研究人员在澳大利亚海豚身上观察到危险的“搁浅捕食”法

研究人员在澳大利亚海豚身上观察到危险的“搁浅捕食”法

Researchers revealed on Monday they have for the first time identified an exceptional hunting behaviour known as strand feeding in Australian dolphins, where the marine mammals deliberately beach themselves in order to catch their prey.

研究人员于本周一透露，他们首次在澳大利亚海豚身上发现了一种名为“搁浅捕食”的特殊捕猎行为。在这种行为中，海洋哺乳动物会故意让自己靠近海滩以捕捉猎物。

The method has been identified in just a handful of other dolphin groups internationally, and while effective, risks are the creatures becoming permanently stranded and unable to return to the water.

这种方法在国际上仅在少数海豚群体中被发现，虽然有效，但也面临着可能会永久搁浅，无法回到水里的危险。

Southern Cross University researcher Dr Daniele Cagnazzi has been studying a pod of humpback dolphins in Queensland State's Fitzroy River for 13 years and used drone-mounted cameras to capture the unique behaviour.

南十字星大学的研究人员Daniele Cagnazzi博士，对昆士兰州菲茨罗伊河的一群座头海豚进行了13年的研究，并用无人机拍摄了它们独特的行为。

Once the prey has been localised a dolphin swims at high speed toward the shore, catches the fish in its mouth and remains stranded for a short time before sliding gently back into the water, Cagnazzi explained.

卡格纳兹解释说:“一旦猎物被锁定，海豚就会以高速游向岸边，用嘴咬住鱼，然后搁浅一小会儿，然后慢慢地滑回水中。”

He said that while this type of feeding is very risky, it is also routinely repeated and must therefore provide an important proportion of the dolphins' feeding needs -- which can be as high as 6 percent of their own bodyweight in fish every day.

他说，虽然这种喂养方式非常危险，但它需要经常重复，因为必须满足海豚的喂养需求——这可能高达它们自身体重的6%。

Cagnazzi said that the strand feeding he witnessed was by members of a large family group of around 100 humpback dolphins, who are long-term residents of the Fitzroy River.

卡格纳兹说，他亲眼目睹的这一幕是由大约100头座头海豚组成的一个大家庭的成员喂养的，这些海豚是菲茨罗伊河的长期居民。

Of that group, only about 15-20 of them engaged in strand feeding, most of which were females and juveniles, leading Cagnazzi to believe that the behaviour is taught from mothers to calves.

在这一组中，只有15-20只幼崽进行了线饲，其中大部分是雌性和幼崽，这使得Cagnazzi相信这种行为是由母亲传授给幼崽的。