眼睛;使不理解;蒙骗
参考例句:
  • The hostages were tied up and blindfolded. 人质被捆绑起来并蒙上了眼睛。
  • They were each blindfolded with big red handkerchiefs. 他们每个人的眼睛都被一块红色大手巾蒙住了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
9 engraved be672d34fc347de7d97da3537d2c3c95     
v.在(硬物)上雕刻(字,画等)( engrave的过去式和过去分词 );将某事物深深印在(记忆或头脑中)
参考例句:
  • The silver cup was engraved with his name. 银杯上刻有他的名字。
  • It was prettily engraved with flowers on the back. 此件雕刻精美,背面有花饰图案。 来自《简明英汉词典》
10 grooves e2ee808c594bc87414652e71d74585a3     
n.沟( groove的名词复数 );槽;老一套;(某种)音乐节奏v.沟( groove的第三人称单数 );槽;老一套;(某种)音乐节奏
参考例句:
  • Wheels leave grooves in a dirt road. 车轮在泥路上留下了凹痕。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • Sliding doors move in grooves. 滑动门在槽沟中移动。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
11 shrimp krFyz     
n.虾,小虾;矮小的人
参考例句:
  • When the shrimp farm is built it will block the stream.一旦养虾场建起来,将会截断这条河流。
  • When it comes to seafood,I like shrimp the best.说到海鲜,我最喜欢虾。

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