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1.媒体来源:
phys.org
2.记者署名:
Frank Krell
3.完整新闻标题:
研究发现，一头大象可以在东非大草原上养活超过200万只粪金龟
One elephant can sustain more than 2 million dung beetles in east African
savannas, study finds
4.完整新闻内文:
One elephant can sustain more than 2 million dung beetles in east African
savannas, study finds
by Frank Krell, Denver Museum of Nature & Science
An adult and a young savanna elephant near the Mpala Research Centre in
central Kenya. Credit: Frank Krell
How many dung beetles are there in East Africa? That question inspired a
research project more than 20 years ago when Frank Krell was a research
entomologist with the Natural History Museum London. Throughout a
three-year-long project along with his wife, ecologist Sylvia
Krell-Westerwalbesloh, they looked deep into the ecology of dung beetles in
West and East African savannas.
研究发现，一头大象可以在东非大草原上养活超过200万只粪便甲虫
作者：Frank Krell，丹佛自然科学博物馆
肯尼亚中部姆帕拉研究中心附近的一头成年稀树草原象和一头年轻的稀树草原象。图片来源
：弗兰克·克雷尔
东非有多少粪金龟？这个问题激发了 20 多年前的研究项目，当时 Frank Krell 是伦敦
自然历史博物馆的研究昆虫学家。在与生态学家妻子 Sylvia Krell-Westerwalbesloh 一
起进行的为期三年的计画中，他们深入研究了西非和东非稀树草原的粪金龟生态。
Their latest research is now published in The Science of Nature.
African grasslands are dung beetle heaven. If one, lacking a restroom nearby,
opts to relieve oneself behind the bushes, their waste can disappear within a
half hour because of the abundance of dung beetles. But for elephants, it
will take a bit longer. This led them to an interesting question: how many
beetles does elephant dung attract?
When they visited the Laikipia region in central Kenya, they went to work to
find out. Elephant dung is easy to find as it occurs in large heaps and often
on the road. Upon locating the elephant waste, they collected two balls—also
known as "boli"—and exposed one of them during the night and one during the
daytime on the bare soil to see what would happen.
他们的最新研究现已发表在《自然科学》上。
非洲草原是粪金龟的天堂。如果附近没有厕所，选择在灌木丛后面解手，由于蜣螂大量存
在，他们的排泄物会在半小时内消失。但对大象来说，则需要更长的时间。这让他们想到
了一个有趣的问题：大象的粪便能吸引多少甲虫？
当他们访问肯尼亚中部的莱基皮亚地区时，他们开始工作以找出答案。大象粪便很容易找到
，因为它成堆出现，而且经常出现在路上。找到大象排泄物后，他们收集了两个球（也称
为“boli”），并将其中一个在夜间和一个白天暴露在裸露的土壤上，看看会发生什么。
After half a day each, they collected the remainder of the dung and soil
beneath and extracted all the dung beetles using the floating method, which
is basically throwing the dung into a bucket of water: dung sinks, beetles
float.
While the "day bolus" contained just over 3,300 beetles, the one exposed
overnight, no longer recognizable as a bolus, harbored 13,399 dung-loving
beetles. Sylvia counted them all—ecologists need stamina. All that was left
of the bolus was a thin mat of dung residue.
每人半天后，他们收集了剩余的粪便和下面的土壤，并使用漂浮法提取了所有粪甲虫，这
基本上就是将粪便扔进一桶水中：粪便下沉，甲虫漂浮。
虽然“日间食团”只含有 3,300 多只甲虫，但过夜暴露的甲虫（不再被识别为食团）却
藏有 13,399 只粪金龟。西尔维亚把它们全部数了一遍—生态学家需要耐力。粪丸剩
下的只是一层薄薄的粪便残渣。
It is known that two pounds of elephant dung serve about 13,400 beetles with
food and shelter. Elephants produce on average 320 pounds of dung per day.
That means that one elephant can sustain more than 2 million dung beetles on
any given day.
The Laikipia-Samburu ecosystem, which hosts approximately 5,000 to 7,500
elephants, would then provide for 14 billion dung beetles in an area of over
21,000 square miles—which is about the size of Maryland and New Jersey
combined.
据了解，两磅大象粪便可以为大约 13,400 只甲虫提供食物和住所。大象平均每天产生
320 磅粪便。这意味着一头大像在任何一天都可以饲养超过 200 万只粪甲虫。
莱基皮亚-桑布鲁生态系统拥有约 5,000 至 7,500 头大象，其面积超过 21,000 平方英
里，大约相当于马里兰州和新泽西州的面积总和，可提供 140 亿只粪甲虫。
While the African savanna elephant is not currently close to extinction in
East Africa, the species is classified as threatened by the International
Union for Conservation of Nature and did vanish from other parts of continent.
So, what would happen if the elephants disappeared? Some of the beetles would
find other food, but the dung to support 14 billion dung beetles would cease
to exist. The extinction of the majestic largest land mammal on the planet
would undoubtedly have devastating effects on the billions and billions of
smaller animals depending on them.
虽然东非的非洲草原象目前尚未接近灭绝，但该物种被国际自然保护联盟列为受威胁物种
，并且确实从非洲大陆的其他地区消失了。
那么，如果大象消失了会发生什么事呢？有些甲虫会找到其他食物，但支撑 140 亿只粪
甲虫的粪便将不复存在。地球上最大的陆地哺乳动物的灭绝无疑会对依赖它们生存的数十
亿小型动物产生毁灭性影响。
5.完整新闻连结 (或短网址)不可用YAHOO、LINE、MSN等转载媒体:
https://phys.org/news/2024-07-elephant-sustain-million-dung-beetles.html
6.备注:
奇怪的非洲知识增加了
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQcWFBjajqw