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There are many dung beetles competing for a limited amount of food at a dung pile, so whenan individual is finished rolling a ball of dung it is in its best interest to make a quick escape.And the fastest way to travel is in a straight path. Scientists noticed that when the moon wasvisible, these dung beetles did just that; they traveled in straight paths. But when it was acloudy night, the beetles' paths became shaky and erratic.
屎殼郎之間食物的競爭很激烈，往往是很多只屎殼郎齊齊盯上一堆糞。因此，當一只屎殼郎滾好了一個糞球后最好就是盡快離開。當然，最快的就是走直線了。科學家們發(fā)現(xiàn)，在月明星稀的夜里，屎殼郎就是這樣做的，它們都走直線。但是，如果是在烏云密布的夜里，無法看到月亮，這個時候的屎殼郎所走的路線就會歪歪扭扭。
To be sure the beetles were indeed using the moon's polarization and not the moon itself, theresearchers used a filter that changed the pattern of the polarized moonlight by 90 degrees.The beetles responded by changing their course by 90 degrees.
為了確定屎殼郎是憑借著月光的偏振作用而不是月光來看路，研究者們使用了一個濾光器，這個濾光器將月光的偏振改變了90度，這個時候他們發(fā)現(xiàn)，屎殼郎的路線也隨之改變了90度。
Scientists suspect that the dung beetle isn't the only animal to navigate by the moon'spolarization and that more such creatures will soon be discovered.
科學家們還推測，屎殼郎并不是唯一一種憑借月光偏振作用為自己“導航”的動物，相信很快也會發(fā)現(xiàn)其它的此類生物。
