5.猫
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.
小猫的生活轻松有趣。新出生的小猫和毛线玩耍，惬意地依偎在兄弟姐妹身旁。它们偶尔才会担心被父母当中的一方吃掉。家猫是全世界家庭中最普通的宠物，但很多人并不知道小猫处在被老猫吃掉的极大危险中，即使它们是小猫的父母亲。同类相食确实是12.5%未断奶小猫的死因。如果猫妈妈察觉到小猫生病了或是某种程度上有残疾，她会为了节省口粮以及保护其他小猫免受疾病的伤害而毫不犹豫地吃掉它。
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 them.It'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.
更令人震惊的是公猫杀死小猫的方式。分娩之后，母猫荷尔蒙分泌激增，周围的公猫会误以为这是母猫发出的交配邀请，便会性奋起来，但显然母猫会拒绝任何的求爱，因为它们并没有做好准备进行交配。这时公猫已经是半清醒的状态了，它会试图与小猫交配。当公猫觉得小猫太小而不能进行交配时，他会不以为然地咬断小猫的脖子，轻而易举地杀死它们。对小猫而言，提防严酷的母亲已经足够不幸了，更糟糕的是还要提防性奋的霸道凶残公猫。即使被那么多人喜爱着，小猫生存仍然艰难。
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.
吃掉被自己误认为是老鼠的新生幼犬确实是无心之过。我们理解这种过失。狗狗爱好者也许会震惊地发现狗居然会杀死并吃掉自己的孩子，但出现这种情况有很多原因。类似猫妈妈，如果狗妈妈察觉到小狗生病或是有残疾，或是产后感到紧张、焦虑不安，它们也会做出同样残忍的事来。荷尔蒙失调也会导致猫妈妈忽视幼犬或者引发抑郁症。这些因素都可能会导致猫妈妈杀死自己全部的幼犬。
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，有时母狗吃掉自己的孩子仅仅是因为它们认不出。事实上，一些狗妈妈由于小狗断断续续的运动和号叫而将其误认为老鼠。小狗是世界上最令人钟爱和宠溺的生物，但是喜怒无常、记忆糟糕的狗妈妈恐怕就就没那么讨人喜爱了。
3.毛毛虫
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.
蜕变为蝴蝶需要付出极大努力。因此对毛毛虫来讲，吞食未成形的兄弟姐妹用来提高营养完全是有可能的。这种常见的小虫子喜欢用力咀嚼直到它们最终破茧成蝶。然而，一旦它们的小点心马上吃完时，毛毛虫就会变得十分危险。即使常食植物没有吃完，毛毛虫本能驱使也会去吞食蝴蝶卵。
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?
同类相食的行为在两个方面可以帮助到毛毛虫。第一，避免了恶性竞争，所以邻近的毛毛虫也不用互相争夺食物了。第二，吞食自己本物种的卵对毛毛虫有极大营养。例如，在一种飞蛾幼虫体内可以发现吡啶生物碱—— 一位重要的防御代理人——如果其他种类幼虫在自身系统中需要更多这种物质的话。所以，当你是只毛毛虫时，就不能公然地说同类相食的诸多弊端。如果吞食你未成形的同伴可以助你蜕变为华丽的蝴蝶，那为何不试试呢？
2.仓鼠
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.
仓鼠大概是最可爱的啮齿动物了。但这并不能阻止它们时常的凶残行为。其他动物进行同类相食可能有好的动机或仅仅是误解使然。但仓鼠实施谋杀的目的相当自私。
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.
仓鼠非常有地盘意识。因此一些仓鼠会吃掉胆敢和它们待在同一个笼子里的伙伴。当然，像其他大多数情况一样，母亲通常会吃掉自己的孩子。这在仓鼠的世界里也极其普通。一项研究指出，超过75%的仓鼠妈妈会在分娩后立即吃掉部分幼崽。还有一份调查报告指出，同类相食导致97.5%未断奶的仓鼠幼崽死亡。仓鼠妈妈这样做是为了储存资源，因为它们知道自己实际能照料多少幼崽。而这个数字通常小于仓鼠幼崽的总量。好处是，被吃掉的仓鼠幼崽为仓鼠妈妈在辛苦养育期间提供了多余的蛋白质。但仓鼠并不是噬食任意一只幼崽的，它们有很大的选择性。研究表明，仓鼠更喜欢吞食自己的雌性宝宝而不是雄性宝宝。仓鼠妈妈表现出的厌女症很奇怪，不过可能是它觉得雄性宝宝有更好的生存机会。不管怎样，一想到这些绒毛小球一样的可爱动物愉快地杀戮自己的孩子和室友，就令人感到毛骨悚然。
1.瓢虫
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.
没有人愿意相信瓢虫会有可能出现在这份名单上，或是这些小昆虫想要去伤害什么。然而冷酷的真相就是，它们确实进行同类相食，还因此得到好处。一项研究发现，吞食其他同伴的瓢虫有更高的生存机会，并会迅速成长。吃掉同类还有一个好处是摄入了更好的食物，残忍的瓢虫噬食者得到了最大的营养。
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.
然而更令人震惊的是，这些同类相食的瓢虫喜欢捕食弱者。最易受到攻击的目标是那些不能活动、或是目前生长期内只有软软甲壳的瓢虫。远离家时，瓢虫的同类相食行为变本加厉。如果瓢虫没有待在自然栖息地，而是侵入到新领地，那么它们更有可能吃掉其它瓢虫来代替正常食谱。下次某人再次捡起一只这种小虫子时，记得友情提醒下:说不定它正处在消化自己朋友的过程中。
评论
打印
