Gators Guard Birds That Nest Nearby
短吻鳄会保护附近的鸟类
Wading birds in the Everglades prefer to nest near resident gators for protection. And the arrangement appears to be mutually beneficial.
湿地涉水的鸟类更喜欢在短吻鳄居住的附近建巢以寻求保护。而这种安置似乎是对双方都有益。
撰文：克里斯多弗 因塔利亚塔
翻译：惠丹丹
审核：邰伦玥
Florida’s Everglades are home to lots of large wading birds, like egrets and herons. But the ‘Glades also have lots of raccoons and possums. For the mammals, the birds’ nests are an all-you-can-eat buffet. And when an invasion occurs, "sometimes thousands of birds will abandon their nests, and just leave, and there's littered remains of dead chicks and eggs that have been eaten." Lucas Nell, an ecologist at the University of Georgia.
弗罗里达的湿地是很多涉水鸟类的家，比如白鹭和苍鹫一样。但是林间空地里也有很多浣熊和负鼠。对于哺乳动物来说，鸟巢就是一顿什么都能吃的自助餐。当侵略者们出现时，乔治亚大学的生物学家卢卡斯内尔说：“有时，成千上万的鸟会放弃自己巢穴，直接离开，只是剩下一些死了的小鸟和鸟蛋等废弃物被吃掉。”
Nell says that, in order to seek protection from their furry foes, birds actually prefer to build their nests in plots of swamp with a resident alligator. In fact, in one study a graduate student planted fake alligators. And the birds seemed to prefer to build nests close to them. "Where there's a water source, there are alligators, so it's sort of this moat of protection around these colonies."
内尔说，鸟类为了躲开它们的天敌，更喜欢将巢穴建立在有短吻鳄居住的湿地。事实上，在一项研究中，一位研究生在一块空地里放置了一些假的短吻鳄。而鸟类似乎更喜欢靠近它们建巢。哪里有水源，哪里就有短吻鳄，在这些巢穴周围似乎就有了护城河一般。
Nell and his colleagues took to the Everglades at night, hunting for gators near and far from nests. "You have to use a spotlight and you see the little demon eyes shining out of the marsh." They lassoed the gators, pulled them into the airboat, and took blood samples and body measurements.
内尔和他的同事在晚上去湿地捕捉靠近和远离鸟巢的短吻鳄。“你必须使用反光灯，这样你就能看到这些小恶魔的眼睛在湿地里闪烁。”他们用套索把短吻鳄拉进汽船，并采集血样和测量身体尺寸。
Turns out the gators near bird colonies were 13 percent fatter. Which means this unusual arrangement may be mutually beneficial. The birds get protection. And the alligators? They feast on any chicks that get kicked out of the nest, as well as on the rest of the extra-productive swamp life, fertilized by all that guano. The findings are in the journal PLoS ONE. [Lucas A. Nell et al, Presence of Breeding Birds Improves Body Condition for a Crocodilian Nest Protector]
结果是靠近鸟类殖民地的短吻鳄比远离的要胖13%。也就是说这一不寻常的布置是对双方都有益的。鸟类得到了保护。那短吻鳄呢？它们可以尽情的享受被踢出鸟巢的任何鸟，还有其他的由于所有鸟粪肥沃的湿地里多产的过剩生物。这一发现发表在公共科学图书馆期刊上。
There is one drawback for adult birds who stray too close to their bodyguard: Gators are not discriminating diners. "I liken it less to a bodyguard situation, more like keeping some psychopathic murderer in your yard, to keep out cat burglars.
成年鸟类过于靠近它们的保镖也有一个缺点：短吻鳄只管吃，不管是谁。“与其把这种情况比作雇佣保镖，我更愿意把它比作为了防止飞贼，就在院子里养了一些神经质的杀手。”
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