白鯨靠文化傳承維系家庭紐帶

A while ago, people used to believe that only humans can use tools — but Jane Goodall (and many researchers after her) showed that humans aren’t the only ones to do so. We’ve since found several species that build and use their own tools. Then, many thought that it’s our cultural and family ties that separate us from the animals. Lo and behold, that’s not true either. Several other species, including whales, have shown important cultural behaviors. This new study confirms that. Researchers have found that related whales returned to the same locations year after year, and decade after decade, passing the information from one generation to the next.

曾經(jīng)，人們認為只有人類才會使用工具。后來，簡·古道爾等許多研究人員發(fā)現(xiàn)，人類并非唯一的工具使用者，許多動物同樣能夠制造并使用工具。于是，許多人認為，文化和家庭紐帶使人類區(qū)別于動物。唉，又錯了。許多動物也表現(xiàn)出重要的文化行為，包括鯨魚。

Researchers analyzed the structure of the beluga whale society, finding that migratory culture is inherited. Furthermore, this cultural inheritance maintains the family ties of beluga whales. This cultural legacy is so powerful that some travel as far as 6,000 kilometers each year.

最近，佛羅里達大西洋大學(xué)的研究人員分析了白鯨的社會結(jié)構(gòu)，發(fā)現(xiàn)它們會傳承遷徙文化——年復(fù)一年，十年復(fù)十年，具有血緣關(guān)系的白鯨總是返回同一個地方，將信息傳給下一代。這種文化傳承維系著白鯨的家庭紐帶。它的影響力非常大，有些白鯨甚至每年跋涉6,000公里。

“What intrigued us most was whether particular whales returned to where they were born or grew up and if this was an inherited behavior,” said Greg O’Corry-Crowe, Ph.D., lead author and a research professor at FAU’s Harbor Branch. “The only way that we could definitively answer these questions was to find and track close relatives from one year to the next and one decade to the next.”

主要作者、研究教授Greg O’Corry-Crowe表示：

我們最感興趣的問題是：鯨魚會不會返回出生地或成長地?這是不是一種傳承行為?確切回答這些問題的唯一方法是：年復(fù)一年、十年復(fù)十年地尋找、追蹤它們的近親。

Researchers also found that beluga whales exhibit an impressively broad range of vocal repertoires and acoustic systems which suggests that they form complex interpersonal relationships. They like to hang out in the thousands nearshore during the summer when the ice melts — which researchers call a whale’s version of an “icebreaker.”

研究人員還發(fā)現(xiàn)，白鯨具有復(fù)雜的聲音體系。這意味著，它們形成了復(fù)雜的人際關(guān)系(鯨際關(guān)系)。在夏季，當冰塊融化時，它們喜歡在近岸水域里消遣閑游——研究人員認為，這是鯨魚的“破冰活動”。

Ultimately, researchers hope that this will not only enable us to better understand these surprisingly complex species but also devise better ways to protect them in the face of a changing environment — the polar regions, where the beluga whales live, are extremely vulnerable to climate change.

研究人員希望通過這項研究，更好地了解鯨魚這種復(fù)雜動物，同時制定出更好的鯨魚保護方案，以應(yīng)對不斷變化的環(huán)境。白鯨主要生活在極地區(qū)域，那里特別容易受到氣候變化的影響。

“Findings from our study are expanding our understanding of how sophisticated non-primate societies can be and how important culture is for the survival of these species,” said O’Corry-Crowe. “Our findings also will influence our thinking in terms of how populations and species are going to adapt to dramatic environmental changes. There are few places where this is more urgent than in the rapidly changing polar regions.”

O’Corry-Crowe說：非靈長類動物的社會能有多復(fù)雜?文化對這些物種的生存能有多重要?我們的研究成果增進了人們對這兩個問題的理解，同時影響了人們對“種群和物種如何適應(yīng)環(huán)境變化”的思考。在環(huán)境迅速變化的極地區(qū)域，這個問題格外緊迫。

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