国家地理:Mother Fish Mouthful 慈鲷鱼妈妈（在线收听） |
| When mom tells these babies "it's a scary world out there, so be careful", she's saying a mouthful. Cichlid fish here in Africa's Lake Tanganyika have a big problem with predators. Other fish will do whatever it takes to get cichlid babies and gobble 'em up. Just scaring'em off isn't the answer. The cichlid has to create a safe haven for its young, using its mouth as both shovel and bucket, then it moves its wriggling brood to safety, mouthful by mouthful. When they are not in the hole, the cichlid babies are in mom's mouth. That's why the cichlid are called "mouth brooding fish". Mom's mouth is both nest and nursery. Like all good moms, this one lets her babies out to play, and then provides protection when it's time to come home. It seems like a foolproof system for keeping the young ones safe. But it's not. Let's introduce a predator that is so wily, it's able to hijack the evolutionary process itself. These catfish are notorious parasites. They are after the eggs of the cichlid, but the cichlid fiercely defend their young. The catfish're able to pick off a few eggs, and they also drop a few of their own eggs, knowing that the cichlid mothers will pick them up, thinking they are her own. And so the cichlid becomes a surrogate mother to a predator. The catfish take off, never knowing what becomes of their young ones. Mother does her job, letting the brood grow in her mouth. Now, as in a bad horror movie, the catfish eggs hatch first, and the baby catfish feast on the cichlid babies, gobbling down every single one. Finally, the cichlid mother releases, not her own children, but the catfish cannibal kitties. Ironically, the cichlid whose brood they destroyed is the only mother they'll ever know. More irony, the cichlid mom fails to sense the switch. She treats the catfish as if they were her own, scooping them up to protect them at the first hint of danger. The catfish have clearly won this round in the eternal fight for evolutionary dominance. gobble: To devour in large, greedy gulps. 狼吞虎咽 foolproof: Designed so as to be impervious to human incompetence, error, or misuse 傻瓜用的 wily: Full of wiles; cunning. 诡计多端的；狡猾的 |
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