評論
打印
Now listen to part of a lecture on this topic in a biology class.
現在請聽生物課上關于這個話題的部分內容。
OK, so we sometimes see this with animals that live in parts of the world where it gets very cold in the winter.
我們有時候會看見生活在冬天十分寒冷的地區的動物采用這種做法。
For example, in the northeaster United States, there's a species of squirrels that does this.
比如，在美國東北部，有一種松鼠就是這么做的。
This squirrel, like many species of squirrel, loves to eat nuts.
和其他種類的松鼠一樣，這種松鼠也非常喜歡吃堅果。
Nuts are one of its primary sources of food.
堅果是它主要的食物來源之一。
Now, nuts are very difficult to find in the winter.
不過，冬天很難找到堅果。
But in the autumn, they are lying all over the place because that's when they fall from the trees.
但是在秋天的時候，堅果遍地都是，因為它們就是這個時節從樹上掉下來的。
So, what this squirrel does is in the autumn it spends a lot of time finding nuts.
所以，這種松鼠的做法就是：秋天的時候，它會花大量的時間去尋找堅果。
After it finds a nut, it prepares it. It takes off the outer shell and cleans it.
找到堅果之后，就開始收拾它們，把外殼剝掉并清理干凈。
This preparation may in some way help preserve the nut and or may make it easier to eat later on.
這種準備工作也許在某種程度上會有利于堅果的保存，或者方便之后食用。
The squirrel then digs a little hole in the ground and buries the nut.
接著松鼠會在地上挖一個小洞，把堅果埋起來。
In one autumn, this squirrel may bury hundreds of nuts.
這種松鼠一個秋天能埋起來數百顆堅果。
But it doesn't just dig a big hole and put all the nuts in it and cover them up.
但它并不是簡單地挖一個大洞，把所有的堅果扔進去然后埋起來。
No, it digs hundreds of holes all over the place.
它會挖上數百個小洞，到處都是。
And it puts just one nut in each hole. Now, why would it do that?
每個洞它只放一顆堅果。那么，它為什么這么做呢？
Well, probably primarily because even if other animals happen to find some of the holes,
也許主要是因為即使別的動物碰巧發現了其中的一些洞，
some of the nuts, the squirrel will still have a lot of other holes with nuts in them so it'll still have enough food to survive the winter.
拿走了洞里的堅果，松鼠仍有很多別的埋著堅果的洞，所以它還是有充足的食物過冬。
