科学美国人60秒 SSS 盯紧海鸥 避免损失午餐（在线收听）

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·因塔格里塔。

No trip to the beach would be complete without a swarm of hungry gulls. But don't get distracted. Because one of those gulls may soon go after your food. "There's a very small proportion of extremely bold individuals that seem to ruin the reputation of the whole species."

碰不到一群饥饿海鸥的海边旅行是不完整的。但不要分心。因为其中一只海鸥可能很快就要追逐你的食物。“极少数非常大胆的个体似乎毁掉了整个物种的名声。”

Neeltje Boogert, an animal behavior researcher at the University of Exeter. She studied the food-snatching habits of gulls in seaside towns in the southern U.K. and found that very few—only the boldest—would actually take the bait. Or make that the bite.

埃克塞特大学的动物行为研究员尼尔杰·布格特说到。她在英国南部沿海城镇研究海鸥抢食的习惯，她发现极少数——只有最大胆的海鸥——会上钩。或者咬一口人类的食物。

The experiment went like this: A researcher crouched near a gull, then set out a plastic bag of french fries. For those brave gulls that then started to approach, the researcher either stared straight at the gull, as in "I see you, thief," or the researcher simply looked away. And it turns out, staring down the gulls made them hesitate 21 seconds on average before approaching the fries.

实验是这样进行的：一名研究人员蹲在一只海鸥附近，然后摆上一塑料袋薯条。对那些开始靠近薯条的勇敢海鸥，研究人员要么直直地盯着它们，就像在说“我看到你了，小偷”，要么只是把目光移开。结果发现，平均来说，目不转睛地盯着海鸥会让它们犹豫21秒后再靠近薯条。

The results are in the journal Biology Letters.

研究结果发表在《生物学通讯》期刊上。

Gulls aren't the only ones who behave better when being watched. A 2006 study found that people paid three times as much for their drinks at an unattended honor-system coffee bar when just an image of staring eyes was displayed nearby.

海鸥并不是唯一在被监视时表现得更好的动物。2006年进行的一项研究发现，只要在实行荣誉制度的无人咖啡吧附近放一张瞪大眼睛的图片，人们在咖啡吧购买饮品时就会付三倍的价钱。

As for the gulls, Boogert points out that we need to learn to live with them—because the particular species she studied, the herring gull, is on the U.K.'s Red List of Birds of Conservation Concern.

至于海鸥，布格特指出，我们需要学会和他们共存——因为她研究的特殊物种银鸥，在英国濒危鸟类红色名录上。

"The thing is: people don't want to have a seaside holiday without gulls there. So it's just trying to find ways to harmoniously live with one of the only wildlife species we still have around in these coastal areas."

“问题是，人们不希望在海边度假时没有海鸥。因此，我们要试图找到方法，与这些沿海地区尚存的唯一野生物种和谐相处。”

So don't turn your back on the gulls, she says. Both figuratively for conserving the species and, of course, literally—for conserving your lunch.

所以不要对海鸥置之不理。她说，这既比喻保护这个物种，当然也是为了保护你的午餐。

Thanks for listening for Scientific American — 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。