(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
This is Scientific American's 60-second Science, I'm Karen Kwon.
(CLIP: Hermit warbler song)
That's a bird called the hermit warbler. It breeds along the U.S. West Coast.
"They all kind of look the same. They have a cute little yellow head and a gray body."
Brett Furnas, a biostatistician at the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Typically, birds sing the same one song within one region because the song attracts mates. And different regions can have slightly different dialects of the song.
"But what we also noticed that there are some places that were exceptions to this rule—that some places, there was more than one song in the same place. And so we were curious why that would be the case."
To investigate, Furnas and his team recorded hermit warbler songs. Lots of them.
"We had to go all over California, so we went to 100 different locations throughout the state and all the different potential habitats of the species."
The researchers analyzed all the hermit warbler songs they collected and discovered that the hermit warbler doesn't just violate the usual one-song-per-region rule—they positively demolish it.
"Doing this over a period of 10 years, we found, actually, an amazing 35 different dialects across the state."
Here are just two examples of dialects, slowed down for easier comparison.
(CLIP: Hermit warbler songs)
But why would the bird repeatedly alter its song when any changes could affect its ability to attract a mate? The answer is wildfire.
"Basically, the idea is that hermit warblers are very sensitive to fire in the short term. And so they will abandon an area temporarily, even if it's just an understory or a low-severity fire that doesn't destroy the whole stand. And so this creates a vacuum. And then other hermit warblers singing rival dialects move in into this vacuum. And then you end up, maybe a few years later, with two or more different dialects in the same place."
The study was published in the journal The Auk: Ornithological Advances.
Even though the California Hermit Warblers sing multiple songs, Furnas says that such musical diversity might actually work in the hermit warblers' favor.
"They may have greater resiliency to things like—that are stressors to our natural habitats, like climate change. And so understanding that helps us to make better conservation decisions to protect biodiversity. But it's also what makes the outdoors interesting and a beautiful place to be, because you can go to one part of the state and hear hermit warblers singing a certain way, and you can go to another part of the state, and they sing a different way. And even though you might not know it's a hermit warbler, your experience outdoors is enriched by that diversity."
Thanks for listening for Scientific American's 60-second Science, I'm Karen Kwon.
参考译文
这里是科学美国人——60秒科学系列，我是凯伦·权。
（音频片段：隐莺的歌声）
这种鸟名为隐莺。它在美国西海岸繁殖。
“它们看起来几乎一样。它们有可爱的黄色小脑袋和灰色的身体。”
加州渔业和野生动物局的生物统计学家布雷特·福纳斯说到。
通常，鸟类在一个区域内唱同一首歌，因为这首歌会吸引配偶。不同地区会有稍微不同的歌曲方言。
“但我们也注意到，有些地方是这条规则的例外，有些地方，同一地区不止有一首歌。因此我们很好奇为什么会这样。”
为了调查，福纳斯及其团队录制了隐莺的歌声。他们录制了许多首歌。
“我们要走遍加州，所以我们去了全州100个不同的地点，以及这一物种的所有不同的潜在栖息地。”
研究人员分析了他们收集的隐莺的所有歌声，发现隐莺不仅违反了一个地区一首歌的常规，而且还积极地破坏它。
“通过10年的研究，我们发现全州有35种令人惊讶的不同方言。”
下面只是两种方言的例子，为了便于比较，我们放慢了速度。
（音频片段：隐莺的歌声）
但是，当任何变化都可能影响到吸引配偶的能力时，为什么隐莺还要反复改变其歌声呢？答案是因为野火。
“基本上，这个想法是，隐莺短期内对火非常敏感。因此，它们会暂时放弃一个地区，即使那只是林下植被着火或不会摧毁整个林场的低强度火灾。这就产生了真空地带。之后唱着其他竞争方言歌曲的隐莺进入这个真空地带。也许几年后，你会看到同一地区出现两种或以上不同的方言。”
这项研究发表在《海雀：鸟类学研究进展》期刊上。
尽管加州隐莺会唱多种歌曲，但福纳斯表示，这种音乐的多样性可能对隐莺有利。
“对于气候变化等我们自然栖息地的压力源，它们可能有更强的恢复力。因此，了解这一点有助于我们做出更好的保护决定，以保护生物多样性。但这也让户外变得有趣，同时成为美丽的地方，因为你可以去加州的一个地方，听隐莺以某种方式歌唱，然后再去加州的另一个地方，听它们以不同的方式歌唱。尽管你可能不知道这是隐莺，但这种多样性也丰富了你的户外体验。”
这里是科学美国人——60秒科学系列，我是凯伦·权。
译文为可可英语翻译，未经授权请勿转载！
重点讲解
重点讲解：
1. all over 到处；遍及；
We have 10 000 members spread all over the country.
我们有1万名成员分布在全国各地。
2. slow down (使)放慢；(使)减速；
The body's metabolism is slowed down by extreme cold.
严寒可以使身体新陈代谢的速度下降。
3. be sensitive to 过敏的；易受影响的；敏感的；
Such companies are highly sensitive to the economy.
此类公司对经济状况极为敏感。
4. even if/though 即使；尽管；纵然；
Even if the weather's awful there's lots to do.
即使天气很差，也还有好多事情可做。
Even though I'm quite a reserved person, I like meeting people.
我虽然性格极为内敛，但喜欢和人接触。
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