原来不止是传说——北极深海中的神奇生物

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人生天地间

忽如远行客

今天就带朋友们认识

一种深海潜行客——

独角鲸

29.35°N，106.33°E

地球某处

Fri. Dec. 8

The narwhal is among the more introverted of marine mammals.

独角鲸属于内向型的海洋哺乳动物。

It lives in polar regions where life is quiet.

它居住在生活平静的极地区域。

But the species is in for a rude awakening.

但这种生物正被粗鲁地打搅。

As climate change causes sea ice to shrink—and new waters open to human exploration—this single-tusked cetacean will likely be exposed to new noises and new threats.

随着气候变化导致海冰减少—新的水域被人类探索—这种独角的鲸类很可能会被曝露在新的噪声和威胁之中。

Now, a study suggests they might handle the stress poorly: They experience possibly one of the most physiologically extreme fright responses ever discovered.

如今，一项研究显示它们很难适应这种压力：它们在生理学上正承受着最为严重的恐惧反应。

瓦特？世界上真的有独角兽哦？！

Worldwide, there are an estimated 175,000 narwhals; yet because these whales are concentrated in northern waters between Greenland, Canada, and Russia, few people have ever seen them, save Canada’s Inuit.

全球范围类大约有175,000头独角鲸；然而因为这些鲸集中在格陵兰岛，加拿大和俄罗斯之间的北部海域，除了加拿大的因纽特人之外很少有人见过它们。

That includes scientists, who still know relatively little about the so-called unicorn of the sea.

这甚至包括科学家们，他们对这种所谓的海中独角兽也相对来说知之甚少。

Now that human interlopers are growing in number—a recent survey showed that ship traffic in a key summering area for narwhals near Canada jumped almost 300% from 2015 to 2016—researchers aren’t sure how narwhals will react.

现在人类闯入者的数量不断增加—一项最近的调查显示在加拿大附近的一处独角鲸的重要度夏区域，轮船航运量从2015年到2016年变为原来的300%—研究者们还不确定独角鲸们作何反应。

人家小角角戳你哦！

It’s not known whether chronic stress will harm the narwhals, but researchers are concerned.

还不清楚这种慢性压力是否会伤害独角鲸，但研究者们不无担心。

“The results are disturbing because they suggest narwhals aren’t physiologically equipped to sustain, in good health, repeated exposure to stressful events,” says Randall Reeves, a marine mammal expert in Hudson, Canada, who chairs the International Union for Conservation of Nature Species Survival Commission’s Cetacean Specialist Group.

加拿大哈德逊的海洋哺乳动物专家，也是自然物种生存联会鲸类专家组国际联合会的主席兰道里夫说，“结果很令人担忧，因为它们表明独角鲸从生理上并不能健康适应这种持续的反复曝露在压力事件中”。

“It makes me worry that narwhals are even more specialized than was previously thought, and that they are thus less resilient to rapid environmental change.”

“令我担心的是独角鲸比预想的更加独特，因此它们对环境的迅速变化会更不适应。”

”The findings reinforce the need for a cautious approach to develop in the arctic,” says Melanie Lancaster, a conservation biologist with the World Wildlife Fund’s Arctic Programme in Ottawa.

渥太华的国际野生物动物基金会北极项目的一位保育生物学家，梅兰妮.兰卡斯特说，“这些研究更加证实了开发北极需要尤为小心谨慎”。

不要让独角兽成为传说！

感谢关注跟amber一起看世界