科学美国人60秒 黑猩猩将昆虫涂在伤口上

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  Chimps¹ Apply Insects to their Wounds

黑猩猩将昆虫涂在伤口上

Christopher Intagliata: Chimpanzees can make tools, they display emotions, and they can outfox humans at certain memory games. But chimps also resemble us in another way—they use medicine. They're known to eat tough leaves and bitter plants to purge² parasites³ from their guts⁴.

Christopher Intagliata：黑猩猩可以制造工具，表达情感，并且在某些记忆游戏中可以胜过人类。 但黑猩猩在另一个方面也与我们相似——它们使用药物。 众所周知，它们会吃坚硬的叶子和苦涩的植物来清除肠道中的寄生虫。

Now researchers have observed chimps applying a never-before-seen type of treatment—snatching flying insects, and applying them to their wounds. You can see this happening in a video they filmed at Loango National Park, in Central Africa.

现在，研究人员观察到黑猩猩采用了一种前所未见的治疗方法——捕捉飞虫，并将它们涂在伤口上。 你可以在他们在中非 Loango 国家公园拍摄的视频中看到这一点。

Simone Pika: Suddenly Suzee is sitting up. She's catching⁵ something from under a bush, she's putting it between her lips, she seems to press it. And then she's grabbing the foot of her son with a wound, and then is applying the insect to the wound.

Simone Pika：突然 Suzee 坐了起来。 她从灌木丛下抓起什么东西，她把它放在嘴唇之间，她似乎在按它。 然后她抓住儿子受伤的脚，然后将昆虫涂抹在伤口上。

Intagliata: Simone Pika is a cognitive⁶ biologist at the University of Osnabrück, in Germany. And part of the team that studies these chimps.She says it's possible the insects have antibacterial or soothing⁷ qualities—but this could also be a cultural practice. With no medical benefit at all.

Intagliata：Simone Pika 是德国奥斯纳布吕克大学的认知生物学家。 以及研究这些黑猩猩的团队的一部分。她说这些昆虫可能具有抗菌或舒缓的特性——但这也可能是一种文化习俗。 根本没有医疗福利。

Pika: Maybe an individual just found out that it's intriguing⁸, I get a lot of attention, others come, I get some grooming⁹ ... and so it just resulted into a social behavior.

皮卡：也许有人刚刚发现这很有趣，我得到了很多关注，其他人来了，我得到了一些修饰......所以它只是导致了一种社交行为。

Intagliata: After all, Pika points out that humans perform plenty of rituals, with no obvious function. Her team reported their findings in the journal Current Biology. [Alessandra Mascaro et al, Application of insects to wounds of self and others by chimpanzees in the wild]And they write that this could be an example of what's called "prosocial behavior."

Intagliata：毕竟，鼠兔指出人类进行了大量的仪式，没有明显的功能。 她的团队在《当代生物学》杂志上报告了他们的发现。 他们写道，这可能是所谓的“亲社会行为”的一个例子。

Pika: They help each other and it's not just a mother helping¹⁰ her offspring and it's not somebody helping somebody to increase genetic¹¹ benefits, but it's also individuals who are not related to each other.

皮卡：他们互相帮助，不仅仅是母亲帮助她的后代，也不是某人帮助某人增加遗传益处，而是彼此无关的个体。

Intagliata: As for those insects? The team has not yet identified any remains¹².

Pika: Because it's tiny pieces and we are primatologists. But now we have talked to entomologists and have an idea of how to find even smallest remains, and then there are also techniques to then identify the species.

Intagliata：那些昆虫呢？ 该小组尚未发现任何遗体。

皮卡：因为它很小，而且我们是灵长类动物学家。 但现在我们已经与昆虫学家交谈，并且对如何找到最小的遗骸有了一个想法，然后还有识别物种的技术。

Intagliata: If they do—they'll be able to learn more about what function this practice might have, if any. And perhaps we humans will be able to learn some medicinal tricks from our primate¹³ cousins.

