生命的进化（1979）

如果你花时间在树上攀爬
If you spend your life clambering about in trees,
你需要拥有两样最有用的东西
two of the most useful things to have
一双用来抓住树枝的手
are a pair of hands, with which to grip the branches,
和一双朝向前方 并能聚焦在同一样东西上的眼睛
and a pair of eyes, which face forward and both can focus on the same thing
那么你就能准确地判断与下一根树枝的距离
so that you can accurately judge the distance of, say, the next branch
那根你想在上面跳或荡秋千的树枝
on which you want to jump or swing.
世界上大约200种不同的动物有这两种特征
About 200 different kinds of animals in the world have those two characteristics.
我们把它们归成一类叫做灵长类动物
We group them together and call them primates,
它们包括猴子、猿、人类
and they include monkeys, apes, man
以及我在马达加斯加岛的树上见到的那些动物
and those creatures over there that I'm watching in this tree in Madagascar.
树上的生命
第一眼看上去，这动物并不很像猴子
At first sight, this animal doesn't look much like a monkey.
那浓密的带环纹的尾巴更像猫的尾巴
That bushy, ringed tail is more like a cat's.
长嘴巴，湿润的裸♥露♥的皮肤在鼻孔周围
And the long snout, with moist, bare skin around the nostrils,
使它看起来更像一条狗
gives it a rather dog-like look.
但是它的手暴露了它的真实身份
But its hands give away its true character.
狗和猫没有这样的手
No dog or cat has a grasp like this.
这是一种真正的灵长类动物 而且是其中最原始的一种。 狐猴
This creature is a true primate and one of the most primitive ones. It's a lemur.
狐猴源自一种类似地鼠的哺乳动物
Lemurs are descended from shrew-like mammals
恐龙时代末期在陆地上奔跑
that scampered along the ground at the end of the age of the dinosaurs.
这种狐猴有环纹尾巴， 在陆地上行走就像在树上一样自♥由♥自在
And this lemur, the ring-tail, is as much at home on the ground as it is in the trees.
它们还保留着更适合于地面居住的旧习惯， 例如标记气味
They still retain old habits more suited for ground-dwelling, like scent-marking.
雄性的腕关节上有被腺包围着的角状刺
The males have horny spurs on their wrists surrounded by glands.
它们敲打小树，并把气味注射进去
And they click these against saplings, so impregnating the scratch with musk.
而雌性从尾巴下面的腺体涂抹气味
The female smears musk from a gland beneath her tail.
雄性的注意力被这种做法吸引过去了
Males find this especially attractive.
检查一番之后，它自己也在同样的地方作标记
Having checked, he marks over the same spots himself.
经常作记号♥能使一个家族留下活动的范围
Frequent marking enables a troop to leave a scent record of its movements,
而这样就建立了森林地面上的过路权
and so establish rights of way on the forest floor.
一只雄性会把他的腕关节和胸部的腺体气味 涂抹到他的尾巴上
An angry male spreads scent onto his tail by drawing it over his wrist and chest glands,
因为气味同样被用在统治战争里
for perfume is also used in the battle for dominance.
然后它逆风而行，而使气味吹到对手那里
He will then thrash it in the air so the scent is wafted towards his opponent
来威胁对手
to intimidate him.
下风位的雄性会袭击他的尾巴，
The lower male recharges his tail.
手，对成年个体握紧树枝是有价值的
Grasping hands, so valuable to adults for holding on to branches,
对年幼的也有用
are also useful to the young.
松鼠宝宝和树鼩宝宝有径直向前的爪子
Baby squirrels and tree shrews, with straightforward paws,
必须被安置在某一类型的巢里
have to be deposited in nests of some kind
在父母找食物的时候经常被留在巢里
and are often abandoned while the parents gather food.
狐猴有另一种技能
Lemurs have a different technique.
小狐猴可以紧紧抓住它们父母的皮毛
The little ones can close their fists on their parents' fur
而无论它们到哪里都一直陪伴着
and so accompany them wherever they go.
狐猴的全盛期大约在4到5千万年前
Lemurs were in their heyday about 40 to 50 million years ago.
它们的化石不只在非洲被发现 而且在欧洲被发现
Their fossils have been found in not only Africa, but Europe.
而大概那个时候， 马达加斯加岛开始从非洲东岸分离开来
And about that time, Madagascar became separated from the east coast of Africa.
