動物世界中那些不同物種間的親密合作(上)

Interactions between two species can take many forms. Predators hunt prey, humans tame animals, groups compete for territory, and so on. Most meetings between different species of animals could arguably be described as antagonistic or aloof. But positive, mutually beneficial interactions occur as well. Some of these collaborations can be incredible and unexpected.

不同物種間的互動多種多樣：弱肉強食、人類馴養、種羣領土紛爭等等。大部分不同動物之間的關係可以形容爲對抗或毫無交集。但是樂觀來看，互惠互利的合作也是存在的，而且，這些“合作伙伴們”可能會讓你大跌眼鏡。

ns Guide Wolves To Prey

10.烏鴉引導狼捕獵

In the past, gray wolves were considered too dangerous to tolerate and were nearly annihilated in North America by the 1970s. Populations have been recovering since then. Their reintroduction to Yellowstone National Park has had a beneficial and stabilizing effect on the local ecosystem, particularly where scavengers during the winter months are concerned.

過去，人們總是認爲狼是兇狠十足的動物，甚至在20世紀70年代的北美被大規模捕殺以致幾近滅絕。然而，狼的數量也是從那時開始增加的——狼被重新引進到了黃石公園。狼的引進促進了當地的生態平衡與穩定，爲環境帶來了積極的影響，尤其被食腐動物所歡迎。

Even without wolves, many herbivores still die of starvation toward the end of winter. While this provides an initial feast for scavenging animals, much of the meat ultimately goes to waste as only so much can be consumed before it's all too decomposed. With wolves added back in, herbivore death is more spaced out while still providing ready meals for scavengers since, unlike other animals such as bears, wolves tend to move away from their kill after they've eaten their ns have learned to maximize the benefits of wolf leftovers. During winter, they'll land and croak near prey in order to get wolves' attention, guiding them to their next meal. Of course, this places the raven in a prime position to feast on the leftovers. Perhaps as a result, wolves have also been noted to be surprisingly tolerant of ravens feeding close to them.

就算沒有狼，很多食草動物也會在冬季飢餓而死。這也爲食腐動物帶來了一桌盛宴。如果這些食草動物的屍體沒有被及時吃掉，就只能白白分解掉。隨着狼的逐漸迴歸，食草動物的死亡時間間隔更長。但是，狼不同於熊，狼在飽餐之後便揚長而去，所以這給食腐動物提供了唾手可得的美餐。烏鴉爲了能在狼離開後的第一時間吃到食物，在冬天的時候經常停留在獵物旁邊呱呱大叫以吸引狼的注意力，並且引導它們去捕食。當然了，聰明的烏鴉也可以在狼走後第一個享受美食。也許狼能忍受烏鴉在離它那麼近的距離裏進食也會很使人震驚吧。

ion Beetles And Their Mite Minions

9.食腐甲蟲和它們的小跟班

In nature, an animal carcass is a gift that rarely goes unused. American carrion beetles, as the name suggests, live a lifestyle that revolves around dead animals. Their body shapes are even optimized for crawling under, or possibly inside, corpses. The smell of a newly deceased and decomposing animal will soon bring the beetles—sometimes bearing a load of mites on their backs.

在自然界裏，動物的屍體是天賜的美食，因此很少被浪費。美國食腐甲蟲——“蟲如其名”，它們整日穿梭於動物的死屍之中。它們的身體已經進化成了能夠自由攀爬、進出動物屍體的形態。一具新鮮的動物屍體總能迅速引來大量的小傢伙們。

The beetles lay their eggs in the rotting meat, which will serve as nourishment for their larvae. They are hardly the only species to use a carcass in such a manner, so inevitably these larvae will face other insects' larvae as competition. Unlike other species, such as various flies, the carrion beetle only lays its eggs in dead animals as their larvae must eat meat to survive. The adults eat the rival species' larvae but, given the abundance of competitive species, they can't destroy all of their progeny's rivals. This is where the carrion beetles' passengers come in. Upon arrival at a fresh corpse, the mites disembark and swarm the body, eating any larvae or eggs that do not come from carrion beetles and greatly reducing the competition. The carrion beetles will then carry the mites to the next body they find. It's possible that the mites also clean bacteria from the beetles themselves while being given the free ride.

