城里的鸟儿更会玩
City Birds Outwit Country Counterparts
城里的鸟儿更会玩
Birds that live in urban environments are brasher than rural birds, solve problems better and even have more robust immune systems.
栖息于城镇的鸟类比郊外的近亲更为大胆、聪明，并有着更强健的免疫系统。
播音/撰文 克里斯托弗·因塔利亚塔
翻译 Meatle
审校 乔虹
City dwellers can attest that the animals they share the city with—the pigeons, rats, roaches—can be pretty brazen when they're prowling for a bite. While visiting Barbados, McGill University neurobiologist Jean-Nicolas Audet, noticed that local bullfinches were accomplished thieves.
城市居民都知道，那些跟我们共享居住空间的动物——鸽子、老鼠、蟑螂——为了果腹而变得厚颜无耻。在访问巴巴多斯期间，麦吉尔大学 (McGill University) 的神经生物学家珍-尼古拉斯·奥迪特 (Jean-Nicolas Audet) 注意到当地的红腹灰雀 (bullfinch) 是一群身经百战的小偷。
"They were always trying to steal our food. And we can see those birds entering in supermarkets, trying to steal food there." And that gave him an idea. "Since this bird species is able to solve amazing problems in cities, and they're also present in rural areas, we were wondering" are the rural birds also good problem-solvers, and they just don't take advantage of their abilities? Or are they fundamentally different?
“它们总是在尝试偷我们的食物。而且我们看到那些鸟儿也会飞进超级市场，并尝试在里面偷取食物。”而这给了他一个点子。“既然这些鸟类能够应对城市中那些令人吃惊的难题，而这种鸟类同样生存在郊外，我们好奇‘这些郊外的鸟儿是否同样是天才，它们只是没有地方去发挥这些优势？还是这两个种群完全不同？’”
So Audet and his McGill colleagues captured Barbados bullfinches, both in the island's towns and out in the countryside. They then administered the bird equivalent of personality and IQ tests: assessing traits like boldness and fear, or timing how quickly the finches could open a puzzle box full of seeds. And it turns out the city birds really could solve puzzles faster. They were bolder, too, except when it came to dealing with new objects—perhaps assuming, unlike their more naive country cousins, that new things can either mean reward…or danger. The study is in the journalBehavioral Ecology. [Jean-Nicolas Audet et al, The town bird and the country bird: problem solving and immunocompetence vary with urbanization]
因此，奥迪特和他的在麦吉尔大学的同僚捕获了巴巴多斯岛上分别居住在城镇中和乡村中的红腹灰雀。之后，他们为这些鸟儿安排了同样的个性与智商测试，以评价鸟儿的个性，比如大胆或胆怯，或是测量它们为了吃到种子而打开盒子所需的时间。结果表明，城市的灰雀能够更快地解决谜题。同时，这些城市居民也比它们的郊外小伙伴更为大胆。除了面对新事物的时候，这些城市鸟儿会略显犹豫，像在评价这种事物是奖励还是危险——这也不像那些天真的乡下小伙。该研究发表在《行为生态学》 (Behavioral Ecology) 上。
The city birds bested their country counterparts in another trait: they have more robust immune systems, possibly from scavenging food and water in dirty places. Which suggests that sometimes, a city's dirt and grit could be the very thing that gives avian residents a wing up.
城市的鸟儿也在其他方面优于乡村的亲戚们：他们有更为强健的免疫系统。这种特性可能是由食用肮脏的食物和水所发展而来。这说明有些情况下，城里的污秽和磨练会使得那里的鸟类飞得更高。
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京ICP备11000850号-1
京公网安备11010502039775号 信息网络传播视听节目许可证0111611号
国家科技基础条件平台