Elephants in Angola Have Learned to Navigate Minefields on Their Own安哥拉大象无师自通越雷区

文/杰克·弗拉纳金 译/刘莹霈 审订/仲文明

By Jake Flanagin

Elephants in Angola Have Learned to Navigate Minefields on Their Own安哥拉大象无师自通越雷区

文/杰克·弗拉纳金 译/刘莹霈 审订/仲文明

ByJake Flanagin

You might not think that the world’s heaviest land mammal would be good at avoiding landmines—especially since many mines are activated by weight compression. But US Army researchers are training tame African elephants to detect TNT, the AP reported in March 2015. According toThe Economist, the elephants have since proven quite adept at identifying explosive materials “amid decoy odours of bleach, petrol, soap, and tea.”

[2] Using animals to detect unseen hazards is known as “biodetection,”and elephants are particularly good at it. In Angola, one of the most minecontaminated countries in the world,wild elephants have been observed navigating dangerous areas repeatedly and safely—a skill they picked up on their own.

说到躲避地雷，你恐怕不会觉得这是大象的强项，因为它们是世界上最重的陆生哺乳动物，更何况许多地雷都采用了压力触发设置。但据美联社2015年3月的一项报道称，美军研究人员正在训练驯化的非洲象探测TNT炸药；《经济学人》则报道称，有证据表明，大象可以在“漂白剂、汽油、肥皂、茶叶的气味干扰中”，熟练识别出爆炸物。

[2]利用动物探测潜在危险的做法被称为“生物探测”，其中大象的表现尤为突出。安哥拉是世界上最饱受地雷之害的国家之一，但研究人员观测到，生活在此的野象无师自通，多次在星罗棋布的雷区中安然穿行。

[3] The Angolan Civil War, fought intermittently between 1975 to 2002,was one of the bloodiest conflicts to take place on African soil. Researchers at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst estimate that more than 800,000 people lost their lives during those 27 years, with a further 4 million displaced. Humans were not the only casualties. The conflict decimated Angola’s African elephant population—starving civilians hunted them for food,and rebels traded ivory for arms.

[4] When the conflict ended in 2002,very few elephants were left. Some began migrating of their own volition from neighboring Botswana—which is dealing with an elephant overpopulation problem (paywall)—others were airlifted in. Regardless, conservationists working on repopulating Angola’s reserves were understandably anxious at the prospect of large herds rumbling across landmine-strewn territory.

[5] A number of elephants were killed by landlines in the years immediately following the war, but since then,Botswanan elephants seem to have learned to sniff out the danger. “The landmine-death rate has fallen even as the elephant population has increased in Angola’s most heavily mined province,Kuando Kubango in the southeast,”The Economistreports.

[3] 1975年到2002年，安哥拉内战频仍，成为非洲大陆流血冲突最严重的国家之一。据马萨诸塞大学阿默斯特分校的研究人员估算，在此27年间共有八十多万人丧生，四百万人流离失所。然而人类并非战争唯一的受害者，当地的非洲象也深受其殃。不堪忍受饥饿的平民捕杀大象果腹，叛军则谋夺象牙换取武器，因而象群数量骤减。

[4] 2002年，战争硝烟散尽，安哥拉境内的大象也所剩无几。与此同时，邻国博茨瓦纳象满为患，一些大象自发迁徙，越境进入安哥拉，还有一些大象则由空运送达。然而，庞大的象群如何穿越雷区成了棘手的问题，重新划定保护区的动物保护人士为此忧心忡忡。

[5]战后初期几年的时间里，有不少大象触雷身亡。但此后来自博茨瓦纳的大象似乎总能嗅出暗藏的危险。《经济学人》报道称，“在地雷分布密度最大的省份之一——地处东南部的宽多-库帮戈省，虽然象群数量增加，地雷致死率却不断下降”。

[6] “We have not seen any evidence of elephants being blown up or injured by land mine explosions in the three years we have been working in this area,”biologist Michael Chase, who studies elephant behavior in southeastern Angola, toldNational Geographic.

[7] It should come as no surprise.African elephants have one of the best senses of smell in the animal kingdom,with more genes dedicated to olfactory sensation than any other mammal. They have twice the number of smell genes as dogs and five times more than humans,a 2014 study published inGenome Researchclaims. They also have large olfactory bulbs and larger-than-average portions of the brain devoted to smell,compared with other mammals.

[8] The US Army’s new initiative to use elephants as bomb detectors raises the usual questions about the ethics of employing animals in dangerous work, particularly in current or former conflict zones. That, however, may not be a problem for long. So impressive is the elphantine sense of smell that the aforementioned US military researchers are actually seeking to replicate its mechanisms in bomb detecting technology,USA Todayreports. Army engineers are reportedly attempting to design “a sensor based on an elephant trunk, which puffs out air, stirring up an area, and then sucks in air to smell.”

[6]在安哥拉东南地区研究大象行为的生物学家迈克·蔡斯告诉《国家地理》：“我们在此地已有三年，但尚未发现有大象被地雷炸死或炸伤。”

[7]这一结果并不令人意外。相较其他哺乳动物，大象嗅觉基因发达，对于气味的感知在动物王国首屈一指。《基因组研究》2014年发表的一项研究称，大象的嗅觉基因数目是狗的两倍，是人类的六倍；它们拥有体积庞大的嗅球；同时，它们大脑中负责嗅觉的区域远大于哺乳动物的平均水平。

[8]美军训练大象嗅探炸弹的新举动引发由来已久的伦理讨论，即是否应该使用动物在冲突地区或曾爆发冲突地区进行危险作业。但这一问题或许很快就会得以解决：《今日美国》报道，大象嗅探能力惊人，美国军方研究人员正致力于模拟大象嗅觉机制，将其用于改进爆炸物探测技术。据称，军方工程师正基于象鼻构造设计“新型传感器，该传感器首先喷出空气，搅动气流，然后吸入空气，完成嗅探”。

（译者单位：中南大学）