神奇的汪星人能感知到的10件事(上)

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.

大家都知道我們人類最好的朋友——狗的感官遠遠要比人類靈敏，這就是爲什麼小狗Duke在你聽到警報聲之前就開始嚎叫，以及爲什麼小狗Princess知道你的口袋裏藏了食物。在第一次狼發現與人類閒逛挺不錯的不久之後，人類就開始思考如何把這些犬科傢伙的感官利用起來。

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.

幾個世紀以來，狗在人類狩獵中起了很大的作用，它們能幫忙看護家禽。近年來，狗狗協助警察追捕罪犯並找到毒品和炸藥的事已經婦孺皆知了。在災害發生時，狗還被帶去搜尋被困人羣，它們敏銳的鼻子能夠幫助人類找到遇難者。最近，人們一直在尋找新的方式將狗的超強感官用在新地方。有時，狗的能力還需要它們自己告訴人類，並且這些能力並不總是關於嗅覺和聽覺的。一些狗甚至有着感知人類身心變化的異能。以下是10個令人印象深刻的狗狗偵查的例子。其中一些例子甚至能夠讓長期養狗的人感到驚訝，或許你也能在其中找到你最喜歡的狗有時做出古怪行爲背後的原因。

-killing Bacteria

10.殺死蜜蜂的細菌

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.

蜜蜂的重要性並不僅僅是因爲它們會釀製蜂蜜，而是因爲它們還是糧食作物重要的傳粉者。但近年來，蜜蜂的數量急劇減少，其中罪魁禍首便是一種叫美國幼蟲病的細菌。

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.

這種細菌的微孢子通過蜂巢傳播，造成蜜蜂幼蟲死亡，而且這種孢子可以存活很多年。幸運的是，如果這種細菌能夠在早期被檢測到的話，使用抗生素便能挽救蜂巢。幾十年來，許多國家爲了控制住這種細菌，新增了蜜蜂督查員這個職位。但對於人類來說，檢查蜂箱內的細菌是一個耗時的工作，因爲蜜蜂督察員必須打開每一個蜂箱察看蜂羣是否感染，而察看50個蜂箱可能就會花費一整天的時間。幸運的是，只要經過適當的訓練，檢測非法毒品的狗狗們同樣也能夠嗅出幼蟲病細菌。在20世紀70年代末，人們開始利用狗來幫助蜜蜂督察員。一隻訓練有素的狗能夠在不到一個小時的時間內檢查100個蜂箱。這種狗沿着一排排的蜂箱工作，一旦嗅出幼蟲病的味道，它們就會坐在感染的蜂箱面前，以此來警告自己的訓導員。當然，這種工作也有它的缺陷：蜜蜂的蟄咬對狗狗們脆弱的鼻子是十分痛苦的。幸運的是，這種檢查工作可以在涼爽的月份進行，而那時的蜜蜂不如其他月份活躍。

py Crawlies

9.令人毛骨悚然的爬行動物

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.

人類能夠輕易的聞到一隻臭椿的味道，但那些沒有明顯氣味的昆蟲卻只有在對人類造成傷害後纔會被發現。

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.

近來，蟲害控制公司越來越依靠訓練狗狗幫助他們找到白蟻和臭蟲。拿白蟻舉例，人類能看到白蟻對建築物造成的破壞，卻很難找到白蟻是從哪兒來的。這個時候利用狗的嗅覺來尋找白蟻的源頭便可節省不少時間，該方法同樣適用於尋找臭蟲以及蟲卵。本世紀初，當臭蟲問題在美國日益嚴重時，爲了對付這些蟲子，人們也向狗狗尋求幫助。但對付臭蟲時遇到了一個問題，這些蟲子太小了，只有蘋果種子那麼大。這樣一來，它們很容易逃脫，直到繁衍地足夠多時纔會重新被發現。在市區，房地產交易行業對臭蟲檢查的需求越來越大。2010年，新澤西州一隻專門爲環保公司嗅臭蟲的小獵狗羅斯科名氣相當大，它甚至出現在網絡電視節目上。但是，隨着這種嗅臭蟲的狗狗們逐漸出現在人們的視野，有關於它們工作能力的爭議也隨之而來，比如曾有報告說狗狗們提供過虛假警報。研究表明，狗狗們的確可以嗅到臭蟲和白蟻，但這很大程度上取決於這隻狗的訓練效果和其訓導員是否優秀。20世紀90年代末，一位前警犬訓導員Jose Peruyero爲了提高狗狗們嗅臭蟲的能力，他開始與佛羅里達大學的昆蟲學家合作。全國昆蟲氣味檢測犬類協會已經爲嗅昆蟲的狗狗們設置了標準，一些國家也正在考慮爲蟲害防治的小狗團隊們頒發證書。

hquakes

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.

