白猫头鹰利用月光向猎物灌输恐惧

白猫头鹰利用月光向猎物灌输恐惧

Imagine, if you will, that you're a rodent running a few late-night errands.

想象一下，如果你愿意的话，你是一只晚上要做几件事的啮齿动物。

Just a lone mouse in the moonlight.

只是月光下一只孤独的老鼠。

Or so you think.

至少你是这么认为的。

Suddenly, there's a slight stirring of air; the hair on your tail stands on end.

突然，有轻微的空气吹来;你尾巴上的毛竖了起来。

You turn — and behold, a white owl silhouetted in the moonlight.

你转过身来，看到一只白色猫头鹰的剪影映在月光下。

Photo: FJAH/Shutterstock

It's a sight to freeze anyone in their tracks — which, according to new research, is exactly the point for these masters of moonlight hunting.

这是一种让人驻足的景象——根据一项新的研究，这正是这些月光狩猎大师的目的所在。

White barn owls, a study published this month in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution suggests, may have evolved their unearthly plumage in order to instill terror in their prey.

本月发表在《自然生态与进化》(Nature Ecology & Evolution)杂志上的一项研究表明，谷仓里的白猫头鹰可能进化出了它们神秘的羽毛，以便向它们的猎物灌输恐惧。

The research team has been monitoring the same group of Swiss barn owls for more than two decades, tracking everything from their breeding patterns to hunting rituals. As they suspected, they found owls sporting darker plumages had trouble bringing home dinner on a moonlit night.

该研究小组对同一组瑞士仓鸮进行了20多年的监测，从它们的繁殖模式到狩猎仪式，什么都进行了追踪。正如他们所怀疑的那样，他们发现长着深色羽毛的猫头鹰很难在月光下带回晚餐。

Even with an owl's unique feather design, which allows them to fly in dead silence, that pesky moon still gives them away to prey.

即使猫头鹰有独特的羽毛设计，能让它们在死一般的寂静中飞行，那讨厌的月亮还是会把它们暴露给猎物。

But unlike their red-chested counterparts, white owls fared just as well on the hunt, moon or no moon.

但与红胸猫头鹰不同的是，无论有没有月亮，白猫头鹰在捕猎时都表现得很好。

Now, you might think that when hunting small, alert and very nervous animals at night, the last thing you want to do is wear white — under a full moon, no less.

现在，你可能会想，当你在晚上猎捕小的、警觉的、非常紧张的动物时，你最不愿意做的事情就是穿白色的衣服——至少在满月下是这样。

As the team noted, a small rodent's typical defense strategy is to freeze at the whiff of danger. Don't move. Don't breathe. Maybe it won't see you.

正如研究小组所指出的，小型啮齿动物的典型防御策略是一嗅到危险的气息就立刻停止活动。不要动。不要呼吸。也许它不会看到你。

"Curiously," the researchers wrote in The Conversation, "On full moon nights and only when facing a white owl instead of a red one, rodents stayed frozen for longer.

“奇怪的是，”研究人员在对话中写道，“在满月之夜，只有当面对一只白猫头鹰而不是一只红猫头鹰时，啮齿动物才会冻得更久。”

"We think voles behave that way when encountering a white owl because they're scared by bright light reflected from the white plumage."

“我们认为田鼠在遇到白猫头鹰时会表现出这种行为，因为它们害怕白色羽毛反射的强光。”

Just the sight of a white owl in moonlight caused voles to freeze in their tracks. (Photo: Ernie Janes/Shutterstock)

Barn animals are the most common of their kind, found in all parts of the world, In fact, they operate under no less than 22 aliases, including ghost owl, death owl and hissing owl. As if their names weren't scary enough, they don't even bother with the telltale owl hoot — preferring to make something closer to a long, drawn-out raspy scream.

谷仓里的动物是同类中最常见的，在世界各地都能找到，事实上，它们至少有22个别名，包括幽灵猫头鹰、死亡猫头鹰和嘶嘶叫的猫头鹰。似乎它们的名字还不够吓人，它们甚至不介意猫头鹰的叫声——它们更喜欢发出一种接近长时间刺耳尖叫的声音。

If there's just one part of the barn owl's body that hasn't evolved for the purpose of scaring the bejesus out of its prey, it's that face.

如果仓鸮的身体中只有一个部位没有进化到足以吓跑猎物的程度，那就是那张脸。

These owls happen to own some of the most adorable heart-shaped faces in the animal kingdom.

这些猫头鹰碰巧拥有动物王国里一些最可爱的心形脸。

Unless, of course, you see it up close and personal with a full moon at its back.

当然，除非你近距离看到它，而且它的背后有一轮满月。