食腐甲蟲們在腐肉之中繁衍後代，這也爲剛出生的小甲蟲提供了必須的營養。然而，食腐甲蟲們並不是唯一以此方式繁衍生息的昆蟲，因此，小甲蟲也會面臨着與其他幼蟲的生死拼搏。食腐甲蟲不像蝴蝶，食腐甲蟲的幼蟲需要食肉爲生，食腐甲蟲也就只選擇在動物的死屍上產卵。而那些成年食腐甲蟲則選擇以“對手”的幼蟲爲食。即便如此，因爲各個種羣的數量巨大，它們無法完全被“敵人”摧毀掉。隨食腐甲蟲而來的還有一羣“小客人”，它們藉助食腐甲蟲抵達了新鮮的動物屍體，這些寄生蟲“下車”後做做熱身運動就開始摩拳擦掌準備享受美餐。食腐甲蟲也非常樂意這麼做，因爲這些寄生蟲吃掉的都是其他昆蟲的幼蟲和卵，以此也減少了食腐甲蟲幼蟲的生存壓力。在寄生蟲們飽餐一頓後，食腐甲蟲便再次帶着它的小客人們開始了下一次“旅程”。當然了，在享受免費順風車的途中，這些寄生蟲也會幫食腐甲蟲清理掉身上的細菌。

el Greene And His Seizure Snake

8.丹尼爾·格林和他的痙攣蛇

You may have heard of seizure dogs that can detect oncoming seizures in their owners and warn them accordingly, but what about a seizure snake? Daniel Greene of Shelton, Washington certainly has. He employs Bedrock, his 1.5-meter (5 ft) boa constrictor as just such a service animal. Greene, who suffers from grand mal seizures, often carries Bedrock draped around his neck. He noticed that when a seizure was coming on, Bedrock would stiffen and squeeze his neck e then, Bedrock has been instrumental in giving him enough warning to de-stress, take medicine, or do whatever else must be done to either prevent the seizure or endure it as safely as possible. The difference is hard to miss; when Bedrock is asleep at night, Greene's seizures occur unchecked.

你也許聽說過可以及時發現主人痙攣症狀並及時提醒主人的狗狗，那麼你知道也有這麼一種蛇嗎？ 華盛頓大學的丹尼爾教授就有那麼一條蛇，名字叫Bedrock。那是一條長1.5米的蟒蛇，丹尼爾常用它來爲自己服務。患有嚴重痙攣的的丹尼爾常常把Bedrock纏在脖子上帶在身邊。因爲丹尼爾發現每當痙攣快犯病的時候，Bedrock都會變得僵硬而輕輕地勒一下他的脖子。自此之後，Bedrock起到提醒丹尼爾做舒壓、吃藥等一切防止痙攣或幫助丹尼爾安全度過痙攣的事情，成爲了他身邊非常重要的一部分。但有一點令人遺憾的是，晚上Bedrock熟睡的時候，丹尼爾的病情也許會不受控制。

Greene's method of seizure prevention has caused him difficulty, unfortunately. Some store managers balk at having a customer with a snake draped around his neck. Being a service animal, Bedrock is legally allowed by the Americans with Disabilities Act to accompany Greene in public. Sometimes, he's still asked to leave, however. Greene says he doesn't mind leaving a store if asked politely, but he takes offense when managers try to assert that Bedrock isn't a real service animal.

不幸的是，丹尼爾的做法也給他帶來了一些困擾。一些商店管理人員看到脖子纏着蛇的人常會非常害怕。在美國，作爲一種服務性的動物，Bedrock陪伴主人上街是爲法律所許可的，殘疾人法案也可以作爲依據。但是有些時候丹尼爾教授還是會被要求離開商店。他說他並不介意店員禮貌的要求自己離開商店，但是每當商店管理者試圖說Bedrock算不上真正的服務性動物時，他會感到非常生氣。

