撰文/播音：克里斯托弗·因塔利亚塔（Christopher Intagliata）
翻译：姜帆
审校：潘磊
Humans can recognize each other by voice alone. I sound different from other 60-Second Science reporters, for example. In fact, lots of nonhuman animals, of all types, use voices to distinguish familiar individuals…including frogs, fish, lemurs, and penguins.
仅仅通过声音，人类可以相互辨认。比如，我的声音和其他《科学60秒》播客的不同。事实上，许多非人类的物种，各个纲目中都有，会利用声音来区分熟悉的个体…包括青蛙，鱼，狐猴和企鹅。
And that unique audio fingerprint extends to a sound you may have heard in the forest on occasion: <<woodpecker drumming>>...the drumming of a woodpecker.
从这样独特的音频指纹可以说到一种在森林里你偶尔能听到的声音：《啄木鸟啄击》...啄木鸟的啄击声。
Researchers recorded multiple drum rolls, <<woodpecker drumming>> from 41 great spotted woodpeckers—colorful red, white and black birds—living in Polish forests. They then used audio software to analyze them.
研究人员记录了多个“鼓声”，来自41只波兰森林中大斑啄木鸟。它们身上色彩多样：红色，白色和黑色。研究人员使用音频软件来分析声音。
And they found that the length of the drumrolls, and the spacing between beats varied enough from bird to bird to tell the woodpeckers apart by drumming alone. The study is in the journal PLOS ONE. [Michał Budka et al., Vocal individuality in drumming in great spotted woodpecker—A biological perspective and implications for conservation]
他们发现，不同个体的鼓声长度和节拍间隔差异很大，可以仅通过“鼓声”来区分啄木鸟的种类。该研究发表在期刊《PLOS ONE》上。
The scientists say this fact might be useful to woodpeckers, in identifying each other. And to conservation biologists, trying to tease one bird from another in a recording, for example, to count individuals in a given area. The birds' head-banging could thus do away with that research headache.
科学家们表示，这种特性可能辅助啄木鸟之间的互相识别。而对于保护生物学家也大有用处，他们需要区分录音中的各种鸟类（比如，要计算特定区域中的个体数目）。因此，啄木鸟头部撞击发出“鼓声”正好解决了这个研究难题。
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