考研英语美文赏读（29）：科学研究解开长颈鹿的花纹之谜

　　摘要：考研英语作为一门考研公共课，虽然大家都学了英语十几年，却仍经常有总分过线挂在英语上的情况，因此英语复习不单单是单词、做题。阅读作为考研英语的大头，仅仅做考研真题或许没法满足你的阅读量，因此帮帮之后会不定时推出一篇英文美文，这些文章都与考研英语阅读同源，多读必有好处。

　　►Baby giraffes inherit aspects of their mothers’ patterning—which could give them a survival advantage if good camouflage runs in the family.

　　小长颈鹿可以遗传妈妈长颈鹿身上的花纹分布，如果这种花纹是长颈鹿家完美的的伪装工具，那么小长颈鹿便收获了赖以生存的法宝。

　　Just like humans have virtually unique sets of fingerprints， every giraffe has a unique set of spots.

　　正如我们人类有着独一无二指纹，每只长颈鹿也有其独一无二的花纹。

　　Not that those spot patterns really help wildlife biologists identify their study subjects in real time.

　　但在现实生活中，长颈鹿各自独有的花纹分布却给生物学家辨别其研究对象带来了困难。

　　"We have more than 3000 individuals. … I have a hard time keeping track of that many humans so I have that problem with giraffes as well." Derek Lee is a wildlife biologist and population ecologist at Penn State， and with the Wild Nature Institute， a research consultancy group.

　　“我们拥有3000多的不同长颈鹿个体，要我跟踪研究3000多个人我都觉得十分困难，更别说这么多头长颈鹿了。”德里克.李是宾夕法尼亚州的人口生态学家和野生动物学家，同时他也在野生与自然研究所工作，该所是一所研究顾问型机构。

　　He and his collaborators have been tracking giraffes for seven years， throughout 1500 square miles in Tanzania.

　　德里克和他的同事已经跟踪研究长颈鹿有七年多的时间，足迹遍布坦桑尼亚1500万平方英里的土地。

　　And they’ve amassed a library of 70，000 giraffe photos along the way. Photographing the animals isn’t that hard， he says. "The hard part is the tsetse flies constantly biting us on our face and hands while we’re trying to take pictures."

　　在研究过程中，他们也累计拍摄保存了7万多张照片的影像库。“为长颈鹿拍摄照片并不难， 最痛苦的是，当我们拍摄时，蚊虫总是不断骚扰我们，叮咬我们的手和脸”他说到。

　　Now， they’ve used image analysis software to study the spots of mothers and their calves.

　　如今，德里克和他的同事已经用图形分析软件对长颈鹿妈妈和小长颈鹿的身上花纹展开研究。

　　And they found that baby giraffes inherit at least some particular elements of their patterning from their mothers.

　　他们发现小长颈鹿会从他们妈妈身上或多或少遗传一些特定花纹纹路。

　　Like how circular the spots are， and how jagged the edges are.

　　例如花纹的弯曲程度，或者纹路边缘的锯齿状程度。

　　They also found that calves with larger spots were more likely to survive their first months on the savannah， perhaps because the spots better mimic the dappled sunlight in the bushes where calves like to hide from hungry lions and hyenas.

　　他们同时也发现，身上花纹较大的幼鹿在其刚出生不久时更容易在大草原地带存活，这或许是因为这些大花纹与太阳照进灌木丛落下的斑驳影子相似，而幼鹿则喜欢藏身其中以躲避饥肠辘辘的狮子和野狗。

　　The results—and a lot of giraffe patterns—are in the journal PeerJ.

　　这项发现和大量长颈鹿图片在同刊杂志中皆可查阅。

　　It’s perhaps not surprising that a physical characteristic that protects an individual from being eaten passes the test of Darwinian natural selection—and get passed along to offspring.

　　保护个体生存的生理特征被达尔文优胜劣汰法则选中并世代相传这也许并不使我们感到惊讶。

　　"The fact these things are heritable and they did affect juvenile survival makes us feel like evolution is acting on these spot traits." So if mom’s camouflage is good， her babies， too， might have the spots that make them harder to spot.

　　“这一事实——即长颈鹿的花纹可以遗传而且关乎幼鹿的生死存亡——让我们意识到进化论正在这些花纹纹路上上演。”所以如果妈妈的花纹伪装是行之有效的，她的幼鹿就会遗传这些纹路让自己难以被掠食者发现。

　　(全文共373个词)

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