Intagliata：如果他们这样做了，他们将能够更多地了解这种做法可能具有的功能（如果有的话）。 也许我们人类将能够从我们的灵长类表亲那里学到一些药用技巧。

1 chimps   

（非洲）黑猩猩( chimp的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Chimps are too scarce, and too nearly human, to be routinely slaughtered for spare parts. 黑猩猩又太少，也太接近于人类，不可以作为人器官备用件说杀就杀。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 医学的第四次革命
• And as nonprimates, they provoke fewer ethical and safety-related concerns than chimps or baboons. 而且作为非灵长类，就不会产生像用黑猩猩或狒狒那样的伦理和安全方面的顾虑。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 医学的第四次革命

2 purge   

n.整肃，清除，泻药，净化；vt.净化，清除，摆脱；vi.清除，通便，腹泻，变得清洁

参考例句：

• The new president carried out a purge of disloyal army officers.新总统对不忠诚的军官进行了清洗。
• The mayoral candidate has promised to purge the police department.市长候选人答应清洗警察部门。

3 parasites   

寄生物( parasite的名词复数 )； 靠他人为生的人； 诸虫

参考例句：

• These symptoms may be referable to virus infection rather than parasites. 这些症状也许是由病毒感染引起的，而与寄生虫无关。
• Kangaroos harbor a vast range of parasites. 袋鼠身上有各种各样的寄生虫。

4 guts   

v.狼吞虎咽，贪婪地吃，飞碟游戏（比赛双方每组5人，相距15码，互相掷接飞碟）；毁坏（建筑物等）的内部( gut的第三人称单数 )；取出…的内脏n.勇气( gut的名词复数 )；内脏；消化道的下段；肠

参考例句：

• I'll only cook fish if the guts have been removed. 鱼若已收拾干净，我只需烧一下即可。
• Barbara hasn't got the guts to leave her mother. 巴巴拉没有勇气离开她妈妈。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 catching   

adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住

参考例句：

• There are those who think eczema is catching.有人就是认为湿疹会传染。
• Enthusiasm is very catching.热情非常富有感染力。

6 cognitive   

adj.认知的，认识的，有感知的

参考例句：

• As children grow older,their cognitive processes become sharper.孩子们越长越大，他们的认知过程变得更为敏锐。
• The cognitive psychologist is like the tinker who wants to know how a clock works.认知心理学者倒很像一个需要通晓钟表如何运转的钟表修理匠。

7 soothing   

adj.慰藉的；使人宽心的；镇静的

参考例句：

• Put on some nice soothing music.播放一些柔和舒缓的音乐。
• His casual, relaxed manner was very soothing.他随意而放松的举动让人很快便平静下来。

8 intriguing   

adj.有趣的；迷人的v.搞阴谋诡计(intrigue的现在分词)；激起…的好奇心

参考例句：

• These discoveries raise intriguing questions. 这些发现带来了非常有趣的问题。
• It all sounds very intriguing. 这些听起来都很有趣。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 grooming   

n. 修饰, 美容，（动物）梳理毛发

参考例句：

• You should always pay attention to personal grooming. 你应随时注意个人仪容。
• We watched two apes grooming each other. 我们看两只猩猩在互相理毛。

10 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

11 genetic   

adj.遗传的，遗传学的

参考例句：

• It's very difficult to treat genetic diseases.遗传性疾病治疗起来很困难。
• Each daughter cell can receive a full complement of the genetic information.每个子细胞可以收到遗传信息的一个完全补偿物。

12 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

13 primate   

n.灵长类（目）动物，首席主教；adj.首要的

参考例句：

• 14 percent of primate species are highly endangered.14%的灵长类物种处于高度濒危状态。
• The woolly spider monkey is the largest primate in the Americas.绒毛蛛猴是美洲最大的灵长类动物。