地平线系列：猫咪观察（1）（2014）

like the pole that a tightrope walker uses,
就像走钢丝的拿根杆子
just to keep that balance.
借以保持平衡一样
It never ceases to amaze me just how agile cats are.
猫的敏捷总是让我惊叹不已
They're the gymnasts of the animal world,
他们就是动物世界里的体操选手
they can put their feet exactly where they need to
他们能把脚精确落在要落的地方
to control their movement.
以控制自身的运动
If the world is swinging like this branch is, she'll use her tail.
如果遇上了这样的摇晃 她就会用上自己的尾巴
The GPS collars have been tracking dozens of our urban cats
GPS项圈已经跟踪记录了许多城里猫
showing where they are to an accuracy of within a metre.
采集了精度在一米内的猫咪活动图
And back at HQ, our scientists are using these traces
在喵基地里 科学家们正用这些追踪数据
to compare the behaviour of individual cats.
来比较猫与猫的行为
OK, so I'm just going to pull up Minky's data now.
现在我要调出米奇的数据了
She's one of our Hanover cats.
她住在汉诺威镇
John's spotted one young city cat
约翰发现了这只小城里猫
whose trace suggests she's behaving oddly.
的行为轨迹有点奇怪
To find out why, he's called in the owners to have a look.
为了探明原因 他请了主人来一问究竟
Kate and Anna, welcome to Cat HQ. You're Minky's family, right? Yep.
凯特和安娜 欢迎来到喵基地 米奇是你们家的是吧 是的
You very kindly let us put a collar on Minky
很感谢你们让我们给米奇装了项圈
to find out where she goes.
记下了它去过的地方
So this is your bit of Brighton
这是你们的布赖顿
and the little bit of it that is Minky's. Wow.
那一小点就是米奇
What's really interesting about a track like this is that
这轨迹的有趣之处就在于
she's moving about a lot but she's not going very far.
她活动得很多 却又没有走远
She's clearly capable of travelling halfway down the street
她明显能够走到半个街区以外的
but she doesn't do that.
但她没有这样做
Minky is obviously an active cat,
米奇明显是只活跃的猫
but her GPS results show that the distance she travels from home
但她的GPS轨迹显示她离开家的活动范围
is less than half that of our other city cats.
只有其它城里猫的一半
When John looks closely at the footage, it becomes clear that
当约翰仔细查看了录像后就明白了
her odd behaviour might be linked to her sense of smell.
她的奇怪行为可能与其嗅觉有关
Aw! So this is your back garden?
所以这是你家的后花♥园♥?
It is, yeah. This is classic Minky, sort of creeping and smelling.
是的 米奇老是这样 到处爬爬 到处闻闻
So you can see her,
你能看到她...
she's sniffing all the way around the decking out the back here,
她在木板上一路来回嗅探
on the corner of that plant, on the pot, on the ground itself.
闻植物 闻瓶罐 闻地板
So, is she, in cat terms,
所以对猫来说 她是...
is she consciously unhappy and anxious at this time
是不是她在嗅探的时候就一直
when she's sniffing or is that putting human feelings onto her?
在不高兴和焦虑 还是只是人类多想了?
No, I think she probably is quite anxious. Oh.
不 我觉得她可能是很焦虑的
What we'd really like to do is put a camera in there,
我们很想做的就是装个摄像头到那里
will that be OK? Yeah, that would be really interesting.
这样可以吗 可以啊 挺有趣的
This is where Minky spends most of her time
这就是米奇最常到的地方
and it looks like a perfectly pleasant and peaceful little garden
这看起来就像个完美的愉悦和平的小花♥园♥
but clearly something is causing her anxiety.
但显然有些什么在令她焦虑不已
So we've rigged some CCTV cameras in here
所以我们在那儿装了些监控器
and we've been filming what's really going on.
我们会拍下到底发生了生么
It turns out this garden is not quite as empty as it looks.
结果显示这座花♥园♥并没有表面那么平静
In just 24 hours,
24小时之内
our camera caught 10 visits from three different intruder cats.
摄像头拍下了3只外来猫入侵了10次
Even when she's not there to fight them off,
即使她不去赶走他们
their visits still cause her stress.
他们的到来还是会令她倍感压力
She knows exactly what's going on
她知道正发生着什么
because of her incredible sense of smell.
她鼻子那么强一闻就知道了
Even as a newborn when our kitten Monty couldn't see
即使蒙蒂刚出生还看不见
and could barely hear, his sense of smell was fully formed
听不清时 他的嗅觉早已成熟了
and he could sniff his way to reach his mother's milk.
他都靠嗅觉找到妈妈喝奶
In fact, he could even distinguish the smell of one teat from another
事实上 他甚至能够分清不同咪♥咪♥的味道
and so would always suckle from the same one.
并一直只喝一个乳♥头♥
The cat's sense of smell is amazing.
猫的嗅觉是很惊人的
It's so much better than ours
比我们强太多了
and it means that there's a whole world that the cats have access to
这意味着猫所能感受到的整个世界
that we as owners are entirely unaware of.
跟人类主人是完全不同的
The reason they have such a good sense of smell
他们的嗅觉如此之强
is the structure of their nose.
得益于其鼻子的结构
They have little scrolled bones which sit right up inside the nose.
