文章轉載自  世紀君 21世紀英文報

狗狗也能和獅子、老虎一起玩耍嗎？原來，跨物種的友誼已經持續了幾個世紀。

 

Animals have been known to make friends with members of a different species. TUCHONG

Making new friends音頻：00:0003:03

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You may have recently seen a video from the Beijing Wildlife Zoo going viral. What exactly was so interesting about this video? It shows a dog playing with big cats four to five times its size! Many people might wonder if this dog has a death wish, but it seems that the dog and the big cats are good friends.

你最近或許看到過一段北京野生動物園的視頻爆紅網絡。這個視頻究竟有趣在哪里？視頻中，一只狗在和相當于它體型四、五倍大小的大型貓科動物玩耍！很多人可能會想，狗是不是在找死，但這只狗似乎和“大貓們”是好朋友。

 

The dog was actually raised alongside the lion and tiger cubs, making up an odd but loving family, according to zoo officials. If you think this is a bit too wild, just remember that cross-species friendship has been common for centuries. People have domesticated many animals, most notably cats and dogs, and formed bonds with them as pets. Perhaps you even have a pet yourself.

據動物園工作人員介紹，這只狗實際上是和獅子、老虎幼崽一起養大的，于是它們組成了一個奇特又有愛的家庭。如果你覺得這有點太瘋狂了，請記住，跨物種的友誼已經持續了幾個世紀。人類已經馴養了許多動物，最出名的便是貓和狗，人類將動物當作寵物，與其建立情感聯結。也許你自己都養著一只寵物呢。

 

There are many other instances of cross-species friendships in captivity.

圈養環境中，還有許多其他跨物種友誼的例子。

 

At an animal sanctuary in Santiago, Chile, a kitten named Marina and a piglet named Laura formed a friendship after they both came to the park. As neither animal had a mother, sanctuary staff said they instantly bonded when they met. Laura had been rescued from a slaughterhouse while Marina had been rescued from the street.

在智利圣地亞哥的一個動物保護區，一只名叫瑪麗娜的小貓和一只名叫勞拉的小豬在來到園區后建立了友誼。保護區工作人員說，這兩只動物都沒有母親，因此一見面就變得親密起來。勞拉是從屠宰場救出來的，而瑪麗娜是從街上救助的。

 

One possible explanation for these friendships is the environment of the zoo. Animals don’t hunt for their food and don’t need to worry about marking their territory or looking for mates in the way an animal in the wild would. “All those activities take time and energy, and if these needs are removed, the animals get bored,” Gordon Burghardt, a psychologist at the University of Tenessee, US, told The Atlantic magazine. “In this particular situation, the animal’s motivation to engage socially and playfully maybe higher in its need hierarchy than eating.”

對于這些友誼，一個可能的解釋是動物園的環境使然。動物不需要捕獵食物，也不需要像野生動物那樣擔心標記領地或尋找配偶。“所有這些活動都將耗費時間和精力，如果動物們不需要操心這些需求，就會感到無聊。”美國田納西大學心理學家戈登·伯格哈特在接受《大西洋月刊》采訪時表示，“在這種特殊情況下，動物們交朋友、玩耍的動機就可能處于比進食更高的需求層次。”

 

Marc Bekoff, former biology professor at the University of Colorado, US, told Slate magazine, “I think the choices animals make in cross-species relationships are the same as they’d make in same-species relationships. Some dogs don’t like every other dog. Animals are very selective about the other individuals who they let into their lives.”

美國科羅拉多大學前生物學教授馬克·貝科夫在接受《頁巖》雜志采訪時表示:“我認為動物在跨物種關系中做出的選擇和在同物種關系中做出的選擇一樣。有些狗不喜歡其他的狗。動物對進入其生活的其他個體非常挑剔。”

 

以上文章內容選自《21世紀學生英文報》高一861期

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