ers And Coyotes Team Up

7.合作的獾和土狼

Badgers and coyotes share a common predilection toward taking various burrowing rodents as prey, though they catch them in very different ways. Rodents such as squirrels and prairie dogs have no chance of outrunning a coyote, but they can always escape into their burrows. A badger, on the other hand, can dig into the ground and tear a rodent from its burrow provided the rodent doesn't simply run out of another exit and leave the badger with no hope of catching it. A badger-coyote team could certainly tip the odds against their common prey if two competing predators could manage to work together. As it turns out, they do. Native Americans have spoken of these collaborations for years, and more recently scientists have documented it as well. When badgers and coyotes work together to catch prey, they complement each others' respective strengths. The badger digs prey out from the ground, and the coyote runs it down. These cooperative efforts are most likely to occur between a badger and one lone coyote, as opposed to groups of coyotes.

雖然獾和土狼都喜歡以各種挖洞的齧齒動物爲食，但他們的捕食方法卻大不相同。比如像松鼠和土拔鼠這類齧齒動物，雖然它們跑不過土狼，但它們總能逃進它們挖的洞裏。另外，只要獵物沒有從這地洞逃到另一個地洞，獾就可以通過挖地洞並把獵物抓出來。如果這對競爭者能夠合作起來，那麼這樣的一個獾-狼組合能夠增加它們捕到獵物的機會。事實上，它們的確做到了。美洲原住民很久之前就開始談論這個合作關係了，最近科學家也對此做了觀察並記錄下來。當獾和土狼合作捕捉獵物的時候，它們互相爲彼此彌補短處。獾把獵物從洞裏逼出來，然後土狼再把獵物撲倒。這種協作性合作最有可能發生在一隻獾和一隻單獨的土狼之間，而不是一隻獾和一羣土狼之間。

s Protect Spider Eggs For Shelter

6.青蛙爲蜘蛛卵提供庇護

The formidable Colombian lesserblack tarantula could easily eat an animal as small as the dotted humming frog, but it doesn't. It's arguable that the small frogs are unpalatable to the spiders, but there is more at work than mere taste. The spider and frog have been observed sharing burrows created by the spider. Some Colombian lesserblacks have even been observed cohabitating with more than one humming frog.

令人敬畏的哥倫比亞小黑背塔蘭託毒蛛能夠輕鬆的吃掉像斑點蛙般大小的動物，但是它從不這麼幹。這是不是因爲小型蛙對於狼蛛來說並不美味我們並不確定，至少，味道不是唯一的因素。人們觀察到蜘蛛和青蛙共享着由蜘蛛挖掘的地洞。很多人觀察到，哥倫比亞小黑背塔蘭託毒蛛常與與多隻斑點蛙共同居住。

Often, these frogs have to crawl over or under the tarantula in order to enter or exit the tunnel, and they are still not attacked. The spiders will pick them up and examine them but will then release them. They are thought to recognize the frogs via chemical two species share a mutually beneficial arrangement. Many other predators that might otherwise dine on the dotted humming frog wouldn't dare enter the burrow of a large hunting spider to do so. The frogs can also feast on small invertebrates attracted to the remains of the spider's kills. Additionally, a spider burrow makes a great microhabitat for a frog. So, how do these amphibian roommates pay their rent? The humming frogs eat ants, including those that might otherwise eat the Colombian lesserblack's eggs.

這些斑點蛙經常在進出通道時爬到塔蘭託毒蛛的身體上面或者下面，但從未被攻擊過。毒蛛會把他們拾起來並檢查一番，然後把他們放走。有人認爲，毒蛛可以通過化學信號來辨別不同的斑點蛙。這兩個物種互惠互利。許多其他覬覦斑點蛙的狩獵者也不敢進入有着正在狩獵的大型毒蛛的洞穴。與此同時，斑點蛙還可以飽餐一頓被毒蛛吃剩的無脊椎動物吸引來的無脊椎動物。此外，毒蛛的洞穴爲青蛙提供了一個極好的小生境。那麼，這種爬行動物室友怎麼樣支付他們的租金呢？答案是，斑點蛙吃掉那些以哥倫比亞狼蛛的卵爲食的螞蟻。

翻譯:哈利8=7 來源:前十網