囧研究：熊貓什麼會這麼懶

When they’re not making sweet love in the zoo or dodging poachers in the wild, giant pandas sit around and munch on bamboo. Their metabolic ability to take it easy has long baffled scientists.
除了在動物園裏交配以及在野外躲避偷獵者，大熊貓總是在無所事事地啃竹子，而它們那可以將竹子消化的代謝能力長久以來一直困擾着科學家們。

Thanks to a study coming out of Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing and published in Science, we finally have some answers. For starters, giant pandas expend about 38 percent of the same energy as compared to other creatures of the same body mass. To maintain such a low metabolism, they do indeed move slowly. In the wild, pandas spend just half of their time in motion; when they forage, they average just 50 feet per hour. According to the study’s authors, that’s “very low.”
中國科學院刊載在科學雜誌上的一項研究成果使我們有了些頭緒。首先，和相同體型的其他生物相比，大熊貓只需消耗其38%的熱量，而爲了維持儘可能低的新陳代謝，它們確實是行動緩慢。在野外，大熊貓只花一半的時間用於運動，當它們覓食的時候，它們的平均速度只有每小時50英尺，研究負責人表示這個速度“非常慢”。

How’d they get their data? As Discovery reported:
那他們是怎麼得到這些數據的呢？探索頻道曾有過報道：

The researchers followed five captive and three wild giant pandas (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) for about a year. By using GPS trackers and analyzing chemicals excreted in the pandas’ poop, they were able to measure the amount of energy the pandas spent each day. Surprisingly, the pandas expended only about 38 percent of the energy that an animal with the same body mass would require.
研究員們跟蹤觀察了五隻圈養大熊貓和三隻野生大熊貓約一年時間，通過定位追蹤和分析熊貓糞便，他們得以估算出熊貓每天消耗的熱量總和。令人詫異的是，大熊貓只需消耗與它同等體型的動物所需熱量的38%。

“We thought the metabolism of the panda would be low because the bamboo diet contains low energy,” said senior author Fuwen Wei, a professor of zoology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing. “But it is very surprising that it is this exceptionally low, equal to the three-toed sloth, and much lower than the koala.”
“我們認爲熊貓的新陳代謝很低，因爲竹子中含有的熱量很少，”研究負責人魏福文（音譯）說道，他是中國科學院動物學的專家，“但是我們沒想到竟然會這麼低，和三趾樹懶差不多，比考拉要低三分之二。”

In addition to highly evolved behavior, biology comes into play, too. Autopsies revealed low-energy wetware inside those big puffy bodies. Specifically, panda livers, kidneys and even their brains are smaller than those of other bears. This saves energy. Finally, their metabolic-managing thyroid hormones are also lower than those seen in other similarly sized mammals. According to the researchers, the levels were lower than even those in hibernating black bears.
除了熊貓自身高度進化的行爲以外，生物學也起了很大作用，研究員對熊貓的屍體進行了研究，發現在它們龐大的身軀中溼件的耗能非常低，特別是它們的肝臟、腎、甚至它們的大腦都比其他熊要小，這樣就能節省熱量，因此它們體內負責新陳代謝的甲狀腺激素也比其它同等體型的哺乳動物要來的低，研究員說，這甚至比冬眠中的黑熊還要低。

So, in summary, pandas -- cute? Yes. Delicious? Maybe. Lazy and stupid? Definitely.
那麼問題來了，熊貓萌嗎？當然。好吃嗎？不好說。又傻又懶？這是肯定的。