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科学美国人60秒:毛毛虫也会叫 而且还是种恐吓战术

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This is Scientific American — 60-Second Science. I'm Christopher Intagliata.
Songbirds produce a rich repertoire of sounds: songs, of course, but also chatter calls, flight calls and alarm calls: like this high-pitched warning from a black-capped chickadee: <>. But chickadees aren't the only ones endowed with chirping abilities. Turns out a certain type of caterpillar can, too. <> Once again, the bird, then the caterpillar. <> Sounds pretty darn similar.
" Yeah it's pretty crazy." Jessica Lindsay is a biologist at the University of Washington. She says this species, the North American walnut sphinx caterpillar, makes the sound using tiny pairs of breathing holes, called spiracles. "They compress themselves lengthwise like an accordion and so that compression pushes air out of the spiracles, making whistling sounds."
A cool coincidence, for sure. But here's where it gets interesting. Lindsay then played the caterpillar whistle through a speaker near a bird feeder. And the birds—of many different species—dove for cover. "Sometimes we'd see nuthatches flicking their wings, which is a big sign of distress for them. Sometimes it would take a really long time to return to feeding, which is a big indicator that they were taking that whistling noise pretty seriously."

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And whereas the birds were unperturbed by the song of a house finch—a control sound—they responded to the caterpillar whistles with almost the same urgency as when they heard that real alarm call <> from a chickadee. Suggesting the caterpillars... are onto something. "They're basically using bird speak to say that there's a dangerous predator in the area and that the birds better get into cover."
Lindsay presented the results at the International Symposium on Acoustic Communication by Animals in Omaha.
Previous work suggests the caterpillars whistle when pecked at by birds. And they sometimes squeal, too: <> Suggesting they may have more than one scare tactic, to worm their way out of trouble.
Thanks for listening for Scientific American — 60-Second Science Science. I'm Christopher Intagliata.

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重点单词   查看全部解释    
species ['spi:ʃiz]

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n. (单复同)物种,种类

 
compress [kəm'pres]

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vt. 压缩,压榨
n. [医]敷布

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repertoire ['repətwɑ:]

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n. (准备好演出的)节目,保留剧目,(计算机的)指令表

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coincidence [kəu'insidəns]

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n. 巧合,同时发生

 
predator ['predətə]

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n. 食肉动物,掠夺者

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communication [kə.mju:ni'keiʃn]

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n. 沟通,交流,通讯,传达,通信

 
compression [kəm'preʃ(ə)n]

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n. 压缩,浓缩,压紧

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caterpillar ['kætə.pilə]

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n. 毛虫 卡特彼勒(财富500强公司之一,总部所在地美

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worm [wə:m]

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n. 虫,蠕虫
v. 蠕动,驱虫,慢慢探听出

 
chatter ['tʃætə]

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n. 饶舌,啁啾,喋喋不休地谈,(小溪的)潺潺流水声,(

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