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Woodpeckers Drum to their Own Tune¹

Humans can recognize each other by voice alone. I sound different from other 60-Second Science reporters, for example. In fact, lots of non-human animals, of all types, use voices to distinguish familiar individuals… including frogs, fish, lemurs, and penguins².

人类只能通过语音来识别对方。例如我听起来与其他60秒科学记者有所不同。事实上，很多非人类的动物，都是用声音来区分熟悉的物种，包括青蛙，鱼，狐猴和企鹅都是如此。

And that unique audio fingerprint³ extends to a sound you may have heard in the forest on occasion: <>... the drumming of a woodpecker.Researchers recorded multiple drum rolls, <> from 41 great spotted⁴ woodpeckers--colorful red, white, and black birds--living in Polish forests. They then used audio software to analyze⁵ them.

这种独特的音频指纹可以延伸到在森林里听到的声音：“啄木鸟的叫声”。研究人员记录了多个声音进行分析，“啄木鸟声” 啄木鸟是有着五颜六色的红色、白色和黑色的鸟，生活在波兰的森林里，然后他们使用音频软件来分析它们。

And they found that the length of the drumrolls, and the spacing between beats varied⁶ enough from bird to bird to tell the woodpeckers apart by drumming alone. The study is in the journal PLOS One.

他们发现，鼓槌的长度和节拍之间的间距，在鸟与鸟之间是有很大差别的，通过单独的叫声来告诉啄木鸟。这项研究结果发表在PLOS One杂志上。

The scientists say this fact might be useful to woodpeckers, in identifying each other. And to conservation biologists, trying to tease one bird from another in a recording⁷, for example, to count individuals in a given area. The birds' head-banging could thus do away with that research headache.

科学家们说，这个事实可能对啄木鸟在识别对方时是有用的。对于保护生物学家来说，试图在录音中挑逗另一只鸟，例如计算特定地区的个体。因此，鸟类的头部撞击可以消除这种头痛。