那里也有狐猴，但由于它们当时住在一个岛上
There were lemurs, too, but because they were now living on an island,
它们避免了与更聪明的更有效率的动物竞争
they were protected from competition with more intelligent, more efficient creatures
这些动物在世界其他地方进化
that were to develop elsewhere in the world later.
因此马达加斯加岛变成了今天的样子， 狐猴的天堂
And so Madagascar became what it is now, a paradise for lemurs.
除了环尾狐猴还有超过二十种不同的狐猴
As well as the ring-tail, there are over 20 different kinds of lemurs,
每一种适应不同的树上生活
each one adapted to a particular kind of life in the trees.
从这里走下去到岛的南边 在那非凡的针叶林里，
Down here in the south of the island, in this extraordinary spiny forest,
有一种擅长于跳跃
there is one that specialises in jumping.
它叫做马达加斯加狐猴
It's called a sifaka.
几乎没有其他动物 拥有这两种珍贵灵长动物的技能了
There's hardly a better demonstrator of those two invaluable primate talents,
能够长距离跳跃和着陆时抓牢
the ability to judge the distance of a jump and to grasp a hold when you land.
那双长的不成比例的后腿 使它们能够在树间跳跃
The disproportionately long hind legs, that enable them to jump between trees,
使用四脚行走几乎不可能
make walking on all fours impossible.
另一种娴熟的跳跃者住在马达加斯加岛的东北面
Another accomplished leaper lives in the forests of north-east Madagascar,
但大多是听说而不是亲眼所见
but there it's more often heard than seen.
马达加斯加大狐猴是狐猴中最大的
The indri, the largest of the lemurs.
而且它们有发育得很好的嗓子
And it's no accident that it has a well-developed voice.
(哀号♥)
(WAILING)
生活在浓密森林中的 马达加斯加大狐猴成了歌♥手
The thick canopy, in which the indri lives, has turned it into a chorister.
可能气味在这里很容易飘散开来 但很难看得远
Perhaps scent is too easily dispersed up here. It's certainly difficult to see far.
在不怕食肉动物攻击的前提下 用声音更容易和有效
Safe from attack by predators, it's much easier and more effective to use sound
在森里里传递信息，宣占领土
to carry messages through the forest, to claim a territory
和邻居共同注册领地
and register your whereabouts with your neighbours.
很少有动物会比马达加斯加大狐猴的家族 做这种事做得更震耳欲聋
And few creatures do so more deafeningly than a family of indris.
(嚎叫)
(HOWLING)
其他的狐猴也用声音与它们的族群保持联♥系♥
Other lemurs also use their voices to keep in touch with their troop.
这些是棕色狐猴
These are brown lemurs.
(鼻音)
(NASAL CALL)
它们经常和环尾狐猴走在一起来弥补它们气味信♥号♥♥系统的不足
They often travel with the ring-tails, supplementing their system of scent signals
环尾狐猴有着一个呼叫的指令系统 特别是在族群行进的时候
with a repertoire of calls, especially when the troop is on the move.
(狐猴在叫)
(LEMURS CALLING)
在空旷的野外它们有更大的风险
Out in the open they're more at risk,
所以和环尾狐猴走在一起 把尾巴像旗帜一样升起来
so the ring-tails keep together and raise their vividly-marked tails like flags
使族群里的成员彼此保持着视觉的接触
so that the members of the troop can also maintain visual contact with one another.
这个族群正走向河边饮水
This troop is going down to the river to drink.
夜幕降临，森林里回响着狐猴群的叫声
As darkness approaches, the forest rings to the sound of the lemur groups,
当它们安定在树上睡觉的时候 把它们自己间隔开
spacing themselves out as they settle down in the trees to sleep.
(狐猴在叫)
(LEMURS CALLING)
狐猴是夜晚最活跃的
Many lemurs are nocturnal,
当夜幕降临它们以全新的角色出现
and when darkness falls a completely new cast of them appears.
其中最小的比老鼠稍大一点，叫做鼠狐猴
This is the smallest of all, little bigger than a mouse and called a mouse lemur.
它吃昆虫，种子和果实
It eats insects as well as seeds and fruit
狂热地标记自己拥有树上的某个区域 通过在自己抓手上撒尿
and enthusiastically marks its own section of a tree by urinating on its hands
然后用它的抓手在树干上标记
and planting smelly hand-prints all along the branches.
