撰文/播音 Emily Schwing 艾米莉·斯温

翻译 张心茹

校对 许楠

“Over the last few decades, Canada geese have been wintering further and further north, which was interesting, because the winters have gotten a little more mild over the last few years, but still it’s pretty cold out there and there’s still snow.”

“过去的几十年里，加拿大鹅越冬的地点越来越靠近北方，这点很有趣，因为虽然近年来冬天趋向温和，但北方依旧寒冷，冰雪依然光顾” 。

University of Illinois ornithologist Mike Ward.

伊利诺伊州大学鸟类学家迈克·瓦德说。

“So you would wonder why these geese are deciding to spend the winter in Chicago, when they could have the opportunity to fly down to Arkansas, Louisiana, somewhere warmer.”

“你一定会好奇，在本可以一路飞到路易安娜州、阿肯色州等更温暖地方的情况下，这些鹅为什么决定在芝加哥过冬”。

Geese who continue south often land in agriculture fields and other wide open areas. Which makes them visible to hunters in those states, who can bag the birds until the end of January.

继续向南飞的鹅往往会在农田等宽敞开阔的地方降落，这使得他们暴露了在当地猎人的视线中，猎人们可以一直抓获它们直至一月底。

“There’s definitely a lot of geese not just staying in Chicago, but lots of urban areas throughout the Midwest and one reason they are doing that is they are trying to avoid hunters, it looks like.”

“肯定有很多鹅不止待在芝加哥，它们还待在美国中西部的很多城区，看起来它们这样做的一个原因是尽力躲避猎人”。

Of course, staying in cities is no easy life either.

当然，留在城市的生活并不轻松。

“It probably would be easier to find food if they would fly somewhere else, to go to cornfields or somewhere else, but they are hanging out in the city but they are acting very strangely.”

“飞到其他地方，比如玉米田等，可能更容易寻找食物，但这些鹅待在城市里，却会行为怪异”

“We found that they were using parks like you might expect, but when the weather got bad and it snowed, they were hanging out on top of roofs, so large factories with flat roof tops, they’d spend large amounts of time just sitting there. We also found that they would go to areas like transfer stations or rail cars that had spilled grains, so they would be walking around railroad tracks to find spilled grain.”

“如你所想，我们发现它们会利用公园，但天气变糟甚至下雪时，它们会跑到屋顶上闲逛，例如，会花费大量时间坐在大型工厂的平坦屋顶上。我们还发现它们会去诸如可能倾泄出粮食的中转站或火车上，会在铁路旁踱步以寻找散落的谷粒”。

And the effects of that changed behavior are significant.

这一行为变化的影响巨大。

“They are a lot skinner. The ones that go onto ag fields, all the spilled corn and soybeans- they can really fatten up really well. The birds that we have caught later in the year in the city are a lot skinnier. Of course, the ones we have caught earlier in the year in ag fields, couldn’t have been much fatter, so some of these ag fields are just ideal places for them to just go out and load up on corn and really put on the fat.”

The study by Ward and his colleagues is in the journal The Condor: Ornithological Applications.

“它们明显更瘦。那些前往遍布玉米、大豆的农田的鸟会长胖许多，而我们今年早些时候在城市里捕捉的鸟则瘦了很多。当然，今年早些时候我们在农田捕捉的鸟胖得不能再胖了，因此有些农田是它们闲逛、吃玉米、增肥的理想之地”。瓦德和他的同事的这项研究被收录于秃鹰：鸟类学应用杂志。

There’s no way to know for sure if Canada geese are wintering in Chicago to avoid hunters—the Illinois goose hunting season also ends in late January—or if warmer winters account for their staycations. But it looks like Canada geese—which are said to taste like beef and not chicken—are going to get tougher for Midwesterners and Southerners alike to put on their tables.

没有办法确切了解加拿大鹅在芝加哥过冬是为了躲避猎人——伊利诺伊州捕鹅季持续到一月下旬，还是说温暖气候影响越冬地点。但显而易见的是，加拿大鹅——据说味道像牛肉而非鸡肉，对美国中西部和南方人民来说，把它们端上餐桌将会变得越来越难。