Small-Brained Birds More Likely to Get Shot
小脑鸟类更易中弹

Using taxidermy data, biologists determined that gun-killed birds have smaller brains than birds that died in other ways. Christopher Intagliata reports.
通过使用标本数据，生物学家确定，被枪杀鸟类的大脑比以其他方式死亡的鸟类的大脑更小。克里斯托弗·因塔利亚塔（Christopher Intagliata）报道。

撰文/播音：克里斯托弗·因塔利亚塔
翻译：杨枭
审校：丁可含

The old expression “bird brain,” referring to a small or inadequate brain size—it’s not all that accurate. Take crows, for example, and other corvids, like jays and magpies. “Many corvids have relatively large brains for their body size, and can do amazing things.” Anders M?ller, an evolutionary biologist at the French National Science Research Council. “So this ‘bird brain’ expression is a little bit simplified.” Some birds are so intelligent that they’re informally referred to as “primates with feathers.”
老话说 “鸟脑袋（没头脑的人）”是指大脑尺寸小或不足——但这个说法并非那样准确。乌鸦就是一个反例，或是诸如松鸦、喜鹊等其他鸦科鸟类。安德斯·默勒（Anders M?ller）是法国国家科学研究中心的进化生物学家，他说：“许多鸦科鸟类拥有相对它们身体尺寸较大的大脑，可以做到令人惊奇的事情。因此这个‘鸟脑袋’的说法有点过于简化了。” 有些鸟是如此聪明，以至于会被非通俗地称为“有羽毛的灵长类动物。”

But even among the smartest bird species, there’s still natural variation in brain size. Which is a big deal—when it comes to being hunted. M?ller worked with a taxidermy shop in Denmark, which had data on nearly 4000 birds brought in to be stuffed since 1960. A lot of the birds were just found dead—hit a window or wire—and people picked them up. But 300 of the specimens had been hunted.
但即使在最聪明的鸟类样本间，脑尺寸也仍然存在自然差异。当谈到被猎捕时，这就成了一个大问题。在丹麦，默勒和一家标本商店合作，这家店装满了自1960年来的近4000只鸟类。许多鸟只是被发现撞死在窗户或电线上后被人捡走。但样本中仍有300只是被猎杀的。

So M?ller’s team then compared the brain sizes of birds that got shot to those that didn’t. They controlled for the birds’ age, sex, body size, and species. And they found that the hunted specimens’ brains were actually five percent smaller, on average, than the brains of birds that died by other means. “The surprising thing is that, if you make a similar kind of analysis of liver or heart size, there is absolutely no difference there. So this is specific to the brain.” The results are in the journal Biology Letters. [Anders Pape M?ller and Johannes Erritz?e, Brain size and the risk of getting shot]
因此，默勒的团队比较了中枪与未中枪鸟类的大脑尺寸。他们控制了鸟的年龄、性别、身体大小和物种几个变量，发现被猎杀的鸟的大脑平均要比其他方式死亡的鸟的大脑小百分之五。“令人惊奇的是，如果你对肝脏或是心脏尺寸做类似的分析，显然是没有这样的区别的。这只针对大脑。”该结果发表在了Biology Letters期刊上。

The researchers assume that individuals with larger brains had what they called “superior escape ability.” That is, they were better at not getting shot.
研究者设想，有更大大脑的鸟拥有“超强逃跑能力”。更确切地说，它们更擅长不被射中。

As game season begins, M?ller has this observation for hunters: “When you are sitting at the dinner table and eating the duck that you managed to shoot, with all likelihood it’s one with a disproportionately small brain.” Most certainly food for thought.
随着游戏赛季的到来，默勒对猎人说：“当你坐在晚餐桌前享用你成功猎捕的鸭子时，它很可能有不成比例的小脑袋。”这绝对发人深思。

原文链接：
https://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/small-brained-birds-more-likely-to-get-shot/

（题图来源：http://www.scientificamerican.com）