(单词翻译:单击)
Within the 310,000 acres of Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park, one of the largest parking lots is in the village of Colter Bay.
美国怀俄明州大提顿国家公园占地31万英亩,美国最大的停车场之一就位于这里的科尔特湾村
Beyond the lot’s far edge, nestled among some trees, is a foul-smelling sewage-pumping station that Jesse Barber, a sensory ecologist at Boise State University, calls the Shiterator.
在这个停车场的远处,树木之间坐落着一个臭气熏天的污水抽水站,博伊西州立大学的感官生态学家杰西·巴伯将其称为Shiterator
On this particular night, sitting quietly within a crevice beneath the building’s metal awning and illuminated by Barber’s flashlight, is a little brown bat.
在这个特殊的夜晚,一只棕色的小蝙蝠被巴伯的手电筒照亮了,它安静地坐在这栋建筑的金属雨篷下的缝隙里
A white device the size of a rice grain is attached to the bat’s back.
一个米粒大小的白色装置附着在这只蝙蝠的背上
“That’s the radio tag,” Barber tells me.
“那是无线追踪器,”巴伯告诉我
He’d previously affixed it to the bat so that he could track its movements, and tonight he has returned to tag a few more.
他之前把无线追踪器固定在蝙蝠上,这样他就可以追踪蝙蝠的活动,今晚他又回来标记了几只蝙蝠
From inside the machine, I can hear the chirps of other roosting bats.
从机器内部,我能听到其他栖息的蝙蝠的叫声
As the sun sets, they start to emerge.
当太阳落山时,它们开始出现
A few bats become entangled in the large net Barber has strung between two trees.
几只蝙蝠被巴伯悬挂在两棵树之间的大网缠住了
He frees a bat, and Hunter Cole, one of his students, carefully examines it to check that it’s healthy and heavy enough to carry a tag.
他放了一只蝙蝠,他的学生亨特·科尔仔细检查了蝙蝠是否健康以及是否够重,可以装上追踪器
Once satisfied, Cole daubs a spot of surgical cement between its shoulder blades and attaches the tiny device.
一旦满足这个条件,科尔就会在蝙蝠的肩胛骨之间涂抹一点外科粘固粉,然后把这个小装置连接起来
“It’s a little bit of an art project, the tagging of a bat,” Barber tells me.
“这有点像一个艺术项目,给一只蝙蝠装上追踪器,”巴伯告诉我
After a few minutes, Cole places the bat on the trunk of the nearest tree.
几分钟后,科尔把这只蝙蝠放在最近一棵树的树干上
It crawls upward and takes off, carrying $175 worth of radio equipment into the woods.
蝙蝠会爬上去,然后飞走,带着价值175美元的无线电设备进了树林
I watch as the team examines another bat, which opens its mouth and exposes its surprisingly long teeth.
我看到这个小组在检查另一只蝙蝠,把蝙蝠的嘴巴张开,露出它长得惊人的牙齿
This isn’t an aggressive display; it only looks like one.
这并不是一种好斗的表现; 它只是看起来像而已
The bat is unleashing a stream of short, ultrasonic pulses from its mouth, which are too high-pitched for me to hear.
蝙蝠正从嘴巴里发出一束短促的超声波脉冲,超声波的音调太高,我听不到
Bats, however, can hear ultrasound, and by listening for the returning echoes, they can detect and locate objects around them.
然而,蝙蝠却能听到超声波,通过接收传回的回声,它们可以探测和定位周围的物体
Echolocation is the primary means through which most bats navigate and hunt.
回声定位是大多数蝙蝠找到行进方向和捕猎的主要手段
Only two animal groups are known to have perfected the ability: toothed whales (such as dolphins, orcas, and sperm whales) and bats.
目前已知只有两种动物类群将这一能力发挥到极致:齿鲸类动物(如海豚、虎鲸和抹香鲸)和蝙蝠类动物
Echolocation differs from human senses because it involves putting energy into the environment.
回声定位不同于人类的感官,因为它涉及到向环境中传输能量
Eyes scan, noses sniff, and fingers press, but these sense organs are always picking up stimuli that already exist in the wider world.
眼睛可以浏览,鼻子可以闻味,手指可以按压,但这些感觉器官总是在捕捉已经存在于广阔世界的刺激
By contrast, an echolocating bat creates the stimulus that it later detects.
相比之下,使用回声定位的蝙蝠产生了稍后会被探测到的刺激
Echolocation is a way of tricking your surroundings into revealing themselves.
回声定位是一种欺骗周围动物,让周围动物暴露自己的方法
A bat says “Marco,” and its surroundings can’t help but say “Polo.”
一只蝙蝠说“马可”,它周围的动物也会忍不住说“波罗”