研究人員在澳大利亞海豚身上觀察到危險的“擱淺捕食”法

研究人員在澳大利亞海豚身上觀察到危險的“擱淺捕食”法

Researchers revealed on Monday they have for the first time identified an exceptional hunting behaviour known as strand feeding in Australian dolphins, where the marine mammals deliberately beach themselves in order to catch their prey.

研究人員于本周一透露，他們首次在澳大利亞海豚身上發(fā)現(xiàn)了一種名為“擱淺捕食”的特殊捕獵行為。在這種行為中，海洋哺乳動物會故意讓自己靠近海灘以捕捉獵物。

The method has been identified in just a handful of other dolphin groups internationally, and while effective, risks are the creatures becoming permanently stranded and unable to return to the water.

這種方法在國際上僅在少數(shù)海豚群體中被發(fā)現(xiàn)，雖然有效，但也面臨著可能會永久擱淺，無法回到水里的危險。

Southern Cross University researcher Dr Daniele Cagnazzi has been studying a pod of humpback dolphins in Queensland State's Fitzroy River for 13 years and used drone-mounted cameras to capture the unique behaviour.

南十字星大學(xué)的研究人員Daniele Cagnazzi博士，對昆士蘭州菲茨羅伊河的一群座頭海豚進行了13年的研究，并用無人機拍攝了它們獨特的行為。

Once the prey has been localised a dolphin swims at high speed toward the shore, catches the fish in its mouth and remains stranded for a short time before sliding gently back into the water, Cagnazzi explained.

卡格納茲解釋說:“一旦獵物被鎖定，海豚就會以高速游向岸邊，用嘴咬住魚，然后擱淺一小會兒，然后慢慢地滑回水中。”

He said that while this type of feeding is very risky, it is also routinely repeated and must therefore provide an important proportion of the dolphins' feeding needs -- which can be as high as 6 percent of their own bodyweight in fish every day.

他說，雖然這種喂養(yǎng)方式非常危險，但它需要經(jīng)常重復(fù)，因為必須滿足海豚的喂養(yǎng)需求——這可能高達它們自身體重的6%。

Cagnazzi said that the strand feeding he witnessed was by members of a large family group of around 100 humpback dolphins, who are long-term residents of the Fitzroy River.

卡格納茲說，他親眼目睹的這一幕是由大約100頭座頭海豚組成的一個大家庭的成員喂養(yǎng)的，這些海豚是菲茨羅伊河的長期居民。

Of that group, only about 15-20 of them engaged in strand feeding, most of which were females and juveniles, leading Cagnazzi to believe that the behaviour is taught from mothers to calves.

在這一組中，只有15-20只幼崽進行了線飼，其中大部分是雌性和幼崽，這使得Cagnazzi相信這種行為是由母親傳授給幼崽的。