科学美国人60秒 SSS Small-Brained Birds More Likely to Get Shot
时间：2019-01-20 作者：英语课 分类：2016年Scientific American(十一)月
The old expression “bird brain,” referring to a small or inadequate 1 brain size—it’s not all that accurate. Take crows, for example, and other corvids, like jays and magpies 2. “Many corvids have relatively 3 large brains for their body size, and can do amazing things.” Anders M?ller, an evolutionary 4 biologist at the French National Science Research Council. “So this ‘bird brain’ expression is a little bit simplified.” Some birds are so intelligent that they’re informally referred to as “primates with feathers.”
But even among the smartest bird species, there’s still natural variation in brain size. Which is a big deal—when it comes to being hunted. M?ller worked with a taxidermy shop in Denmark, which had data on nearly 4000 birds brought in to be stuffed since 1960. A lot of the birds were just found dead—hit a window or wire—and people picked them up. But 300 of the specimens 5 had been hunted.
So M?ller’s team then compared the brain sizes of birds that got shot to those that didn’t. They controlled for the birds’ age, sex, body size, and species. And they found that the hunted specimens’ brains were actually five percent smaller, on average, than the brains of birds that died by other means. “The surprising thing is that, if you make a similar kind of analysis of liver or heart size, there is absolutely no difference there. So this is specific to the brain.” The results are in the journal Biology Letters. [Anders Pape M?ller and Johannes Erritz?e, Brain size and the risk of getting shot]
The researchers assume that individuals with larger brains had what they called “superior escape ability.” That is, they were better at not getting shot.
As game season begins, M?ller has this observation for hunters: “When you are sitting at the dinner table and eating the duck that you managed to shoot, with all likelihood it’s one with a disproportionately small brain.” Most certainly food for thought.
—Christopher Intagliata
- The supply is inadequate to meet the demand.供不应求。
- She was inadequate to the demands that were made on her.她还无力满足对她提出的各项要求。
- They set forth chattering like magpies. 他们叽叽喳喳地出发了。
- James: besides, we can take some pied magpies home, for BBQ. 此外，我们还可以打些喜鹊回家，用来烧烤。
- The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
- The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。
- Life has its own evolutionary process.生命有其自身的进化过程。
- These are fascinating questions to be resolved by the evolutionary studies of plants.这些十分吸引人的问题将在研究植物进化过程中得以解决。