他们鼻子内几乎没有鼻甲骨
And they're covered in thousands of receptors which are picking up
鼻子上覆盖着的是成千的感受器来接收
all the scent information that they breathe in with the air
吸入的空气中的所有气味信息
and take it to a part of the brain called the olfactory bulb.
并将信息传至大脑里名为嗅球的部分
And that part of the brain is much larger in a cat
猫脑子里的嗅球部分要比人类的
than it is in people.
大得多
Scientists think that the cat's sense of smell
科学家们认为猫的嗅觉
is at least 100 times better than our own.
比人类至少要灵敏100倍
But cats don't only smell with their noses.
但猫咪们不光靠鼻子来嗅闻
They have a hidden secondary smell organ.
他们隐藏有第二嗅觉器官
Jacobson's organ is made up of two fluid filled sacs
梨鼻器由两个充满液体的囊构成
above the roof of the mouth.
它位于嘴的顶部
As the cat breathes in, the organ pumps fluid into the mouth.
当猫吸入空气时 这器官会释放液体到嘴里
When the fluid is drawn back up again,
当液体被吸回时
the cat can detect minute traces of chemical odours present in the air.
猫就能检测出空气里的细微的化学气味
Smelling through their mouth like this
像这样用嘴嗅闻
produces a very distinctive sneer.
会让猫产生独特的冷笑表情
That kind of grimace we call a flehmen response.
我们把这种鬼脸叫做 裂唇嗅反应
It doesn't only happen in our domestic cats.
不只是家猫才有这种表情
It also happens in larger cats as well.
大型猫科动物同样也会如此
If we look at this footage here of a lion.
我们可以看看这段录像里的狮子
You can see she's doing a kind of characteristic flehmen grimace
你能看到她正在做很有特点的裂唇嗅鬼脸
where she's drawing a scent into her Jacobson organ.
她正在用梨鼻器攫取气味
Jacobson's organ has one main purpose -
梨鼻器的一项主要作用
to detect the smell of other cats, even when they're long gone.
就是侦测其它猫的气味 不论别的猫是否走远了
Every step they take, our cats leave a trail of scent behind them -
每走一步 猫咪们就会在身后留下气味尾迹
in their spray and from glands on their cheeks, flanks
他们的喷沫 脸颊 腹部的两侧
and even their feet.
甚至脚上都有气味
It's these scent paths that are causing problems for Minky.
正是这些气味痕迹导致了米奇的问题
By smelling the trails she knows who's passed through,
她闻到气味痕迹就能知道有谁经过
how long ago they were there
对方何时在此
and if any new cats are muscling in on her space.
是否还有新猫来自己地盘上晃悠
We've seen Minky sniffing around the garden
我们看到米奇在花♥园♥里到处嗅闻
and what this kind of footage proves is that it's the other cats
看了录像我们知道是附近的其他
in the neighbourhood that are causing her the problem.
猫咪造成了她的困扰
I don't think Minky's alone in this at all,
我觉得米奇的困境并非孤例
I think there are plenty of other cats around the country
我觉得全国内还有许多其他的猫咪
who are stressed by this kind of thing
也深受此扰
and their owners are unaware of it
且他们的主人仍不知情
because a lot of it is all about smell.
因为这问题是气味方面的
Hopefully, by the end of the study, we'll know a lot more about
希望研究结束时 我们能够更多地了解
what's causing her stress and indeed how we can deal with it,
她的压力从何而来 我们能做什么
how we can help her owner to make Minky a much more relaxed cat.
我们能怎样帮助主人去让米奇放轻松点
While Minky's remarkable ability to smell other cats
米奇闻味识猫的非凡能力
is causing her stress,
让她倍感压力
it's something that all cats rely on.
而所有的猫都离不开这种嗅觉
And for our farm cats,
对于农场猫来说
it's crucial.
这更是至关重要
For these cats, scent marking is a vital communication tool.
对这些猫而言 气味标记是重要的一种沟通手段
Their wild ancestors were solitary animals
他们的野猫祖先是独居性动物
that rarely came face to face with one another.
很少有喵喵相觑的时候
So smelling the scent left by other cats allowed them...
辩闻其他猫的气味能让他们...
Oh, he just fell off the bin!
啊 他就跳下垃圾桶了
..allowed them to make sense of who else was around.
能让他们知道有谁在附近
Without leaving chemical messages, pheromones, in their scent,
如果不在气味中留下些化学信♥号♥♥啊 信息素啊
our farm cats would struggle to find a mate,
农场猫可能就得孤独终生
all the farm males are neutered.
公猫都得撸一辈子了
But there's evidence that their pheromones must have attracted
但有证据表明她们的信息素必须吸引
at least two visiting toms.
至少两只公猫
So what we have here is a nest of kittens born here on the farm.
这里有着一窝在农场出生的猫宝宝
I think they're about a week old. OK.
我觉得他们应该有1周大了 好吧
Oh, look at that.
哦 看啊
So tell me the story, do we know who the mother is and who the dad is?
那么我们知道他们的爸爸妈妈是谁吗?
Well, the mother's a tortoiseshell, orange and black cat.
他们妈妈是只花斑猫 橘黑相间
And judging by the coat colours of the kittens,
根据猫宝宝的毛色看
it's quite possible that there are two different fathers involved
很可能会有两位爸爸存在