評論
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As far as the parents go, well, first, they typically can’t get enough food in a single location,
就父母們飛得那么遠而言，首先，它們一般在一個地點找不到足夠的食物，
so they have to visit several places on the same foraging trip.
所以它們出去覓一趟食必須去好幾個地方。
And the locations of good foraging grounds tend to be very far apart.
而好的覓食地點往往分布得很開。
And second, they can’t always nest on an island that’s closest to the best feeding ground because some of those islands have too many predators on them.
第二，它們不能總是把巢筑在離最佳的覓食地點最近的島上，因為一些那種海島上有太多食肉動物。
Predators that would just love some little chicks to snack on, so I don’t think they have much choice.
食肉動物很喜歡吃一些小雛鳥，所以我覺得它們沒什么選擇。
But it still works out because albatross fly using a technique called dynamic soaring,
但這還是行得通的，因為信天翁會用一種叫做動力翱翔的技巧飛行，
which enables them to cover very long distances while expending very little energy.
這使它們能飛越很長的距離，同時幾乎不消耗什么能量。
If it weren’t for that, you’d be right, they would probably burn up all their energy just flying back and forth.
如果沒有那個技巧，你可能就是對的，僅僅飛個來回它們可能就會耗盡所有的能量。
Another factor is albatross lay only one egg at a time,
另一個因素是信天翁一次只下一個蛋，
so when the parent returns with the food that one chick doesn’t have to share it with a lot of other chicks. Yes, Nancy?
所以當父母帶著食物回來時，雛鳥不用和很多其他雛鳥分食。Nancy，請說？
So you’re saying that they might easily fly a thousand miles over the open ocean when they’re looking for food?
所以你說它們在尋找食物時也許能輕易飛過一千英里的遠海？
That’s right.
沒錯。
Then how do they know how to get to the food? I mean, which direction to take to get to the food and how do they find their way back home?
那它們怎么知道該如何接近食物呢？我是說，它們怎么知道該飛往哪個方向才能找到食物，還有怎么找到回家的路？
Good point. And the truth is we are not sure, it’s very difficult to keep seabirds in captivity where you can study them.
問得好。事實上我們也不確定，要把海鳥關起來進行研究非常困難。
And it’s very difficult to study them in the wild, you know, but we think that a lot of what we’ve learned about songbirds probably applies to seabirds as well.
而且在野外研究它們也很困難，但是我們認為我們了解的很多關于鳴鳥的知識可能也能用在海鳥身上。
