汞污染竟會改變鳥兒性取向影響繁衍?

Water pollution is posing a threat to bird ­populations by causing males to mate with each other. Scientists believe poisonous metal compounds entering the food chain can affect sexuality, causing a reduction in found that even relatively low levels of methylmercury in the diet of male white ibises caused the birds to pair up with each other, snubbing females.
　　科學家發現，愈發嚴重的水污染不僅影響着人類的生活質量，也迫使得鳥兒的“性取向”發生的改變。研究發現，食用有毒金屬物質可以大大影響生物的性取向，並對繁衍後代造成障礙。據悉，雄性白鸛在食用汞污染的食物後，會做出“驚人的”同性戀行爲，對同性雄鳥“釋放愛意”，卻對雌性白鸛“不理不睬”。

As a result fewer females breed and fewer chicks are produced. Methylmercury is a form of mercury – the metal which is liquid at room temperature and is better known as quicksilver. It has been seeping into groundwater from ­industry for years. This is the first scientific study to show how the pollutant appears to alter sexual preference.

這樣下來，雌性白鸛的繁衍機率就會被降到最低點。據悉，甲基水銀又稱汞，一種導致內分泌紊亂的物質，會影響汞中毒，雄性禽類食用發現鳥羣中汞含量攝入量越高，雄鳥與同性配對的機率就愈高。這也是人類第一次針對“汞對性取向產生的影響”做的科學分析。

U.S. researcher Peter Frederick ­captured 160 young white ibises – a coastal wading bird – and gave them food laced with methylmercury. .‘But we didn’t expect this. In the worst-case scenario, the production of young would fall by 50 per cent.’ Other birds would probably be similarly affected, he said. However, Dr Frederick, of the Florida University, and fellow researcher Nilmini Jayasena, of the Peradeniya University, Sri Lanka, admitted it was far from clear if methylmercury could be linked to similar effects in mammals.

美國研究者 Peter Frederick 把160只白鸛分成兩組進行讓他們分別食用汞污染食物實驗而得出的結論，實驗最壞的結果顯示，因食用污染食物而導致“不孕”狀況的鳥類數量增大5成。專家還擔心，除了白鸛受影響，還可能有更多的物種受影響，因爲哺乳動物因污染而“被變性”的機率極高。

Vocabulary：

snubbing v. 冷落；使突然停止（snub的ing形式）

scenario n. 方案；情節；劇本