评论
打印
Everybody knows that our canine best friends' senses far outstrip our puny human abilities. That's why Duke will start howling long before you hear a siren pass, and Princess knows if you've hidden a treat in your pocket. Not too long after the first wolves decided it might be smart to hang out with humans, humans began to figure out ways to put those canine senses to work.
大家都知道我们人类最好的朋友——狗的感官远远要比人类灵敏，这就是为什么小狗Duke在你听到警报声之前就开始嚎叫，以及为什么小狗Princess知道你的口袋里藏了食物。在第一次狼发现与人类闲逛挺不错的不久之后，人类就开始思考如何把这些犬科家伙的感官利用起来。
Dogs have helped people hunt for centuries. They've helped herd domestic animals. In more recent times, it's well know that dogs help police track down criminals and find illegal drugs and explosives. Dogs are brought in to find people who are trapped in disasters, and those keen noses also help dogs find cadavers. More recently, people have been finding ways to channel dogs' super senses in new ways. Sometimes, it's the dogs that teach us humans about their abilities. And it's not all about smelling and hearing. Some dogs have uncanny abilities to know what's going on with humans, emotionally as well as physically. Here are 10 examples of impressive doggy detection. Even longtime dog owners might be surprised by some of them. Or you might discover the reason behind your favorite dog's sometimes-quirky behavior.
几个世纪以来，狗在人类狩猎中起了很大的作用，它们能帮忙看护家禽。近年来，狗狗协助警察追捕罪犯并找到毒品和炸药的事已经妇孺皆知了。在灾害发生时，狗还被带去搜寻被困人群，它们敏锐的鼻子能够帮助人类找到遇难者。最近，人们一直在寻找新的方式将狗的超强感官用在新地方。有时，狗的能力还需要它们自己告诉人类，并且这些能力并不总是关于嗅觉和听觉的。一些狗甚至有着感知人类身心变化的异能。以下是10个令人印象深刻的狗狗侦查的例子。其中一些例子甚至能够让长期养狗的人感到惊讶，或许你也能在其中找到你最喜欢的狗有时做出古怪行为背后的原因。
10.Bee-killing Bacteria
10.杀死蜜蜂的细菌
Honeybees are vitally important, and not just for their honey — they're important pollinators of food crops. But in recent years, there's been a serious decline in the honeybee population. Among the biggest culprits are bacteria called American foulbrood.
蜜蜂的重要性并不仅仅是因为它们会酿制蜂蜜，而是因为它们还是粮食作物重要的传粉者。但近年来，蜜蜂的数量急剧减少，其中罪魁祸首便是一种叫美国幼虫病的细菌。
The bacteria's microscopic spores spread quickly from beehive to beehive, killing the bee larvae. The spores can survive for many years. Fortunately, if the bacteria are detected early enough, antibiotics can save the hive. For decades, many states have had bee inspectors on their payrolls in an effort to keep the bacteria under control. But inspecting beehives for bacteria is a time-consuming job for humans, who must open each bee colony to look for the infection. A human bee inspector might take a full day to inspect 50 beehives. Fortunately, with proper training, the same keen sense of smell that enables dogs to detect illegal drugs can be used to nose out the foulbrood bacteria. In the late 1970s, the state of Maryland started using dogs to help human inspectors. A well-trained dog can inspect as many as 100 beehives in less than an hour by sniffing. The canine inspector walks along rows of beehives, sniffing for the bacteria. If a dog smells the foulbrood, it sits in front of the hive to alert its handler. Of course, the job has its hazards: A bee sting can be painful for a dog's delicate nose. Fortunately, inspections can be made during the cool months when bees are less active.
