Why Pandas Are Black and White?

摘自：newser.com

Linda Hervieux著

Why Pandas Are Black and White?

摘自：newser.com

Linda Hervieux著

It’s a question that has confused children,and now clearly scientists have the answer:Why do giant pandas havespots1?To find out,a team of California researchers compared the black and white parts of the panda’sfur2to more than 200 other kinds of animals,and then studied those findings in relation to environmental and action conditions,Sciencereports.

Since pandas don’thibernate3like bears,the team ruled out that color helpsregulate4body temperature.Writing in the journalBehavioral Ecology,the researchers think that whitepatches5on the panda’s face,bottom,and belly providecamouflage6frompredators7in snowy places,while dark limbs help the panda hide in forests.And those black ears that you might think are cute are meant to help the panda communicate“ferocity8”to predators.

Dark eye patches aren’t meant to resist hard light,as the experts thought,but instead probably help the panda recognize friends and avoid competitors.Piebald9patches evolved as a sort ofcompromise10since the bamboo eaters are active year round,according toScience.Lead author Tim Caro says in a statement that the panda’s unique coloring posed “a long standing problem in biology that has been difficult to solve because actually no other mammal has this appearance.”

The“breakthrough”came,he explains,when researchers treated“each part of the body as an independent area.”The panda question wasn’t Caro’s first bicolor related puzzle.He once wore a zebra costume as part of a research to figure out why the animals have stripes.The answer?To stop horseflies from biting them.

據(jù)《科學(xué)》雜志報道，這是一個一直困擾著孩子們的問題。現(xiàn)在，科學(xué)家們顯然已經(jīng)找到“為什么大熊貓有這樣的皮毛顏色?”這個問題的答案。為了找到答案，一組加利福尼亞研究人員將熊貓皮毛的黑白區(qū)域與200多種其他種動物進(jìn)行比較，然后聯(lián)系環(huán)境和行為條件分析這些發(fā)現(xiàn)。

由于大熊貓不像熊那樣冬眠，研究小組排除了黑白色有助于調(diào)節(jié)體溫的可能性。研究人員在《行為生態(tài)學(xué)》雜志上發(fā)表文章稱，熊貓臉部、臀部和腹部的白色斑塊為它們在雪地躲避捕食者提供了偽裝，而黑暗的四肢則有助于熊貓在森林中藏身。可能你認(rèn)為很可愛的那對黑色耳朵，是為了幫助熊貓向其他捕食者傳達(dá)“兇猛”的意思。

專家們認(rèn)為，深色眼睛斑塊并不是用來抵御強(qiáng)光的，反而可能是幫助熊貓識別朋友，避開競爭對手。根據(jù)《科學(xué)》雜志所說，由于食竹者一年到頭都是活躍的，因此，斑塊的形成是一種妥協(xié)。該研究的主要作者提姆·卡羅在一份聲明中說，熊貓的獨(dú)特毛色成為“生物學(xué)上一個長期存在的很難解決的問題，因為幾乎沒有其他哺乳動物有這種情況。”

他解釋說，當(dāng)研究人員把“身體的每個部分都當(dāng)成一個獨(dú)立的區(qū)域”時，“突破”就出現(xiàn)了。熊貓問題并不是卡羅第一個與雙色有關(guān)的研究問題。他曾經(jīng)穿了一件斑馬的衣服，作為研究為什么這些動物有條紋的一部分。答案是什么呢?是為了阻止馬蠅叮咬。

Notes:

熊貓為什么是黑白的？

山東省臨沂市 李鵬飛選譯