科学美国人60秒 这些濒临灭绝的鸟类正在遗忘它们的歌声

This is Scientific American's 60-second Science, I'm Christopher Intagliata.

这里是科学美国人——60秒科学系列，我是克里斯托弗·因塔利亚塔。

Some birds are relatively¹ easy to study. Ross Crates² studies the ones that aren’t.

有些鸟类研究起来相对容易。罗斯·克拉茨研究了那些没有那么容易研究的鸟类。

He’s part of the Difficult Bird Research Group at the Australian National University.

他是澳大利亚国立大学濒危鸟类研究小组的成员。

“All our study species are quite challenging to study for various reasons, mostly because they’re really rare and highly mobile.”

“出于各种原因，我们研究的所有物种都非常具有挑战性，主要是因为这些物种非常稀有，流动性很强。”

One of those “difficult birds” is the critically endangered regent honeyeater.

其中一种“难研究的鸟”是极度濒危的王摄蜜鸟。

They’re medium-sized songbirds—with bright yellow tails and black-and-white chests.

它们是中等大小的鸣禽--有着明亮的黄色尾巴以及黑白相间的胸部。

And though they once roamed Australia in flocks of hundreds, fewer than 300 remain in the wild today.

尽管它们曾成群地在澳大利亚游荡，但现在野外只剩下不到300只了。

Crates and his team tracked the birds over a five-year period.

克拉茨和他的团队对这些鸟进行了为期五年的跟踪调查。

If they encountered a male, they’d record his song.

如果他们遇到了雄鸟，就会录下它的歌声。

And they noted³ whether the males were paired up with females.

他们还注意到雄性是否与雌性进行配对。

They found that a quarter of the birds sang variations of the traditional honeyeater song.

他们发现，四分之一的鸟儿唱着传统王摄蜜鸟的歌曲变调。

And 12 percent of the birds weren’t singing honeyeater songs at all.

12%的鸟根本没有唱王摄蜜鸟的歌。

They were parroting different species’ songs—like this ... or this one...

它们在模仿不同物种的歌声--就像这个...或者这个..。

That could mean bad news for the birds’ future—because males singing those untraditional songs were also less likely to be paired up with a mate, compared to their counterparts who sang the standard tune⁴.

这对鸟类的未来来说可能是个坏消息，因为与唱标准曲调的雄鸟相比，唱非传统歌曲的雄鸟更不可能找到配偶。

“As females breed less, then there’s obviously fewer males in that generation to teach the next generation.

“随着雌鸟繁殖的减少，那一代能教下一代唱歌的雄鸟明显减少。”

A higher proportion of males sing weird⁵ songs. And you get a bit of a positive feedback toward extinction⁶.”

雄鸟唱奇怪歌曲的比例更高。你会得到一些关于灭绝的正反馈。

The work appears in the Proceedings⁷ of the Royal Society B.

这项研究发表在《英国皇家学会学报B》上。

Crates says the honeyeaters’ loss of songs equates⁸ to a loss of culture.

克拉茨说，摄蜜鸟失去歌曲就等同于失去了文化。

“It’s a complete sort of, you know, animal equivalent of the loss of indigenous⁹ languages, whether that be Native American languages or Aboriginal¹⁰ Australian languages here.”

这种动物的情形完全，等同于土著语言的消失，无论是美洲土著语言还是澳大利亚土著语言。”

He says he hopes it serves as a warning that all is not well in Australia’s natural world—and that we must do more to tackle climate change and conservation if we hope to save it.

他表示，他希望这是一个警告，提醒人们澳大利亚的自然世界并不是一切都好--如果我们希望拯救它，我们必须采取更多措施来应对气候变化和保护环境。

Thanks for listening for Scientific American's 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。

1 relatively   

adv.比较...地，相对地

参考例句：

• The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
• The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。

2 crates   

n. 板条箱, 篓子, 旧汽车 vt. 装进纸条箱

参考例句：

• We were using crates as seats. 我们用大木箱作为座位。
• Thousands of crates compacted in a warehouse. 数以千计的板条箱堆放在仓库里。

3 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

4 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。

5 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。

6 extinction   

n.熄灭，消亡，消灭，灭绝，绝种

参考例句：

• The plant is now in danger of extinction.这种植物现在有绝种的危险。
• The island's way of life is doomed to extinction.这个岛上的生活方式注定要消失。

7 proceedings   

n.进程，过程，议程；诉讼(程序)；公报

参考例句：

• He was released on bail pending committal proceedings. 他交保获释正在候审。
• to initiate legal proceedings against sb 对某人提起诉讼

8 equates   

v.认为某事物（与另一事物）相等或相仿( equate的第三人称单数 )；相当于；等于；把（一事物） 和（另一事物）等同看待

参考例句：

• He equates success with material wealth. 他认为成功等同于物质财富。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• This equates to increased and vigor, better sleep and sharper mental acuity. 也就是说可以起到增强活力，改善睡眠，提高心智的作用。 来自互联网

9 indigenous   

adj.土产的，土生土长的，本地的

参考例句：

• Each country has its own indigenous cultural tradition.每个国家都有自己本土的文化传统。
• Indians were the indigenous inhabitants of America.印第安人是美洲的土著居民。

10 aboriginal   

adj.（指动植物）土生的，原产地的，土著的

参考例句：

• They managed to wipe out the entire aboriginal population.他们终于把那些土著人全部消灭了。
• The lndians are the aboriginal Americans.印第安人是美国的土著人。