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When summer hits, I dread jogging outside. But a study finds that elephants can be in true danger in the heat.
夏季來臨時，我害怕去室外慢跑。但一項研究發現大象在高溫天氣下會遇到真正的危險。
As creatures get bigger, they have smaller surface-area-to-body-volume ratios. Fully grown Asian elephants thus pack a lot of mass into a body with a relatively small surface area. And surface area limits how much body heat you can dissipate.
大象的身體越長越大，所以他們身體的表面積對體積的比例越來越小。亞洲象成年時，面積相對較小的表皮下包裹著笨重無比的身軀。然而表面面積決定著身體的散熱。
For the study, two female elephants in the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans walked around a half-mile track under various conditions. The outdoor temperature during these sessions ranged from a chilly 8 degrees Celsius to a scorching 35 degrees.
在這個研究中，研究人員讓兩名新奧爾良奧杜邦動物園的母象在各種天氣條件下行走在一條長約兩英里的小徑上。在此過程中，室外的溫度從寒冷的8度到灼熱的35度不等。
Clear, hot days were the worst. The already limited hide is now itself heated by the sun. With the equivalent of a busted radiator, the elephants retained 56 to 100 percent of their body heat internally. Which could make a mere four hours of exercise fatal. The research on elephant exertion is in the Journal of Experimental Biology.
顯然，熱天是最糟糕的。大象原本就有限的、用來散熱的體表在烈日暴曬著。這時大象的體表就相當于一個破裂了的散熱器，因此它體內仍保留著56%至100%的身體熱量。僅僅四個小時的運動對大象來說就會是致命的。這項關于大象運動的研究發表在《實驗生物學雜志》上。
Fortunately, elephants have ways to beat the heat: shift activity to after dark and, of course, go for a dip.
幸運的是，大象有自己的避暑方式：天黑后出去活動，當然，還得去洗個澡。
原文譯文屬可可原創，未經允許請勿轉載！