自古以來，人們就相信狗狗能預警地震。公元前373年，根據早期希臘記錄描述，在海利斯城爆發地震之前狗狗曾拼命吠叫。在日本和中國，狗狗和其他動物是早期預警系統中至關重要的一部分。

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.

許多現代懷疑論者對狗狗可以判定地震何時發生的觀點不予理睬。他們爭論說狗狗沒有任何超感官知覺或者超能力。美國地質勘探局(USGS)的地球物理學家稱，雖然有許多奇聞軼事，但是他們還沒有找到狗狗或者其他動物的特定行爲與地震之間的關聯。但是撰寫多本介紹狗狗智商和行爲書籍的作者Stanley Coren認爲，狗狗感知地震的能力與任何超自然的現象無關，而是與狗狗敏銳的聽力有關。Coren的研究表示狗狗能聽到地震發生前地下岩石運動的聲音。狗狗可以聽到人類能聽到的聲波範圍，同時它們也能聽到比人類寬得多的聲波範圍。Coren甚至發現耷拉着耳朵的狗狗能聽到的地震波比豎起耳朵的狗狗能聽到的少。懷疑論者可能不停地在尋找證據。當地震發生的時候，並不是每一隻狗狗的反應都一樣。有一些會狂吠不止，有一些可能會來回走動或者緊緊地靠着它們的主人。只有與那些狗狗親密接觸的人才會更清楚地知道它們的行爲意味着什麼。

her brewing

7.天氣變化

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.

許多狗狗的主人對於他們的寶貝寵物能預感暴風雨深信不疑。晚上在暴風雨即將到來的半小時前，主人被狂躁的狗狗叫醒實在是太常見了。很多故事中都有講過，緊張的狗狗是如何提醒人們龍捲風來了。如果你的狗狗正試圖爬到沙發下面,那麼你最好帶大家到沒有窗戶的室內房間去。

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.

對於那些知道要尋找什麼的狗狗,它們也可以預測其他天氣的變化,比如降雪或者降雨。對於暴風雨和龍捲風,狗狗的聽覺比我們靈敏20倍。當然啦，對於狗狗爲什麼可以感知天氣變化所存在的科學解釋是：狗狗有着比人類敏銳得多的聽力,當然,它們其他的感觀也比我們更加靈敏。在天氣變化之前，空氣中的氣壓和靜電是有變化的。有些人對這種變化很敏感，認爲一旦有人頭疼那麼低氣壓的天氣就要來了。狗狗更是如此。而且這種感覺幾乎是一剎那的。有人說它們可以聞到空氣中雨的味道。其實它們聞到的是空氣中化學物質的變化，狗狗用它們敏銳的鼻子可能感覺的更多。而且狗狗能嗅到閃電時空氣中產生的臭氧——甚至我們都還沒有看到閃電。研究表明，狗狗經歷的天氣變化越多，它們從感知到的跡象中學到的就越多。

etic Attacks

6.糖尿病發病

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.

患有胰島素依賴型糖尿病患者的血液中，血糖水平會有很大波動。通常，他們無法得知什麼時候血糖急劇下降而導致他們暈倒甚至死亡。有的時候他們根本不知道血糖水平已經下降到了一個危險的數值。不知道何時何地血糖下降到危險水平讓他們很難積極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.

多年以來,一些糖尿病人以及那些與他們一起工作的人注意到，狗狗可以感覺到他們什麼時候血糖水平過低,甚至有的時候是血糖即將降到危險水平的時候。答案似乎是狗狗高度靈敏的鼻子可以聞到血糖變化從而引起呼吸和皮膚中化學物質的變化。狗狗的嗅覺行爲就像用來檢查司機血液中酒精的呼吸檢測器,只是它更爲敏感一些。要想利用狗狗的這項能力需要進行適當的訓練。自從2004年起，一個叫做Dogs for Diabetics (D4D)的組織已經在訓練醫用服務犬，專門用來檢測血糖變化。狗狗會學到如何提示患者的伴侶或者糖尿病兒童父母的信號。這項訓練十分昂貴，服務犬價格也很貴。並不是每一位糖尿病患者都需要這樣一隻服務犬。它們對那些血糖水平變化頻繁或者無法預測的患者更有幫助。當然對父母監測小寶寶以及對第一次離開家的青少年也能起到很大幫助。

審校：哎呀 編輯：JK 來源：前十網