这种细菌的微孢子通过蜂巢传播，造成蜜蜂幼虫死亡，而且这种孢子可以存活很多年。幸运的是，如果这种细菌能够在早期被检测到的话，使用抗生素便能挽救蜂巢。几十年来，许多国家为了控制住这种细菌，新增了蜜蜂督查员这个职位。但对于人类来说，检查蜂箱内的细菌是一个耗时的工作，因为蜜蜂督察员必须打开每一个蜂箱察看蜂群是否感染，而察看50个蜂箱可能就会花费一整天的时间。幸运的是，只要经过适当的训练，检测非法毒品的狗狗们同样也能够嗅出幼虫病细菌。在20世纪70年代末，人们开始利用狗来帮助蜜蜂督察员。一只训练有素的狗能够在不到一个小时的时间内检查100个蜂箱。这种狗沿着一排排的蜂箱工作，一旦嗅出幼虫病的味道，它们就会坐在感染的蜂箱面前，以此来警告自己的训导员。当然，这种工作也有它的缺陷：蜜蜂的蛰咬对狗狗们脆弱的鼻子是十分痛苦的。幸运的是，这种检查工作可以在凉爽的月份进行，而那时的蜜蜂不如其他月份活跃。
9.Creepy Crawlies
9.令人毛骨悚然的爬行动物
Humans don't have any trouble smelling an angry stinkbug. But insects with less noticeable odors often go undetected by humans until they've done their damage.
人类能够轻易的闻到一只臭椿的味道，但那些没有明显气味的昆虫却只有在对人类造成伤害后才会被发现。
Increasingly, pest-control companies rely on trained dogs to help them find termites and bedbugs, for example. In the case of termites, humans sometimes see the damage the pests have caused to a structure, but have trouble finding where the termites get in. That's when a termite-sniffing dog can save the day by finding the entry point as well as bugs and their eggs. As the bedbug problem grew in the U.S. early in this century, people turned to dogs for help against them. One problem with bedbugs is they are so tiny — about the size of an apple seed — that they can go unseen until they reproduce enough to become a problem. In urban areas, there's a growing demand for bedbug inspections in real-estate transactions. By 2010, a bedbug-sniffing beagle named Roscoe working for an environmental company in New Jersey had gained considerable fame, even appearing on network TV shows. But as the use of bedbug-sniffing dogs grew, so did controversy over their effectiveness, as reports came in about dogs raising false alarms. Research has shown that dogs can smell bedbugs and termites, but a lot depends on how well a dog has been trained and how good its handlers are. In the late 1990s, Jose Peruyero, a former police dog handler, began collaborating with entomologists at the University of Florida to improve training for bug-detecting dogs. The National Entomology Scent Detection Canine Association (NESDCA) has been formed to set standards for insect-snigging pooch programs, and some states are considering certification for pest-control dog teams.
近来，虫害控制公司越来越依靠训练狗狗帮助他们找到白蚁和臭虫。拿白蚁举例，人类能看到白蚁对建筑物造成的破坏，却很难找到白蚁是从哪儿来的。这个时候利用狗的嗅觉来寻找白蚁的源头便可节省不少时间，该方法同样适用于寻找臭虫以及虫卵。本世纪初，当臭虫问题在美国日益严重时，为了对付这些虫子，人们也向狗狗寻求帮助。但对付臭虫时遇到了一个问题，这些虫子太小了，只有苹果种子那么大。这样一来，它们很容易逃脱，直到繁衍地足够多时才会重新被发现。在市区，房地产交易行业对臭虫检查的需求越来越大。2010年，新泽西州一只专门为环保公司嗅臭虫的小猎狗罗斯科名气相当大，它甚至出现在网络电视节目上。但是，随着这种嗅臭虫的狗狗们逐渐出现在人们的视野，有关于它们工作能力的争议也随之而来，比如曾有报告说狗狗们提供过虚假警报。研究表明，狗狗们的确可以嗅到臭虫和白蚁，但这很大程度上取决于这只狗的训练效果和其训导员是否优秀。20世纪90年代末，一位前警犬训导员Jose Peruyero为了提高狗狗们嗅臭虫的能力，他开始与佛罗里达大学的昆虫学家合作。全国昆虫气味检测犬类协会已经为嗅昆虫的狗狗们设置了标准，一些国家也正在考虑为虫害防治的小狗团队们颁发证书。
8.Earthquakes
8.地震
Since ancient times, people have believed that dogs can sense earthquakes before they happen. Early Greek records describe dogs howling before an earthquake rocked the city of Helice in 373 B.C.E. In Japan and China, dogs and other animals are a vital part of the early warning system.
