科学美国人60秒 SSS 非洲食蚁兽因炎热和干旱而处境艰难（在线收听）

This is Scientific American's 60-second Science, I'm Jason Goldman.

这里是科学美国人——60秒科学系列，我是杰森·古德曼。

Got a minute?

有一分钟时间吗？

The aardvark is a rare animal—alphabetically, at least, where it's the first creature listed in English-language dictionaries.

非洲食蚁兽是种稀有动物，至少按字母排序来说是如此，因为它是英文词典中排在第一位的动物。

And they're usually rarely seen in their African home. But that's because they're nocturnal, solitary and live in underground burrows.

在它们的非洲家园，人们通常很少见到它。但那是因为它们在夜间活动，独居且生活在地下洞穴里。

They're actually fairly common. And in recent years, they're being seen more frequently.

它们其实相当常见。近年来，它们的出现频率越来越高。

While that may be fortunate for tourists and wildlife enthusiasts, it's not really good news for the aardvarks themselves.

虽然这对游客和野生动物爱好者来说可能是幸运的事情，但对非洲食蚁兽本身来说并不是什么好消息。

"Southern Africa is becoming gradually hotter and drier due to climate change, which is occurring there more rapidly than in other parts of the world.

“由于气候变化，非洲南部正变得越来越热，也越来越干燥，该地区气候变化的速度比世界其他地区都要快。

And I therefore chose to dedicate my Ph.D. to investigating how climate change affects the aardvark in the hottest and driest habitat in Africa

因此我读博士时，决定致力于研究气候变化如何影响非洲食蚁兽在非洲最热、最干燥的栖息地，

in which they occur, which is the Kalahari semi-desert."

也就是卡拉哈里半沙漠。”

Nora Weyer from South Africa's University of the Witwatersrand.

南非威特沃特斯兰德大学的诺拉·韦耶说到。

For more than three years, she and her team followed the activities of a dozen aardvarks in the Kalahari via tiny tracking units they implanted in the animals.

在三年多的时间里，她和团队利用他们植入非洲食蚁兽体内的微型追踪装置，追踪了卡拉哈里沙漠12只非洲食蚁兽的活动。

Aardvarks generally sleep during the heat of the day and emerge during the cooler nighttime hours to eat ants and termites.

非洲食蚁兽一般在白天炎热的时候睡觉，在夜间凉爽的时候外出，以蚂蚁和白蚁为食。

But Weyer found that during a drought, they were likely to be active during the day.

但韦耶发现，在干旱时，它们很可能在白天活动。

The Kalahari is always arid, but one summer a lack of rain caused a big vegetation die-off.

卡拉哈里沙漠总是干旱，但有一年夏天，由于缺少雨水，大片植被接连枯萎。

Ants and termites disappeared, which made aardvarks go hungry.

蚂蚁和白蚁消失了，导致非洲食蚁兽挨饿。

"Usually, the period of the year during which very little food is available is winter.

“通常，一年中食物稀少的时期是冬天。

So if you come out during a winter day, it's nice and warmish and not too hot."

所以，如果你在冬天外出，那天应该天气不错，很温暖，而且不会太热。”

During the cold, dry winter, a hungry aardvark has trouble regulating its body temperature to stay warm.

在寒冷干燥的冬天，饥饿的非洲食蚁兽很难调节体温来保暖。

The survival strategy they evolved is to become more active during the day, when it is warmer outside.

它们进化出的生存策略是，外面比较暖和的时候，增加白天的活动。

But Weyer's aardvarks were going hungry during the summer.

但是韦耶的非洲食蚁兽在夏天时却在挨饿。

Their strategy of being active during the day, which is a smart move during the winter, became a trap during the summer:

在白天活动这种策略在冬季是明智之举，但在夏天却成为了陷阱：

they faced hunger, heat stress and dehydration.

它们面临饥饿、热应激反应和脱水。

The findings are in the journal Frontiers in Physiology.

这项研究发表在《生理学前沿》期刊上。

"These energy-saving mechanisms that aardvarks showed were not always enough for them to save energy during droughts.

“非洲食蚁兽所展示的这些节能机制并不总是足以让它们在干旱期间节约能源。

And several aardvarks in our study, and also other aardvarks, died."

我们研究的几只非洲食蚁兽还有其它非洲食蚁兽都死了。”

Climate change is expected to bring more frequent droughts and heat waves to the Kalahari. And aardvarks might not be able to cope.

气候变化预计将给卡拉哈里沙漠带来更频繁的干旱和热浪。非洲食蚁兽可能无法应对。

Aardvarks are ecosystem engineers.

非洲食蚁兽是生态系统工程师。

Their burrows are used by warthogs, porcupines, meerkats and even by endangered pangolins as shelter from heat and cold.

它们的洞穴被疣猪、豪猪、猫鼬甚至濒危的穿山甲用作避暑和避寒的场所。

If aardvarks can't survive a hotter, drier Kalahari, what does it mean for the rest of their ecological community?

如果非洲食蚁兽不能在更热、更干燥的卡拉哈里沙漠生存，这对它们生态群落中的其他成员意味着什么？

Thanks for the minute for Scientific American's 60-second Science. I'm Jason Goldman.

谢谢大家收听科学美国人——60秒科学。我是杰森·古德曼。