動物世界中那些吃掉同類的"殺人狂魔"(下)

5.貓

Life as a kitten sure is easy. A newborn kitten gets to play with yarn and nestle with its siblings, and it only occasionally has to worry about one of its parents eating it. Domestic cats are extremely common pets that live in households all over the world, but many don't realize that kittens are at a substantial risk for being eaten by older cats, even their parents. Cannibalism actually is the cause of 12.5 percent of all preweaned kitten deaths. If a mother senses that her kitten might be ill or is deformed in some way, she will immediately kill and eat it in order to save resources for other kittens and protect the others from possible diseases.

小貓的生活輕鬆有趣。新出生的小貓和毛線玩耍，愜意地依偎在兄弟姐妹身旁。它們偶爾纔會擔心被父母當中的一方吃掉。家貓是全世界家庭中最普通的寵物，但很多人並不知道小貓處在被老貓吃掉的極大危險中，即使它們是小貓的父母親。同類相食確實是12.5%未斷奶小貓的死因。如果貓媽媽察覺到小貓生病了或是某種程度上有殘疾，她會爲了節省口糧以及保護其他小貓免受疾病的傷害而毫不猶豫地吃掉它。

Even more disturbing, however, are the ways that male cats sometimes kill kittens. After giving birth, a female cat will sometimes have a surge in hormones that nearby toms may mistake for an invitation to mate. This causes them to become sexually aroused, but the female will obviously reject any advances because she isn't actually ready to mate yet. Since the male is already in a state of arousal and is slightly confused, he will try to mate with the kittens. When he figures out that the kittens are too small to mate with, he may bite their necks in disapproval, which can easily kill 's bad enough that kittens have to be wary of a strict mother, but it's even worse that they have to be on the watch for sexually overbearing and violent males. It's a tough life, being a kitten, even if you do get to be adorable all the time.

更令人震驚的是公貓殺死小貓的方式。分娩之後，母貓荷爾蒙分泌激增，周圍的公貓會誤以爲這是母貓發出的交配邀請，便會性奮起來，但顯然母貓會拒絕任何的求愛，因爲它們並沒有做好準備進行交配。這時公貓已經是半清醒的狀態了，它會試圖與小貓交配。當公貓覺得小貓太小而不能進行交配時，他會不以爲然地咬斷小貓的脖子，輕而易舉地殺死它們。對小貓而言，提防嚴酷的母親已經足夠不幸了，更糟糕的是還要提防性奮的霸道兇殘公貓。即使被那麼多人喜愛着，小貓生存仍然艱難。

4.狗

Eating your newborn children because you thought they were rats really is an honest mistake, and we can respect that. Dog lovers may be shocked to find that dogs would dare to kill and eat their own children, but it can happen for a number of reasons. Similarly to mother cats, they might do this if they sense that a puppy is sick or deformed, or if they feel nervous or stressed after giving birth. An imbalance of hormones in the mother might also cause her to neglect her children or cause depression, and this may lead to the mother killing her entire litter.

吃掉被自己誤認爲是老鼠的新生幼犬確實是無心之過。我們理解這種過失。狗狗愛好者也許會震驚地發現狗居然會殺死並吃掉自己的孩子，但出現這種情況有很多原因。類似貓媽媽，如果狗媽媽察覺到小狗生病或是有殘疾，或是產後感到緊張、焦慮不安，它們也會做出同樣殘忍的事來。荷爾蒙失調也會導致貓媽媽忽視幼犬或者引發抑鬱症。這些因素都可能會導致貓媽媽殺死自己全部的幼犬。

What's really strange, though, is that mothers sometimes eat their puppies simply because they don't recognize them. In fact, some mothers mistake their newborn puppies for rodents because of their fitful movements and squealing. Puppies are some of the most adored and coddled creatures in the world, but moody or memory-challenged mothers might not be so endeared.

然而真正奇怪的是，有時母狗吃掉自己的孩子僅僅是因爲它們認不出。事實上，一些狗媽媽由於小狗斷斷續續的運動和號叫而將其誤認爲老鼠。小狗是世界上最令人鍾愛和寵溺的生物，但是喜怒無常、記憶糟糕的狗媽媽恐怕就就沒那麼討人喜愛了。

rpillars

3.毛毛蟲

Becoming a butterfly takes a lot of hard work and energy, so devouring undeveloped siblings for a nutritional boost certainly isn't out of the question for caterpillars. These familiar little bugs love to happily munch away until they eventually go through the stages of becoming beautiful butterflies. Caterpillars can become dangerous, however, when their case of the munchies gets a little out of hand. Even if they haven't run out of their customary plants to eat, caterpillars have been known to eat butterfly eggs.

蛻變爲蝴蝶需要付出極大努力。因此對毛毛蟲來講，吞食未成形的兄弟姐妹用來提高營養完全是有可能的。這種常見的小蟲子喜歡用力咀嚼直到它們最終破繭成蝶。然而，一旦它們的小點心馬上吃完時，毛毛蟲就會變得十分危險。即使常食植物沒有吃完，毛毛蟲本能驅使也會去吞食蝴蝶卵。

Cannibalism can help caterpillars in two ways. First, it weeds out the competition so that caterpillars in close proximity don't have to fight for food. Second, eating the eggs of your own species has significant nutritional benefits for caterpillars. For example, one species of moth caterpillar can find pyrrolizidine alkaloid—an important defensive agent—in eggs of other moth caterpillars if they need more of it in their system. So really, there aren't many disadvantages to blatant cannibalism when you're a caterpillar. If eating your fellow unborn kind helps to become a magnificent butterfly, then why not try it?

