大鯊魚竟然愛聽爵士樂

While for many people sharks bring to mind the Jaws theme music, it seems sharks themselves prefer jazz.

一提到大白鯊，你很可能首先想到的是電影《大白鯊》那駭人的主題曲。但是，大白鯊好像更喜歡爵士樂。

Far from mindless eating machines, new research from the Macquarie University Fish Lab has shown sharks are much more sophisticated than most people imagine.

據麥考瑞大學魚類研究室的最新研究成果，大白鯊其實遠不是我們想象中那種只會吃人的、冷血的動物，它比我們大多數想象的都要復雜地多。

Researchers trained baby Port Jackson sharks to associate music with a foodreward. When played a jazz song, the sharks learnt to go to a feeding station for a tasty treat.

"Sound is really important for aquatic animals, it travels well under water and fish use it to find food, hiding places and even to communicate," said lead author Catarina Vila-Pouca from the Department of Biological Sciences.

研究人員對一只小鯊魚進行了訓練，教它如何把進食與音樂聯系起來。于是，只要研究人員一放起爵士樂，可愛的小鯊魚就會去喂食點享受美味的食物。論文的第一作者、來自生物科學系的Catarina Vila-Pouca說：“對于水生動物來說，聲音非常重要。它們能在水下來去自如、搜尋食物，甚至是找躲避之處、與同類交流，都是聲音的功勞。”

Anecdotal reports have suggested that sharks can learn to associate the sounds of boat engines with food, for example as part of shark cage-diving activities. The study published this week in Animal Cognition provides evidence that sharks can learn the association relatively quickly.

之前有報告說鯊魚會將船只引擎的聲音與食物聯系起來，就像鯊魚的籠潛水活動一樣(觀察者會在一個保護籠里以防止鯊魚與潛水員接觸。鯊魚籠潛水被用于科學觀察、水下攝影和旅游活動。 鯊魚會因為一些誘餌跑到籠子附近。但這種做法引起了一些爭議，因為據稱，在游泳者附近時，鯊魚的自然行為會有所改變)。這項研究結果已發(fā)表在本周的《動物認知》上，它表明，鯊魚的確可以相對快速地學會將兩者聯系起來。

Associate Professor Culum Brown of the Department of Biological Sciences and the leader of The Fish Lab said when it came to differentiating between jazz and classical music, the sharks struggled.

生物科學系的副教授Culum Brown 和魚類研究室的領導人都認為，鯊魚很難區(qū)分古典樂和爵士樂：

"It was obvious that the sharks knew that they had to do something when the classical music was played, but they couldn't figure out that they had to go to a different location," said Associate Professor Brown.

當我們放古典樂的時候，鯊魚知道自己有啥事沒做，但是它們卻并不知道其實應該去另一個不同的地點。

"The task is harder than it sounds, because the sharks had to learn that different locations were associated with a particular genre of music, which was then paired with a food reward. Perhaps with more training they would have figured it out."

你可能會覺得這聽起來沒什么，但事實上這項任務可比聽起來要難。首先，作為一只鯊魚，你得先知道要去兩個不同的地方，還要把這兩個地方與兩種特定的音樂類型對應起來，這樣你才吃得到食物。或許要經過更多次的訓練，它們就會知道了。

Ms Vila-Pouca said the research from The Fish Lab hopes to reveal some of the fascinating learning abilities of sharks.

Vila-Pouca女士說，魚類研究室的研究人員希望能進一步揭示出鯊魚有這么驚人的學習能力的原因：

"Sharks are generally underestimated when it comes to learning abilities – most people see them as mindless, instinctive animals.

大多數人認為鯊魚是沒有思想的動物，也不知道它們還有這么強的學習能力。

"However, they have really big brains and are obviously much smarter than we give them credit for.

但實際上，它們比我們想象中要聰明地多。

"Gaining a better understanding of this will help grow positive public opinion of sharks and may shift public and political will towards their conservation."

知道了這一點后，希望公眾以后能更加理性地看待鯊魚，也多一些積極的看法;對某些政治適當做出調整，以投入到保護它們的行業(yè)中來。