【动物最擅长的那些工作】跑跳最擅长是什么动物

　　一直以来，“工作”并不是人类的专利或特权。你可能不知道，在某些领域，某些职业或岗位的最佳“人”选并不是人类，也不是机器人或仪器，而是动物。 　　 　　After the Pentagon1) announced, somewhat sheepishly2), that after $19 billion and six years of research, they had concluded that the best bomb-detecting device is a dog, we got to thinking: what other instances are there in which you"d reach not for a traditional tool, but for an animal?
　　美国国防部在投入190亿美元的资金进行了长达6年的研究后窘迫地宣布，他们已得出结论：最好的炸弹探测仪是狗。于是我们不禁思考：我们会去求助于动物而非传统仪器的情况还有哪些？
　　
　　Dolphins of War
　　The U.S. Navy Marine Mammal Program (NMMP), based in San Diego, CA, began in 1960 when the military examined the Pacific White-sided Dolphin, trying to figure out the secret to its hydrodynamic3) body with the aim of improving torpedo4) performance. (Given 1960s technology, the NMMP never managed to solve the puzzle.) That later expanded to other marine mammals of the Pacific, especially other dolphins and California sea lions, which led to the discovery that these animals are not only trainable but fairly reliable even while untethered5) in the open ocean.
　　The NMMP states that, despite rumors, marine mammals have never and will never be used as weapons themselves. No attack dolphins.
　　So what does the NMMP do now? Dolphins are used as undersea mine detectors, even finding more than 100 in the Persian Gulf during the Iraq War in 2003. Dolphins and sea lions are used as sentries6) to find and alert the military to unauthorized swimmers and divers, and sea lions are used to retrieve objects from the ocean depths (at this they do better than human and robotic swimmers by a fair margin).
　　
　　Mites in Your Cheese
　　Cheese is weird already. The fermentation7) of milk products that leads to our seemingly infinite varieties of cheeses is a process of controlled rot8), thanks to friendly bacteria. But this cheese, known as mimolette9), has a rather ... bigger friend. The cheese mite10).
　　Cheese mites are in the same family as less-desirable beasts like lice11) and ticks12), but in the case of mimolette, they"re invaluable. Cheese mites are introduced intentionally to mimolette, where they dig into the rind13) of the cheese, eating greedily on it and finally dying after two weeks, leaving behind a dusty skeleton. Hard-core14) cheesemongers15) believe that mimolette gains flavor, aroma16), and especially its hard grey rind from the cheese mites. Mimolette isn"t the only cheese to use mites.
　　
　　Pest Control
　　What"s the best way to get rid of an animal? The answer is ... another animal. Frankian is a licensed falconer17) and pest control expert. His methods of getting rid of animals (most often birds like seagulls and geese, but also skunks18), beavers, raccoons19), and more) are frequently more humane as well as more effective than other methods. And his methods rely heavily on raptors20) and other animals.
　　Birds can be legitimately21) dangerous, especially overpopulated species like gulls and geese. Parks and bodies of water can be swiftly polluted by geese, which excrete22) more than two pounds a day, and they often cause auto accidents. Modern methods of ridding areas of these pests often fall back on killing en masse23) with nets, or using mechanical devices, often audio-based, to scare pests away. Frankian does, in a Bond-like way, have a rare "license to kill" from the Canadian government, but says it"s more effective to scare. "You can kill all of them, if you want," he says. "They won"t learn. Scaring them is faster."
　　Frankian has more than 100 raptors, mostly hawks and falcons24) but also including a few owls and even three bald eagles25), as well as five dogs. Basically, he stakes out26) territory, flying the hawk around the entire area to be monitored. Once a gull sees a raptor acting this way, marking its territory and even hunting a bird or two, it"s unlikely to come back―whereas a simple kill trap would remove gulls but not discourage them from coming back.
　　Sniffing Bombs
　　Human innovations are pretty good at replacing some of our senses, especially sight and hearing, with mechanical or electronic equipment. But one sense in which natural, organic versions outstrip27) human inventions by a laughable degree is that of scent.
　　The most sophisticated detectors ever invented can detect maybe 50% of IEDs28) in Afghanistan and Iraq, according to the Department of Defense. But a simple soldier accompanied by a trained dog can detect 80%.
　　Dogs are ideal for this kind of work in the field, thanks to their physical endurance, easy trainability, and eagerness to please their handlers. But they"re not the only animals found to be far better at detecting explosives than anything we humans can come up with. In Israel, bomb-sniffing mice are being tested in airports, and early tests showed them detecting bombs 100% of the time.
　　
　　The Nose Knows
　　Sniffing isn"t restricted to bombs. As it turns out, the noses of some animals are so delicate that they"re capable of smelling all kinds of things. It"s true: animals are capable of smelling disease.
　　Tuberculosis (TB), a widespread and destructive disease, is especially common in the developing world, and the only detection methods available are nearly a century old and notoriously unreliable. Typically, TB is found using a microscope to a stained sample of phlegm29). But this method misses as many as 60% to 80% of cases, because there needs to be a very high number of the offending bacteria in the sample to spot. Even worse, microscopy30) is very slow, only able to sift31) through about 40 samples per day.
　　The HeroRATs32) are better than this option in every conceivable33) way. Trained to spend longer at infected samples and scratch at them, they can test the same 40 samples in less than seven minutes. Not only that, but the rats were able to detect 44% more positive cases than microscopy. Plus, rats are cheap. The rats are affordable, far better than current options, and, come on, kind of adorable.