自古以来，人们就相信狗狗能预警地震。公元前373年，根据早期希腊记录描述，在海利斯城爆发地震之前狗狗曾拼命吠叫。在日本和中国，狗狗和其他动物是早期预警系统中至关重要的一部分。
Many modern skeptics discount the idea that dogs can tell when an earthquake is about to happen. Dogs don't have any extra-sensory perception or magical powers, they argue. Geophysicists at the U.S. Geological Survey have said that despite many anecdotes, they have not found a strong connection between specific dog or other animal behavior and earthquakes. But Stanley Coren, the author of many books about dog intelligence and behavior, suggests that the explanation for dogs' ability to sense earthquakes has nothing to do with anything supernatural — and everything to do with dogs' keen hearing. Coren's studies suggest that dogs can hear the movements of rocks underground that happen just before earthquakes. Dogs can hear sounds out of the range of human hearing, and they can hear sounds farther away than people can. Coren even found that dogs with floppy ears heard the seismic sounds before the earthquake less than did dogs with pricked ears. It's possible the skeptics are looking for the wrong evidence. Not every dog will react the same way when it senses an earthquake. Some bark or howl; others may pace or stay close to their people. People who are close to specific dogs are likely to know more about what their behaviors mean.
许多现代怀疑论者对狗狗可以判定地震何时发生的观点不予理睬。他们争论说狗狗没有任何超感官知觉或者超能力。美国地质勘探局(USGS)的地球物理学家称，虽然有许多奇闻轶事，但是他们还没有找到狗狗或者其他动物的特定行为与地震之间的关联。但是撰写多本介绍狗狗智商和行为书籍的作者Stanley Coren认为，狗狗感知地震的能力与任何超自然的现象无关，而是与狗狗敏锐的听力有关。Coren的研究表示狗狗能听到地震发生前地下岩石运动的声音。狗狗可以听到人类能听到的声波范围，同时它们也能听到比人类宽得多的声波范围。Coren甚至发现耷拉着耳朵的狗狗能听到的地震波比竖起耳朵的狗狗能听到的少。怀疑论者可能不停地在寻找证据。当地震发生的时候，并不是每一只狗狗的反应都一样。有一些会狂吠不止，有一些可能会来回走动或者紧紧地靠着它们的主人。只有与那些狗狗亲密接触的人才会更清楚地知道它们的行为意味着什么。
7.Weather brewing
7.天气变化
Many dog owners have no trouble believing that their pets can sense thunderstorms. It's all too common to be awakened at night by an anxious dog only to hear thunder half an hour later. Stories abound about distressed dogs alerting people that a tornado is coming. If your dog is trying to crawl under the couch, it may be time to take everybody to that interior room without windows.
许多狗狗的主人对于他们的宝贝宠物能预感暴风雨深信不疑。晚上在暴风雨即将到来的半小时前，主人被狂躁的狗狗叫醒实在是太常见了。很多故事中都有讲过，紧张的狗狗是如何提醒人们龙卷风来了。如果你的狗狗正试图爬到沙发下面,那么你最好带大家到没有窗户的室内房间去。
For those who know what to look for, dogs also may predict other changes in the weather, such as a snowfall or the approach of rain. With thunderstorms and tornadoes, a dog's keen hearing – about 20 times as good as ours – comes into play. There are also good, scientific explanations for why a dog can sense other changes in the weather. Dogs have much keener hearing than humans, of course, but their other sense are also sharper than ours. Before the weather changes, there are changes in barometric pressure and in the static electricity in the air. Some humans are somewhat sensitive to these changes – think people who get headaches when a low-pressure system is on the way. Dogs are even more so. And the sense of smell can come into play as well. Some people say they can smell rain in the air. What they smell is chemical changes in the air; dogs, with their more sensitive noses, smell the changes even more. And dogs can smell the ozone in the air created by the electricity in lightning – even lightning that we don't yet see. Research suggests that the more dogs experience weather changes, the more they learn about the signs they sense.
