科学美国人（翻译）：熊猫痴迷于特别的低声呻吟声 2018.10.26

Pandas Swoon to Particular Croons

熊猫痴迷于特别的低声呻吟声

If you're a giant panda, this sound <CLIP: Panda Bleat 1> means romance."I wouldn't call it a romantic serenade <laughter>" Megan Owen, a conservation biologist at the San Diego Zoo’s Institute for Conservation Research. "There's nothing soft or demure about it." And yet: that sound, called a bleat, "that's B-L-E-A-T, just like a goat" signals that a panda couple has hit it off, and copulation is nigh. 

假如你是一只大熊猫，这个声响意思是浪漫。“我不认为这是一首浪漫的小夜曲”梅根·欧文，圣地亚哥动物园自然保护研讨所的生物学家。“这没什么温顺或正经的。”但是，那被称为“咩咩叫”的声响，“那是B-L-E-A-T，就像一只山羊”，这是一对熊猫配偶相恋的信号，而交配也就近在咫尺。

Owen and her colleagues analyzed more than 2,500 panda sounds recorded during breeding introductions, and analyzed the audio’s acoustic qualities. Their study, in the journal Royal Society Open Science, is a sort of how-to guide for panda breeders, cataloguing the various vocal characteristics of a blind date: an uninterested roar <CLIP: roar> or bark <CLIP: bark>; a more ambiguous chirp <CLIP: chirp>; or an amorous bleat. <CLIP: Panda Bleat 1> [Benjamin D. Charlton et al., Vocal behaviour predicts mating success in giant pandas]

欧文和她的搭档剖析了2500多只大熊猫，在繁育过程中记录下来的声响，并剖析了这些声响的音质。他们的研讨宣布在《皇家学会敞开科学》杂志上，是给熊猫养殖者供给的一种辅导办法，对相亲目标的各种声响特征进行分类:不感兴趣的吼声;一个比较含糊的啁啾;或许是多情的啜泣。

Decoding the sounds could be important not just for boosting panda numbers, Owen says, but for avoiding very bad dates. "These are bears and they have sharp teeth and claws and they can do a lot of damage to one another if they don't want to be around each other."And these fine-tuned communication skills also make the case that the social lives of pandas are anything but black and white.

欧文说，解码这些声响，或许不仅对前进熊猫的数量很重要，对防止糟糕的约会也很重要。“这些是熊，它们有尖利的牙齿和爪子，假如它们不想待在一同，它们会对互相形成很大损伤。”而这些精心调整的交流技巧，也证明了熊猫的社交生活绝不是一清二楚的。

—Christopher Intagliata

—来自Christopher Intagliata