時差N小時:大象擁有超強記憶力

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唐：真的嗎，雅艾爾?

Yael: Yep.

雅艾爾：對。

Don: Here goes 3.1415 9265 3589 7932 3846 2643 3832 79. Ta da!

唐：聽著，3.1415 9265 3589 7932 3846 2643 3832 79。噠噠!

Yael: Wow, you really can recite pi to the thirtiethdecimal place. Very impressive, Don! You musthave the memory of an elephant.

雅艾爾：哇，你真能背誦出圓周率小數(shù)點后十三位數(shù)字。唐，太令人印象深刻了! 你的記憶力肯定跟大象一樣好。

Don: Thanks, Yael, but do elephants really have good memories? Or is that just a saying?

唐：謝謝，雅艾爾，但是大象真有很好的記憶力嗎?或者這僅僅是個諺語?

Yael: Oh, it's real. In fact, a study on elephant memory shows that having a strong memoryhelps elephants survive in the wild.

雅艾爾：哦，是真的。實際上，一項對大象記憶力的研究證明擁有好的記憶力能幫助大象在野外存活。

Don: What do you mean?

唐：你是什么意思?

Yael: Well, scientists studying elephants in Tanzania's Tarangire National Park in Africa knewthat some elephants lived through a terrible drought from 1958 to 1961. Now cut to 1993,when there's a second severe drought. Some elephant groups left the park, but only thosewith members who were old enough to have possibly remembered the earlier drought. Thegroup that stayed in the park was composed of younger elephants.

雅艾爾：好吧，科學(xué)家對非洲坦桑尼亞的塔蘭吉雷國家公園中的大象進行研究，了解到有些大象經(jīng)歷過1958年到1961年之間那次特大干旱。到1993年時，又一次嚴(yán)重的干旱襲來，一些大象群離開了公園，但僅僅是那些還記得之前的大干旱的老象所在的群體。留在公園的大象則是一群較年輕的大象。

Don: I see. And I assume that the elephants that left the park in 1993 were better able tosurvive.

唐：我明白了。我猜1993年離開公園的大象生存的機會更大。

Yael: Right. The elephants that left the park lost only ten- percent of their calves. But thegroup that stuck it out lost forty-percent of its young.

雅艾爾：沒錯。離開公園的那組大象只失去了10%的小象。而留下來的大象損失了40%的小象。

Don: So in this case, at least, evolution selects for elephants that have memories strongenough to remember stuff from their childhood.

唐：所以既然如此，至少大象進化選擇了那些記憶力好得足以從兒時就記得事情的大象。

Yael: Yep. For elephants, memory is a survival tool.

雅艾爾：是的。對于大象來說，記憶是生存工具。