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People have been leaving messages on bathroom walls for thousands of years. Just google "ancient Roman bathroom graffiti." But we're not the only ones to use latrines for information exchange—as two German researchers have confirmed after hundreds of hours watching lemurs pee and poop. For science.
數千年來，人們一直習慣于在浴室的墻壁上留言。你只要在谷歌上搜索“古羅馬浴室涂鴉”便可得知了。但不是只有人類才會使用廁所進行信息交流的——這被兩位德國科學家證實了，他們花費了數百小時，監視狐猴的大小便。這一切都是為了科學。
Primatologists Iris Dr·scher and Peter Kappeler concentrated on seven sets of pair-bonded members of a species called white-footed sportive lemurs, at a nature reserve in southern Madagascar. Their report is in the journal Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology.
靈長類動物學家Iris Dr·scher和Peter Kappeler將注意力集中在七對結為夫婦的白足運動型狐猴身上。這些狐猴生活在馬達加斯加島南部的一個自然保護區中。他們的報告發表在《行為生態學和社會生物學》雜志上。
Many animals use the same spots repeatedly to do their business, primates in particular. For these lemurs, a specific tree becomes the urine and feces focal point. And because chemical compounds in their waste transmit information, the so-called latrine tree becomes like a bulletin board to post messages for the rest of the community.
許多動物，尤其是靈長類動物，喜歡反復使用同一個地點來處理他們的事情。對這些狐猴來說，一個固定的樹就是它們大小便的處所。他們的排泄物中含有化學成分，能夠傳遞信息。所謂的“廁所樹”便成了社區公告板，能向社區中的其他成員傳遞信息。
Based on their 1,097 hours of observations, the researchers conclude that urine and glandular secretions left on the tree trunk are the primary message vehicles. Feces mostly just collects on the ground.
經過了1097個小時的觀察，兩位科學家得出結論：遺留在樹干上的尿液及腺分泌物是主要的信息載體。糞便大多出現在地上。
Some urine telegrams are probably signals from a particular lemur to the neighbors that he or she is around. But male lemurs upped their latrine visits when potential competitors for females came into their home area. So the frequent chemical messages left on the tree probably say in that case, "Buzz off, buddy, she's with me." In lemur.
特定狐猴的尿液要傳達的信息大概是告知鄰居它的存在。當潛在求偶競爭者闖入男性狐猴的領地時，男性狐猴會將它們的廁所安在相對更高的地方。因此在這種情況下，它們留在樹上的化學信息八成是：“走開，伙計，她和我在一起呢?！边@就是有關狐猴的研究了。
