Sociable Chimps Get Richer Gut Microbiomes
善交猩猩好肠胃
When food is plentiful and chimps are more chummy, they harbor an increased number of different bacterial species in their bellies.
当食物变得丰饶且猩猩之间更为亲密的时候，它们肠胃内栖息着种类更为丰富的细菌。
撰文/播音 凯伦·霍普金
翻译Meatle
审核 乔虹
Chimpanzees. They’re notoriously social creatures. They snack together, snooze together and work hard to keep each other flea- and tick-free. But this simian intimacy does more than just spread the love. It also helps to spread the bacteria that inhabit their guts—which is a good thing. That’s according to a new study in the journal Science Advances. [Andrew H. Moeller et al, Social behavior shapes the chimpanzee pan-microbiome]
猩猩，是众所周知的社会化动物。它们吃在一起，睡在一起，并尽心尽力地为聚落成员清除虱子。然而，这种人猿间的亲昵行为不仅仅是起到传递爱心的作用，同时也带来了另外的好处——帮助它们传递肠胃内的细菌。这个结论来自《科学进展》上的一项新研究。[Andrew H. Moeller et al, Social behavior shapes the chimpanzee pan-microbiome]
When we think about the germs that get swapped during social interactions, we tend to focus on the bad guys: the bugs that cause everything from Ebola to the common cold. But could togetherness also promote the exchange of health-promoting microbes, like those in the intestine?
当我们想起在社交活动中所传递的微生物时，我们倾向于关注那些有害的病原体：例如会引发埃博拉或者常规感冒等一系列疾病的病原体。但是社交是会否也会帮助我们传递有益的细菌，比如肠内的菌群？
To find out, researchers spent eight years scooping the poop from a troop of 40 chimpanzees in Tanzania. And they analyzed the bacteria present in the samples. What they found was that during the rainy season, when food is plentiful and the chimps are more chummy, the apes harbor an increased number of different bacterial species in their bellies—more microbiodiversity, if you will. Which could make them more resistant to infections.
为了回答这个问题，研究人员花费了8年的时间，在赞比亚考察一个40只猩猩的群体的粪便。他们分析了样本中的细菌。当雨季来临，食物会更为充沛并且猩猩之间的感情更为亲密，这时就会有更多不同种类的细菌栖息于猩猩的肠胃中，也可以说细菌的多样性提升了。这使得他们抵抗感染的能力更强。
And the chimps' increased microbe load was not due to them all eating the same stuff. In fact, the more time the animals spent together, the more varied they were in terms of how much fruit they consumed.
猩猩肠胃中微生物容量的上升的原因并不是有相同的食物来源。事实上，它们群聚的时间越长，它们所食用的食物种类就越多样。
The researchers say it’s thus likely the hobnobbing chimps are indeed sharing the microbial wealth while they’re grooming or mating. Or when they’re otherwise too busy to watch where they step.
研究人员说，这可能说明猩猩是通过整理毛发或者交配行为共享微生物多样性。而在平时，它们可能无暇顾及于此。
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