最珍贵的狐猴，夜狐猴
The rarest lemur, the aye-aye.
它可能濒临灭绝。 少部分还生存着，但没有人知道多少
It may be on the verge of extinction. A few still survive, but no one knows how many.
它是其中最老的， 咬进木头里使甲虫的幼虫暴露出来
It's the oddest of the lot, gnawing into wood to expose beetle grubs.
有蛋黄的味道
It also has a taste for egg yolk,
它用长长的瘦骨嶙峋的中指探寻
which it gets by using its extraordinary long, bony middle finger as a probe.
总的来说，仍有20种不同的狐猴 生活在马达加斯加岛上
In all, there are some 20 different species of lemur still surviving in Madagascar.
然而，在世界上的其他地方狐猴已经灭绝
Elsewhere in the world, however, the lemurs died out.
似乎它们不能面对与更高级的灵长类动物竞争
It seems they couldn't face the competition from more advanced primates
那就迟一点出现的猴子
that were to develop later: the monkeys.
竞争只在白天进行
That competition only came during the day,
因为猴子晚上睡觉
because with one exception all monkeys sleep at night.
而狐猴因为夜间活动而生存下来
And so the lemurs were able to survive by being nocturnal.
非洲有一种丛猴 它们很像鼠狐猴
In Africa there are the bushbabies, which are very similar to the mouse lemurs.
还有一种树熊猴
There's also the potto.
在这里，远东的马来西亚有一种叫懒猴
Here in the forests of the Far East, in Malaysia, there's the loris.
再一次，它有灵长类的特点，
Once again, it has those primate hallmarks,
向前看的眼睛和用于攀抓的手
the forward-facing eyes and the grasping hands.
这是一只小懒猴，生来有一双利于攀抓的手
This is a young one. It had a firm grip right from birth,
它，像所有的小狐猴一样， 紧紧抓着母亲的毛皮
and it uses it, as nearly all lemur babies do, to cling to its mother's fur.
懒猴同样用气味来标记自己的领土
The loris still uses scent to mark its territory,
它有着狐猴一样典型的湿润的 用于闻树上的标记的鼻子
and it has the typical moist nose of a lemur, with which to read the marks in the trees.
只有一种原始的灵长类动物没有这样的鼻子
Only one primitive primate has no such nose,
而它同样住在东方的森林里。 眼镜猴
and it, too, lives in these oriental forests. The tarsier.
因为它主要的感觉不是嗅觉而是视觉
For it the dominant sense is not smell, but sight.
它有很大的眼睛 没有湿润的被皮肤包围着的平短鼻子
Its huge eyes and snub nose, without a surround of moist skin,
是靠视力看见事物
are signs of things to come,
因为有更高级灵长类动物的特征
for these are the characteristics of the more advanced primates
取代了狐猴和世上分布最广的亲缘：猴子
that displaced the lemurs and their relations from most of the world: the monkeys.
这种真正猴子的祖先还生存在南美洲的丛林里
The most primitive of the true monkeys still surviving live in the jungles of South America.
狨猴不在晚上活动，而在日间
Marmosets move about not at night, but during the day.
第一眼看过去，它们不像猴子
At first glance, they don't look like monkeys,
围着树梢急跑更像松鼠
but scurry around the treetops more like squirrels.
它们用很多视觉的信♥号♥♥
They use visual signals a great deal.
每一物种都带着可识别的记号♥
Each species carries its own badges of identification:
触须、烟囱帽和绒毛
moustaches, bonnets and plumes,
或者，像普通的狨猴 长长的白色绒毛
or, like these common marmosets, long white ear tufts.
虽然它们吃果实和昆虫 但它们大部分的食物是树脂
Although they eat fruit and insects, most of their food consists of gum,
它们啃开树皮使它流出来
which they tap by gnawing notches in bark.
橡胶树是它们领地中很重要的东西， 一定要受到保护
Their gum trees are important features of their territories and must be protected.
狨猴通过撒有气味的尿来达到目的
The marmosets do this by marking them with scented urine.
每一块领地 由一只成年雄性和雌性以及它们的孩子占领
Each territory is occupied by an adult male and female and their young,
它们中的一些可能已经长大了