　　海豚战士
　　1960年，美国海军开始在加利福尼亚州圣地亚哥市实施“海洋哺乳动物项目”，借此对太平洋白边海豚展开研究，试图破解其符合流体力学的身躯的秘密，从而改进鱼雷的性能。(受20世纪60年代技术所限，该项目一直未能解决这一难题。)后来，该项目的研究对象扩展到了太平洋的其他海洋哺乳动物，特别是其他种类的海豚和加州海狮上。最后发现，这类动物不仅能够被驯化，而且即便被放任在大洋中无人看管，它们也相当可靠。
　　虽然有各种传言，但海军海洋哺乳动物项目组声称，他们从来没有也永远不会利用海洋哺乳动物作武器，所以根本不存在什么进攻式海豚。
　　那么，该项目现在在忙些什么呢？海豚现在发挥着“水雷探测器”的作用。2003年伊拉克战争期间，海豚在波斯湾探测出的水雷数量甚至超过百颗。海豚和海狮也充当着海军的“哨兵”，能够发现擅自闯入的游泳者和潜水者并提醒军方。海狮还被用来打捞海洋深处的物体(在这方面，它们可远远胜过潜水员和会游泳的机器人)。
　　
　　奶酪之虫
　　奶酪的制作业已经颇为独特了：似有千般万种的奶酪实际上是奶制品在控制下的腐败发酵形成的，而这个过程多亏了益生菌的作用。不过，这种名为麦墨雷特的奶酪的发酵却要用到一位个头相当大的家伙――干酪虫。
　　干酪虫虽然与不大招人待见的潮虫和壁虱同属一科，但对麦墨雷特奶酪来说，它们却很珍贵。人们特意在麦墨雷特奶酪的发酵过程中引入干酪虫。它们从奶酪的表皮挖洞而入，贪婪地吞食奶酪，最终于两周后死去，留下粉状的尸骨。老牌奶酪商认为，麦墨雷特奶酪的风味和芳香尤其是灰色的硬质表皮全都归功于干酪虫。而麦墨雷特并不是唯一利用干酪虫的奶酪。
　　
　　驱赶动物
　　驱除一种动物的最好方法是什么？答案是……用另一种动物。弗兰克恩是一位持有执照的猎鹰驯养者和驱赶动物专家。他驱除动物(多是诸如海鸥和大雁这样的鸟类，但也包括臭鼬、海狸、浣熊等)很大程度上借助的是猛禽等动物，他的方法常常比其他方法更为人性化也更为管用。
　　说鸟类有害也不无道理，特别是像海鸥、大雁这样数量过多的鸟类。一只大雁每天排泄的粪便就要超过两磅，雁群瞬间就能将公园和水域污染个遍，而且它们还常常引发车祸。目前驱除这些鸟类常用的方法是设网集中捕杀，或是借助仪器设备(多可发声)吓跑它们。一如(电影《007》里的特工)邦德有一份“杀人执照”那样，弗兰克恩手上也有加拿大政府很少授予的动物捕杀执照。但弗兰克恩表示，吓唬手段更为有效。 “只要你想这么做，你可以把它们杀个精光，”他说，“但它们就是不长记性，不如吓唬这种手段来得更快。”
　　弗兰克恩有上百只猛禽，大多是老鹰和猎鹰，除此之外还有几只猫头鹰、三只秃鹰和五条狗。他主要靠放出老鹰让其在需要监视的整片区域上空盘旋，来监视该区域。一旦海鸥看到猛禽这么盘旋着划定自己的地盘甚至捕猎一两只鸟后，就不大可能再来了。相比之下，单靠设置陷阱捕杀虽能除掉一些海鸥，但却无法阻止别的海鸥卷土重来。
　　嗅探炸弹
　　机械或电子仪器能够取代人类的一些感官，特别是视觉和听觉，在这方面人类的创造发明确有所长。不过，和某些原生的机体感官相比，人类的创造发明就要相形见绌、贻笑大方了。嗅觉便是这样的感官之一。
　　据美国国防部的数据，即便是人类发明的最先进的炸弹探测仪也只可能探测出一半埋在阿富汗和伊拉克地区的简易炸弹。但普通士兵只需借助训练有素的军犬，就能探测出80%的炸弹。
　　狗身体耐力强、易于受训、渴望取悦主人，因而是战场上排弹任务的理想“人”选。不过，在探测炸弹上远远胜过人类所有仪器发明的动物并非只有狗。在以色列，人们正在机场试验白鼠的嗅弹能力。先前的测试显示，白鼠的炸弹探测率达100%。
　　鼻子嗅病
　　可嗅探出的东西不只限于炸弹。事实证明，一些动物的鼻子异常灵敏，各种千奇百怪的东西都能嗅出。这是真事，动物能够嗅探疾病。
　　肺结核病分布广、破坏性大，在发展中国家尤为常见。目前肺结核的检测还在沿用近一个世纪前的一些方法，而且出了名的不可靠。通常情况下，通过显微镜对痰的染色样本进行观测即可对肺结核做出诊断。但由于样本必须含有大量侵入细菌才能观测到，这种方法的失误率高达60%至80%。更糟的是，用显微镜检测很费时间，每天只能筛查40个左右的样本。
　　无论从哪方面讲，“英雄囊鼠”都要胜过显微镜检测。经过训练长期接触受感染痰样本后，“英雄囊鼠”可以在七分钟之内检测完同样的40个样本。不仅如此，它们的样本阳性检测率比显微镜检测要高出44%。再加上囊鼠很便宜，因而人们能用得起，而且用起来远远还优于目前的检测方法，再说，它们还有点儿可爱哦。

推荐访问:最擅长 动物 工作