同類相食的行爲在兩個方面可以幫助到毛毛蟲。第一，避免了惡性競爭，所以鄰近的毛毛蟲也不用互相爭奪食物了。第二，吞食自己本物種的卵對毛毛蟲有極大營養。例如，在一種飛蛾幼蟲體內可以發現吡啶生物鹼—— 一位重要的防禦代理人——如果其他種類幼蟲在自身系統中需要更多這種物質的話。所以，當你是隻毛毛蟲時，就不能公然地說同類相食的諸多弊端。如果吞食你未成形的同伴可以助你蛻變爲華麗的蝴蝶，那爲何不試試呢？

ters

2.倉鼠

Hamsters may be some of the cutest rodents alive, but that doesn't stop them from acting murderously every once in a while. While other animals may cannibalize with generally good intentions or simply by misunderstanding, hamsters can be pretty selfish in their motives for murder.

倉鼠大概是最可愛的齧齒動物了。但這並不能阻止它們時常的兇殘行爲。其他動物進行同類相食可能有好的動機或僅僅是誤解使然。但倉鼠實施謀殺的目的相當自私。

Hamsters are very territorial, so some will kill and eat anyone that dares to live in the same cage. And of course, as in many other cases, mothers will often eat their young. This is extremely common in hamsters. One study showed that over 75 percent of hamster mothers ate part of their litters fairly soon after giving birth, and another survey showed that cannibalism accounted for 97.5 percent of all preweaned hamster deaths. Hamster mothers will do this in order to conserve resources because they know how many babies they can actually take care of, a number often smaller than the number of baby hamsters in a litter. As a plus, the eaten babies provide extra protein for her in a taxing time of nursing. But hamsters don't cannibalize just any random baby. No, they're far more selective. Studies show that hamsters actually prefer to eat their female babies instead of the males. It's a strange thing for a mother hamster to practice apparent misogyny, but perhaps she does this because she thinks males have a better chance of surviving. Either way, it's pretty disturbing to think of these tiny fluff balls gleefully slaughtering their children and roommates.

倉鼠非常有地盤意識。因此一些倉鼠會吃掉膽敢和它們待在同一個籠子裏的夥伴。當然，像其他大多數情況一樣，母親通常會吃掉自己的孩子。這在倉鼠的世界裏也極其普通。一項研究指出，超過75%的倉鼠媽媽會在分娩後立即吃掉部分幼崽。還有一份調查報告指出，同類相食導致97.5%未斷奶的倉鼠幼崽死亡。倉鼠媽媽這樣做是爲了儲存資源，因爲它們知道自己實際能照料多少幼崽。而這個數字通常小於倉鼠幼崽的總量。好處是，被吃掉的倉鼠幼崽爲倉鼠媽媽在辛苦養育期間提供了多餘的蛋白質。但倉鼠並不是噬食任意一隻幼崽的，它們有很大的選擇性。研究表明，倉鼠更喜歡吞食自己的雌性寶寶而不是雄性寶寶。倉鼠媽媽表現出的厭女症很奇怪，不過可能是它覺得雄性寶寶有更好的生存機會。不管怎樣，一想到這些絨毛小球一樣的可愛動物愉快地殺戮自己的孩子和室友，就令人感到毛骨悚然。

bugs

1.瓢蟲

None of us want to believe that ladybugs could possibly belong on this list, or that these itty bitty insects would ever try to hurt anything. The cold, hard truth is that they do practice cannibalism, and that they are rewarded for doing so. One study found that ladybugs that eat other ladybugs have higher chances of survival and develop more quickly. There's also a benefit in eating others that have eaten better food, as the superior nutrition gets passed on to the murderous ladybug.

沒有人願意相信瓢蟲會有可能出現在這份名單上，或是這些小昆蟲想要去傷害什麼。然而冷酷的真相就是，它們確實進行同類相食，還因此得到好處。一項研究發現，吞食其他同伴的瓢蟲有更高的生存機會，並會迅速成長。吃掉同類還有一個好處是攝入了更好的食物，殘忍的瓢蟲噬食者得到了最大的營養。

Even more disturbingly, these cannibals like to prey on the weak. The most vulnerable targets tend to be ladybugs that can't move or have a soft exoskeleton because of the growth stage they are in. They also tend to be more cannibalistic when far from home. If ladybugs aren't in their natural habitat and are invading new lands, then they are much more likely to eat other ladybugs instead of sticking to their normal diets. Next time someone picks up one of these pretty little bugs again, feel free to give them a friendly reminder that it might be in the process of digesting one of its little friends.

然而更令人震驚的是，這些同類相食的瓢蟲喜歡捕食弱者。最易受到攻擊的目標是那些不能活動、或是目前生長期內只有軟軟甲殼的瓢蟲。遠離家時，瓢蟲的同類相食行爲變本加厲。如果瓢蟲沒有待在自然棲息地，而是侵入到新領地，那麼它們更有可能吃掉其它瓢蟲來代替正常食譜。下次某人再次撿起一隻這種小蟲子時，記得友情提醒下:說不定它正處在消化自己朋友的過程中。

翻譯:murphy 來源:前十網