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Pinnipeds Don't Appreciate Biped Disturbance

鳍足类动物不喜欢受到人类干扰

Cabo Polonio is a small seaside village on Uruguay's Atlantic coast. The permanent, year-round population is just 95 people living in around 50 homes. Another 350 homes are used between December and February—by tourists hoping to see pinnipeds—

Cabo Polonio是乌拉圭大西洋沿岸的一个小海滨村庄。全年常住人口仅有95人，分别居住在50个家庭中。还有另外350个家庭，在12月和2月之间，还有希望看到鳍足类动物的游客

—fur seals and sea lions that haul out on the town’s rocky cape. In January alone, more than 30,000 tourists visit. What are the impacts of so many tourists on these marine mammals? Between 1996 and 2014, European and South American biologists monitored both the animals and the people to find out.

- 镇上岩石上出现的海豹和海狮。仅在1月份就有超过3万名游客参观。这么多游客，对这些海洋哺乳动物有什么影响?在1996年至2014年期间，欧洲和南美洲的生物学家，监测动物和人类活动。

Over that time span, the pinnipeds' tolerance for human disturbance declined. When annoyed, they move further away from the tourist viewing area or even dive back in the water to swim away. Those responses are contrary to the common assumption that wildlife becomes habituated to human activities. The study is in the journal Applied Animal Behaviour Science.

在这段时间内，鳍足动物对人类干扰的容忍度下降。当它们生气时，会远离旅游观景区，甚至潜入水中游泳。这些反应与野生动物习惯于人类活动的常见假设相悖。这项研究结果发表在《应用动物行为科学》杂志上。

The researchers think that a fence, initially constructed in the late 1990s, is to blame. It was built with good intentions, to keep people a safe distance from the colony. But the fence isn't long enough to keep people away from the most critical part of the habitat. It might even funnel people towards that area, as they try to find viewing spots closer than the fence would allow.

研究人员认为，最初在20世纪90年代后期，栅栏是应该受到指责的。它的目的是，为了让人们与殖民地保持安全的距离。但围栏不够长，无法让人们远离栖息地最关键的部分。它甚至可能将人员引向该区域，因为他们试图找到比围栏更接近的观看点。

Or it could be that the fence actually does its job keeping people away. But as a result, they are just far enough away that the animals never really get used to them.

或者它可能是围墙，实际上保留了人们的工作。但结果是，它们远远不能满足动物们对它们的习惯。

The truth is that pinnipeds seem to be doing well in Uruguay. While the amount of animals in the rookery varies day by day, the best estimate is there's now around a thousand of them—more than there were 20 years ago. But it's hard to say whether tourism has played any role in that increase. The animals have also become protected from hunting under Uruguayan law. And there are environmental factors at play in governing their population, like prey availability and climate change.

事实是，乌拉圭的鳍足球运动似乎表现良好。虽然这只鸟的动物数量，每天都在变化，但最好的估计是现在有大约1000只，这比20年前还要多。但很难说旅游业，在这个增长中是否发挥了作用。根据乌拉圭法律，这些动物也受到保护，以免于狩猎。在控制人口方面也存在环境因素，如猎物可得性和气候变化因素。

Still, the study tells us two things. First, photographic wildlife tourism may not always be as low-impact as assumed. Second, ecotourism developers should get input from social psychologists: who can help anticipate the behaviors of the visiting humans, as they observe the behaviors of the native wildlife.

尽管如此，这项研究结果告诉我们两件事。首先，摄影野生动物旅游，可能并不总是如假设的那样影响较小。其次，生态旅游开发者，应该从社会心理学家那里获得投入：谁可以帮助预测人类行为，因为他们可以观察本土野生动物的行为。