白鲸靠文化传承维系家庭纽带

A while ago, people used to believe that only humans can use tools — but Jane Goodall (and many researchers after her) showed that humans aren’t the only ones to do so. We’ve since found several species that build and use their own tools. Then, many thought that it’s our cultural and family ties that separate us from the animals. Lo and behold, that’s not true either. Several other species, including whales, have shown important cultural behaviors. This new study confirms that. Researchers have found that related whales returned to the same locations year after year, and decade after decade, passing the information from one generation to the next.

曾经，人们认为只有人类才会使用工具。后来，简·古道尔等许多研究人员发现，人类并非唯一的工具使用者，许多动物同样能够制造并使用工具。于是，许多人认为，文化和家庭纽带使人类区别于动物。唉，又错了。许多动物也表现出重要的文化行为，包括鲸鱼。

Researchers analyzed the structure of the beluga whale society, finding that migratory culture is inherited. Furthermore, this cultural inheritance maintains the family ties of beluga whales. This cultural legacy is so powerful that some travel as far as 6,000 kilometers each year.

最近，佛罗里达大西洋大学的研究人员分析了白鲸的社会结构，发现它们会传承迁徙文化——年复一年，十年复十年，具有血缘关系的白鲸总是返回同一个地方，将信息传给下一代。这种文化传承维系着白鲸的家庭纽带。它的影响力非常大，有些白鲸甚至每年跋涉6,000公里。

“What intrigued us most was whether particular whales returned to where they were born or grew up and if this was an inherited behavior,” said Greg O’Corry-Crowe, Ph.D., lead author and a research professor at FAU’s Harbor Branch. “The only way that we could definitively answer these questions was to find and track close relatives from one year to the next and one decade to the next.”

主要作者、研究教授Greg O’Corry-Crowe表示：

我们最感兴趣的问题是：鲸鱼会不会返回出生地或成长地?这是不是一种传承行为?确切回答这些问题的唯一方法是：年复一年、十年复十年地寻找、追踪它们的近亲。

Researchers also found that beluga whales exhibit an impressively broad range of vocal repertoires and acoustic systems which suggests that they form complex interpersonal relationships. They like to hang out in the thousands nearshore during the summer when the ice melts — which researchers call a whale’s version of an “icebreaker.”

研究人员还发现，白鲸具有复杂的声音体系。这意味着，它们形成了复杂的人际关系(鲸际关系)。在夏季，当冰块融化时，它们喜欢在近岸水域里消遣闲游——研究人员认为，这是鲸鱼的“破冰活动”。

Ultimately, researchers hope that this will not only enable us to better understand these surprisingly complex species but also devise better ways to protect them in the face of a changing environment — the polar regions, where the beluga whales live, are extremely vulnerable to climate change.

研究人员希望通过这项研究，更好地了解鲸鱼这种复杂动物，同时制定出更好的鲸鱼保护方案，以应对不断变化的环境。白鲸主要生活在极地区域，那里特别容易受到气候变化的影响。

“Findings from our study are expanding our understanding of how sophisticated non-primate societies can be and how important culture is for the survival of these species,” said O’Corry-Crowe. “Our findings also will influence our thinking in terms of how populations and species are going to adapt to dramatic environmental changes. There are few places where this is more urgent than in the rapidly changing polar regions.”

O’Corry-Crowe说：非灵长类动物的社会能有多复杂?文化对这些物种的生存能有多重要?我们的研究成果增进了人们对这两个问题的理解，同时影响了人们对“种群和物种如何适应环境变化”的思考。在环境迅速变化的极地区域，这个问题格外紧迫。

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