龍蝦和螞蟻能教會我們什么是社交距離

龍蝦和螞蟻能教會我們什么是社交距離

Ants do it. Lobsters do it. Even equatorial mandrills do it. Why don't many Americans do it: Wear masks and keep a wise social distance from each other?

螞蟻能做到。龍蝦能做到。甚至赤道的山魈也會這樣做。為什么很多美國人做不到：戴上口罩，保持明智的社交距離?

Scientific American reports this week how several animals seem to know how to take precautions and keep their distance so they're less likely to be infected by a peer.

《科學美國人》本周報道了幾只動物似乎知道如何采取預防措施并保持距離，以減少被同伴感染的可能性。

Spiny lobsters, for example , can apparently sniff out infection in the urine of another lobster, and don't get too close to them.

例如，棘龍蝦可以明顯地從另一只龍蝦的尿液中嗅出感染的跡象，從而不會離它們太近。

University of Florida researchers discovered this when a virus spread among spiny lobsters in the Florida Keys. As Dana M. Hawley and Julia C. Buck write in Scientific American, "Despite how unnatural it may feel to us, social distancing is very much a part of the natural world."

佛羅里達大學的研究人員在佛羅里達群島的棘龍蝦中傳播病毒時發(fā)現(xiàn)了這一點。正如達納M·霍威和茱莉亞C·布克在《科學美國人》中所寫的那樣，“盡管對我們來說這是多么不自然，但社交距離是自然世界的重要組成部分。”

A 2018 study at the University of Bristol found that when ant colonies are exposed to a virus, ants keep their distance. Forager ants, who are out and about to scrounge up plant saps and insect eggs, stay outside of the colony, so they don't risk infecting the queen ant and her nurses. Reproduction can safely proceed.

2018年，布里斯托大學的一項研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，當蟻群接觸到病毒時，螞蟻會保持距離。外出覓食的螞蟻，它們外出搜尋植物的汁液和昆蟲的卵，會呆在蟻群之外，這樣它們就不會有感染蟻后和她的護士的風險。繁殖可以安全地進行。

I found mandrills, with their vividly colored countenances, to be the most intriguing. Mandrills don't just send text messages to each other. "Hey u up a tree?" They are highly social beings who live in groups and groom each other, which fosters cleanliness, family friendliness, and what scientists call social bonding.

我發(fā)現(xiàn)最吸引人的是山魈，它們的臉顏色鮮艷。山魈不只是互相傳達信息。“嘿，你在樹上嗎?”它們是高度社會化的生物，群居并互相梳理，這有助于清潔，家庭友好，以及科學家所說的社會聯(lián)系。

A 2017 study of mandrills in Gabon found that they altered their habits when they sensed — which is to say smelled — one of their group was infected. They didn't shun or abandon that family member.

2017年對加蓬(地名)的山魈的一項研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，當它們感覺到，也就是聞到其中一組中的一只被感染時，它們會改變自己的習慣。他們并不會回避或拋棄那個家庭成員。

So why do so many humans decline to keep a safe distance from others under the threat of an infection when lobsters, ants and mandrills are so vigilant? Why do some people adamantly refuse to wear a face mask or keep six feet away from people?

那么，在感染的威脅下，龍蝦、螞蟻和山魈都非常警惕時，為什么有那么多人拒絕與其他人保持安全距離呢?為什么有些人堅決拒絕戴口罩或與人保持6英尺的距離?

Lobsters, ants and mandrills don't watch cable news. They can't scour the Internet and social media sites for gobbets of misinformation to fool themselves into thinking this virus which has sickened and killed so many is somehow unreal or hyperbolized.

龍蝦、螞蟻和山雀不看有線新聞。他們不能在互聯(lián)網(wǎng)和社交媒體網(wǎng)站上搜索錯誤信息，以欺騙自己，讓自己認為這種已經(jīng)導致眾多人生病和死亡的病毒在某種程度上是不真實的或夸張的。