烏鴉因為吃快餐，膽固醇含量越來越高

烏鴉因為吃快餐，膽固醇含量越來越高

Crows: They're just like us. They love fast food, but fast food doesn't always love them back.

烏鴉:它們和我們一樣喜歡快餐，但快餐并不總是同樣愛著它們。

A new study shows that eating cheeseburgers increased urban crows' cholesterol. (Photo: Dodge Stock/Shutterstock)

Urbanized crows survive on a diet that's mostly human leftovers. Oftentimes, it's fast food. Think pizza crusts, bread crumbs and other processed foods that don't occur naturally in nature. To see what kind of effect that diet was having on the birds' health, a team of ornithologists at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, led a study to test the effect of cheeseburgers on urban crows' cholesterol levels.

都市化的烏鴉主要靠人類的剩飯剩菜生存。通常是快餐。想想披薩皮、面包屑和其他在自然界中不會自然出現(xiàn)的加工食品。為了了解這種飲食對烏鴉的健康有什么樣的影響，紐約克林頓市漢密爾頓學院的鳥類學家團隊領導了一項研究，測試了芝士漢堡對城市烏鴉膽固醇水平的影響。

Previous studies had shown that wildlife in urban areas, such as house sparrows, had high cholesterol levels. The scientists began by testing 140 crow nestlings in Davis, California, in a region that spanned rural to urban. And indeed, they found the more urban the bird, the higher its cholesterol.

此前的研究表明，城市地區(qū)的野生動物，如家養(yǎng)麻雀，膽固醇水平較高。科學家們首先在加州戴維斯對140只雛鳥進行了測試。事實上，他們發(fā)現(xiàn)這種鳥越城市化，它的膽固醇就越高。

Their next study took place in rural Clinton, New York, but this time, they supplemented the birds' diets with a high-cholesterol food: cheeseburgers. At one point, they were calling in 100 McDonald's cheeseburgers at a time. "They thought we were joking," Andrea Townsend, the lead researcher, told National Geographic.

他們的下一項研究是在紐約的克林頓鄉(xiāng)村進行的，但這一次，他們用高膽固醇食物補充了鳥兒的飲食:奶酪漢堡。有一段時間，他們一次叫來100個麥當勞芝士漢堡。“他們以為我們在開玩笑，”首席研究員安德里亞·湯森(Andrea Townsend)告訴《國家地理》(National Geographic)雜志。

Just like humans, crows should practice moderation when it comes to fast food. (Photo: PierreSelim [CC by SA 3.0]/Wikimedia Commons)

Notably, the cholesterol levels did not have an impact on the birds' survival. And the baby crows who received a burger-rich diet ended up, technically, in "better body condition" than their rural counterparts. Although "if you’re a chubby crow, essentially, that’s considered to be good condition,” Townsend noted.

值得注意的是，膽固醇水平對鳥類的生存沒有影響。從技術上講，吃了富含漢堡的食物的烏鴉寶寶的“身體狀況”要比它們的農村同伴好。盡管“如果你是一只胖嘟嘟的烏鴉，基本上，這被認為是一種良好的狀態(tài)，”湯森指出。

The study, published in the scientific journal The Condor, believes that crows might develop heart disease later in life, but more research is needed.

這項發(fā)表在科學雜志《禿鷹》上的研究認為，烏鴉可能會在晚年患上心臟病，但還需要更多的研究。

For now, just like us, the birds would do better eating cheeseburgers in moderation. If you want to continue feeding the birds in your neighborhood, the scientists suggest something less processed, and as close to natural as you can get.

現(xiàn)在，就像我們一樣，鳥類在適度食用芝士漢堡方面會做得更好。如果你想繼續(xù)喂養(yǎng)你附近的鳥類，科學家們建議一些不那么加工的，盡可能接近自然的食物。