Humanity has spread to every corner of the globe.
人类的足迹已经遍布世界每一个角落。
We have become a force of nature. We have altered 80% of the land's surface.
扮演自然的角色,改变世界。人类改造了80%的地表。
Eight billion people now live on this planet, and we are changing the world around us at such speed that, for animals, the challenge is to keep up.
足有80亿人口生活在地球上,我们正以惊人的速度改变周遭世界,如此快速变化的世界给动物带来了严峻挑战。
New York City. Ants. This particular species is thought to have arrived here with the first European settlers.
纽约。蚂蚁。观点指出,这种蚂蚁随着第一批欧洲移民登上了这片大陆。
They are now known as pavement ants because they live almost exclusively in our towns and cities.
它们被称为辅道蚁,因为它们几乎只存在于人类城镇中。
And they're thriving because of junk food.
辅道蚁种群的旺盛得益于垃圾食物。
And here on Broadway Avenue, there's a lot of it. This is what every pavement ant desires.
在这里,百老汇大道上,到处都是辅道蚁。这正是辅道蚁梦寐以求的食物。
And to get it, the ants use the city's thousands of miles of underground tunnels.
为了得到它,辅道蚁利用了城市中数千里的地下隧道。
This scout is closing in on its target.
这只侦查蚁正接近目标。
But the animals with which they share the pavement are 40 million times their weight, so it's best to stay in the cracks.
走在同一条道路上的人类重量是辅道蚁的4000万倍,所以最好还是缩在裂缝中。
Jackpot! A meat mountain. This is too big a job for just one ant.
中了头奖!一座肉山。仅仅一只辅道蚁搬不走这么多。
This worker is female, as they are in all ant colonies, and she leaves a trail of pheromones to mark a path.
如同每只工蚁一样,这只工蚁是雌性,它通过信息素标记路径。
She communicates with every sister she meets as she returns to the nest, and news on the street spreads fast.
返回巢穴的路上,它把消息告诉给了每一个工蚁姐妹,这个消息很快便传开了。
This ultra-processed meat is very different from their original food. But their digestive system is the key to their success.
这种超加工肉和辅道蚁原本的食性完全不同。辅道蚁成功的关键在于消化系统。
It's able to keep up with the way humans constantly change their diet.
它们的消化系统能适应人类不断变化的饮食习惯。
Nowadays, the vast majority of what they eat comes from human food.
如今,辅道蚁的绝大多数食物都来自于人类。
On Broadway alone, pavement ants eat the equivalent of a staggering 60,000 hot dogs every year.
仅在百老汇大道上,辅道蚁每年吃掉的食物足足相当于6万根热狗。
The calories in a single hot dog could fuel the growth of the entire ant colony for a month, if only they can get it back to the nest.
一根热狗提供的卡路里,可以满足整个辅道蚁群一个月的需要,只要它们能把食物运回巢穴。
But this slow work makes them vulnerable.
然而这种慢功夫相当危险。
They aren't the only ones partial to fast food. It's a race to get their prize home.
辅道蚁不是唯一喜欢快餐的生物。因此它们必须尽快把战利品运回家。
There may be losses, but the colony as a whole will now thrive.
也许会有牺牲,但整个蚁群将得以壮大。
In fact, pavement ants are so successful here that they outnumber human New Yorkers 1,000 to 1.
事实上,在纽约,辅道蚁的生存策略非常成功,种群数量达到了纽约市民的一千倍。
But success in the human world can be harder to achieve if your reputation precedes you.
然而在人类世界中,声名狼藉的动物往往很难取得成功。