科学美国人60秒 SSS 海洋独角兽揭示声音活动（在线收听）

This is Scientific American's 60-second Science, I'm Julia Rosen.

这里是科学美国人——60秒科学系列，我是朱莉娅·罗森。

("Bye, Buddy. I hope you find your dad.")

（“再见，巴迪。希望你能找到父亲。”）

("Thanks, Mr. Narwhal.")

（“谢谢，独角鲸先生。”）

In real life, narwhals don't speak English, like the one bidding farewell to Will Ferrell's character in the movie Elf.

这是电影《圣诞精灵》中的独角鲸在向威尔·法瑞尔扮演的角色告别，而在现实生活中，独角鲸并不会说英语。

Instead, they sound more like this:

它们的声音更像是这样：

That's an audio clip recorded by scientists last summer under the icy waters of Northwest Greenland.

这是去年夏天科学家在格陵兰西北冰海域下录制的音频片段。

"If we want to describe what animals are doing, we first better understand what sounds are telling us."

“如果我们想描述动物在做什么，首先要更好地理解它们的声音在告诉我们什么。”

Evgeny Podolskiy, a geophysicist at Hokkaido University in Japan.

日本北海道大学的地球物理学家埃夫根尼·波多尔斯基说到。

Podolskiy and his colleagues study the soundscape of glacial fjords.

波多尔斯基和同事研究了冰川峡湾的声景。

They are noisy places, where icebergs crash into the ocean and air bubbles fizz out of melting ice. These fjords are also home to narwhals.

这些地方很嘈杂，有冰山撞进海洋的声音，也有气泡从融冰中嘶嘶冒出的声音。这些峡湾也是独角鲸的家园。

The animals are sometimes called unicorns of the sea because of their single, long spiraled tusk.

因其螺旋状单只长牙，这种动物有时也被称为“海洋独角兽”。

And they are shy, which makes them hard to study.

独角鲸很害羞，这令人们很难研究它们。

So Podolskiy teamed up with local Inuit hunters, who snuck up on narwhals in kayaks and captured audio.

因此，波多尔斯基与当地因纽特猎人合作，乘坐皮艇偷偷接近独角鲸并捕捉声音。

That's the sound of a narwhal looking for food using echolocation, like a dolphin or a bat.

这是独角鲸像海豹或蝙蝠那样利用回声定位觅食时的声音。

And that's a narwhal closing in on its prey, which it vacuums up into its toothless mouth.

这是一只独角鲸正在接近猎物，它将猎物吸入其没有牙齿的嘴巴。

"It starts sounding like, to my ear, like a chainsaw or something: crrk, crrk, crrk, crrk.

“在我听来，开始时像是电锯之类的声音：咔嚓、咔嚓、咔嚓、咔嚓。

It's so many little clicks that we cannot even distinguish them.

咔嚓声过多，以致于我们都没法区分它们。

And this is recognized as foraging-related sound, used also by other animals. For example, other delphinoids or bats, they do the same trick.

这被认为是与觅食有关的声音，其他动物也会发出这种声音。比如，其他海豹科动物或蝙蝠也会使用同样的把戏。

Because when they approach the target, the prey—which is, for narwhals, Arctic cod or Greenland halibut—

因为当独角鲸接近目标，即北极鳕鱼或格陵兰大比目鱼等猎物时，

they want to update their knowledge about the position of the target more frequently, because the target is moving.

它们希望更频繁地更新他们目标位置信息，因为猎物在移动。

And they need to suck it in. That's why this interval is getting shorter.

它们需要将猎物吸进来。这就是更新间隔变得越来越短的原因。

And we even—by using some simple assumptions in the equation—can know how far the animal is from the target."

甚至通过方程式中某些简单假设，我们就能知道独角鲸离目标有多远。”

The whistles you heard earlier are thought to be social calls, individuals communicating with other narwhals.

大家之前听到的哨音被认为是社交对话，是独角鲸个体与同类交流的声音。

The researchers reported these observations in Journal of Geophysical Research-Oceans.

研究人员在《地球物理学研究期刊——海洋》上报告了这些观察结果 。

"There are still sounds which we don't know what do they mean and there are several like this."

“还有些我们不知道是什么意思的声音，有很多种这样的声音。”

Podolskiy says that listening to narwhals is a first step toward understanding this mysterious whale

波多尔斯基表示，听独角鲸的声音是了解这种神秘鲸鱼的第一步，

and how it will cope as climate change, shipping and other human activities alter its Arctic home.

我们想了解随着气候变化、航运和其他人类活动改变北极家园，独角鲸会如何应对。

"There are all these things taking place right now in the region which will affect, somehow, these animals.

“上述所有事情都在这个地区发生着，这些将以某种方式影响独角鲸。

But we have no clue even about the state or the previous state of these animals.

但我们甚至对这种动物的状态或以前的状态都一无所知。

So if we want to learn what's going to happen, we better start now.

因此，如果我们想研究接下来会发生什么，那最好现在就开始研究。

And I hope this is where sound monitoring can help us to learn more about these still mysterious creatures."

我希望这就是声音监控可以提供帮助的地方，即让我们进一步了解依旧神秘的生物。”

Thanks for listening for Scientific American's 60-second Science. I'm Julia Rosen.

谢谢大家收听科学美国人——60秒科学。我是朱莉娅·罗森。