对于那些知道要寻找什么的狗狗,它们也可以预测其他天气的变化,比如降雪或者降雨。对于暴风雨和龙卷风,狗狗的听觉比我们灵敏20倍。当然啦，对于狗狗为什么可以感知天气变化所存在的科学解释是：狗狗有着比人类敏锐得多的听力,当然,它们其他的感观也比我们更加灵敏。在天气变化之前，空气中的气压和静电是有变化的。有些人对这种变化很敏感，认为一旦有人头疼那么低气压的天气就要来了。狗狗更是如此。而且这种感觉几乎是一刹那的。有人说它们可以闻到空气中雨的味道。其实它们闻到的是空气中化学物质的变化，狗狗用它们敏锐的鼻子可能感觉的更多。而且狗狗能嗅到闪电时空气中产生的臭氧——甚至我们都还没有看到闪电。研究表明，狗狗经历的天气变化越多，它们从感知到的迹象中学到的就越多。
6.Diabetic Attacks
6.糖尿病发病
People with insulin-dependent diabetes can suffer from dramatic swings in their levels of blood glucose. Often, they can't tell when they're about to have a severe drop in blood sugar that could cause them to collapse and even die. Sometimes, they aren't aware when their blood sugar has dropped to dangerous lows. Not knowing when or where they might experience dangerous drops in blood sugar can make it difficult for diabetic people to live full, active lives.
患有胰岛素依赖型糖尿病患者的血液中，血糖水平会有很大波动。通常，他们无法得知什么时候血糖急剧下降而导致他们晕倒甚至死亡。有的时候他们根本不知道血糖水平已经下降到了一个危险的数值。不知道何时何地血糖下降到危险水平让他们很难积极全身地投入到生活中。
Over the years, some diabetic people and those who work with them have noticed that dogs seem to be able to sense when blood-sugar levels are low, and sometimes even when those levels are about to drop dangerously. The answer seems to be that a dog's super-sensitive nose can smell chemical changes in a person's breath and skin that are caused by rapid changes in blood sugar levels. The dog's sense of smell acts much like the breath detector used to check drivers for alcohol in the blood, only it's more sensitive. It takes training to take advantage of this canine ability. Since 2004, an organization called Dogs for Diabetics (D4D) has been training medical assistance dogs specifically to detect dangerous blood-sugar changes. The dogs learn signals to alert their human companions, or the parents of children with diabetes. The training is expensive, and so are the assistance dogs. Not everyone with diabetes needs an assistance dog. They are most useful for people who have frequent and unpredictable drops in blood sugar. They can be a great help for parents monitoring young children, and for young adults leaving home for the first time.
多年以来,一些糖尿病人以及那些与他们一起工作的人注意到，狗狗可以感觉到他们什么时候血糖水平过低,甚至有的时候是血糖即将降到危险水平的时候。答案似乎是狗狗高度灵敏的鼻子可以闻到血糖变化从而引起呼吸和皮肤中化学物质的变化。狗狗的嗅觉行为就像用来检查司机血液中酒精的呼吸检测器,只是它更为敏感一些。要想利用狗狗的这项能力需要进行适当的训练。自从2004年起，一个叫做Dogs for Diabetics (D4D)的组织已经在训练医用服务犬，专门用来检测血糖变化。狗狗会学到如何提示患者的伴侣或者糖尿病儿童父母的信号。这项训练十分昂贵，服务犬价格也很贵。并不是每一位糖尿病患者都需要这样一只服务犬。它们对那些血糖水平变化频繁或者无法预测的患者更有帮助。当然对父母监测小宝宝以及对第一次离开家的青少年也能起到很大帮助。
审校：哎呀 编辑：JK 来源：前十网
