科学美国人60秒 SSS 鸟儿的歌曲经历了重大转变

This is Scientific American's 60-second Science, I'm Susanne Bard¹.

这里是科学美国人——60秒科学系列，我是苏珊娜·巴德。

Like many birds, male white-throated sparrows belt out songs to defend their territories and attract mates.

和许多鸟类一样，雄性白喉带鹀用歌声来保卫自己的领地并吸引配偶。

And until the year 2000, one particular song stood out as the most popular white-throat tune² in forests across Canada.

直到2000年，一首特别的歌脱颖而出，成为加拿大森林中白喉带鹀最流行的曲调。

"The end part of the song is a three-syllable repeat. That's supposed to sound like 'Oh my sweet Canada, Canada, Canada.'"

“这首歌的结尾部分是三个音节的重复。听起来像是‘哦，我亲爱的加拿大，加拿大，加拿大。’”

University of Northern British Columbia behavioral ecologist Ken³ Otter⁴.

北不列颠哥伦比亚大学的行为生态学家肯·奥特说到。

"And if you look in most books that describe what the song sounds like, it always has a three-syllable phrase at the end of it."

“如果你查阅描述这首歌的书籍，大多数都会说其结尾总有三音节的短语。”

But when Otter moved to Prince George, a wooded city in western Canada, 20 years ago, he noticed that its sparrows were singing a different tune.

但20年前，在奥特尔到加拿大西部树木繁茂的城市乔治王子城时，他注意到那里的鸟儿唱着不同的曲调。

"The males have dropped one of the notes, so instead of having three syllables⁵ repeating, it's actually two syllables repeating."

“雄鸟漏掉了其中一个音符，因此歌曲结尾不是三个音节重复，而是两个音节重复。”

"'Oh my sweet Cana, Cana, Canada.'"

“‘哦，我亲爱的加拿大，加拿大，加拿大。’”

Back in the 1950s, though, the Prince George population was still singing the standard triplet song.

不过，上世纪50年代时，乔治王子城的鸟群仍在唱标准的三音节重复歌曲。

"So sometime during that 50-year period, the song had transitioned to this new dialect, and all the males had adopted it."

“因此，在那50年中的某个时间，歌曲转变成这种新方言，所有的雄鸟都接受了这种方言。”

Over the next few years, Otter's team discovered that the doublet song variant⁶ was spreading eastward⁷.

之后几年，奥特的团队发现两音节重复歌曲的变体逐步向东传播。

"And it's replacing the old song as it goes."

“它在传播过程中取代了老歌。”

By 2010 the song had invaded Ontario, thousands of kilometers from Prince George. Once it became popular, it began to spread even faster.

到2010年，这首歌已侵入距离乔治五子城数千公里的安大略省。一旦流行起来，这首歌就开始以更快速度传播。

"And right now it has moved all the way across Eastern Ontario and is kind of bordering Quebec."

“现在，这首歌一路穿越安大略省东部，几乎就要传播到与魁北克省的边界了。”

Otter was surprised by the rapid, widespread adoption⁸ of the doublet song, because most new bird song dialects don't travel far.

奥特对两音节重复歌曲被接受的速度之快和传播之广感到惊讶，因为大多数鸟类的新歌声方言不会传播很远。

"It's very much at odds⁹ with a lot of the traditional ideas that we have about how dialects form and how they persist over time."

“这与我们关于方言如何形成以及如何随着时间的推移而持续等许多传统观念差异很大。”

The doublet song likely owes its spread to the birds' migration¹⁰ habits.

这首双音节歌曲的传播很可能要归功于鸟类的迁徙习性。

Tracking sparrows from western Canada revealed that they intermingle with eastern birds on their wintering grounds in the southern Great Plains.

追踪加拿大西部白喉带鹀的项目发现，它们在大平原南部越冬地时，与东部鸟类待在一起。

Those eastern birds probably learn the new dialect there and then bring it back home.

那些东部鸟儿可能在那里学会了新方言，之后把其带回了家。

The study is in the journal Current Biology.

这项研究发表在《当代生物学》期刊上。

It's not yet known what advantages singing the doublet song offers.

现在尚不清楚唱双音节歌曲有何好处。

So far, there's no evidence that the males react differently to the two variants¹¹ when defending their territories.

到目前为止，还没有证据表明雄鸟在保卫自己的领地时对这两种歌声变体做出不同反应。

But the researchers also plan to test whether the new dialect's popularity is driven by a female preference for novelty.

但研究人员也计划进行测试，看看这种新方言的流行是否是由雌鸟对新奇事物的偏好所驱动。

One thing's for sure: we aren't the only species that can make a tweet go viral.

有一点是肯定的：我们不是唯一可以让叫声（推特）走红的物种。

Thanks for listening for Scientific American's 60-second Science. I'm Susanne Bard.

谢谢大家收听科学美国人——60秒科学。我是苏珊娜·巴德。

1 bard   

n.吟游诗人

参考例句：

• I'll use my bard song to help you concentrate!我会用我的吟游诗人歌曲帮你集中精神！
• I find him,the wandering grey bard.我发现了正在徘徊的衰老游唱诗人。

2 tune   

n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整

参考例句：

• He'd written a tune,and played it to us on the piano.他写了一段曲子，并在钢琴上弹给我们听。
• The boy beat out a tune on a tin can.那男孩在易拉罐上敲出一首曲子。

3 ken   

n.视野，知识领域

参考例句：

• Such things are beyond my ken.我可不懂这些事。
• Abstract words are beyond the ken of children.抽象的言辞超出小孩所理解的范围.

4 otter   

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。

5 syllables   

n.音节( syllable的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a word with two syllables 双音节单词
• 'No. But I'll swear it was a name of two syllables.' “想不起。不过我可以发誓，它有两个音节。” 来自英汉文学 - 双城记

6 variant   

adj.不同的，变异的；n.变体，异体

参考例句：

• We give professional suggestions according to variant tanning stages for each customer.我们针对每位顾客不同的日晒阶段，提供强度适合的晒黑建议。
• In a variant of this approach,the tests are data- driven.这个方法的一个变种，是数据驱动的测试。

7 eastward   

adv.向东；adj.向东的；n.东方，东部

参考例句：

• The river here tends eastward.这条河从这里向东流。
• The crowd is heading eastward,believing that they can find gold there.人群正在向东移去，他们认为在那里可以找到黄金。

8 adoption   

n.采用，采纳，通过；收养

参考例句：

• An adoption agency had sent the boys to two different families.一个收养机构把他们送给两个不同的家庭。
• The adoption of this policy would relieve them of a tremendous burden.采取这一政策会给他们解除一个巨大的负担。

9 odds   

n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别

参考例句：

• The odds are 5 to 1 that she will win.她获胜的机会是五比一。
• Do you know the odds of winning the lottery once?你知道赢得一次彩票的几率多大吗？

10 migration   

n.迁移，移居，（鸟类等的）迁徙

参考例句：

• Swallows begin their migration south in autumn.燕子在秋季开始向南方迁移。
• He described the vernal migration of birds in detail.他详细地描述了鸟的春季移居。

11 variants   

n.变体( variant的名词复数 )；变种；变型；（词等的）变体

参考例句：

• Those variants will be preserved in the'struggle for existence". 这些变异将在“生存竞争”中被保留下来。 来自辞典例句
• Like organisms, viruses have variants, generally called strains. 与其他生物一样，病毒也有变种，一般称之为株系。 来自辞典例句