导读:都说虎毒不食子,可是有些有悖于常理的事情就是在现实当中发生了。近日,一名日本研究人员在刚果民主共和国发现,该地的黑猩猩将夭折幼仔的遗体视为一顿丰盛的餐宴。场面血腥,令人难易接受。
At two separate sites in the Democratic Republic of Congo, wild bonobo mothers have been observed eating their dead infants. It was a meal they shared with other bonobos, with the dominant female deciding who got access to the meat.
在刚果民主共和国的两处地点,野生的母倭黑猩猩被观察到食用夭折幼仔的肉体。这是它们与其它倭黑猩猩共同享用的一顿餐宴,当家的母倭黑猩猩决定谁会有肉吃。
The behaviour has only been observed once before, which suggests it is extremely rare. You can see the unexpected behaviour in the picture above.
这种行为之前只被观察到过一次,暗示着其极为罕见。你可以在上图中看到这一出乎意料的行为。
One of the study’s authors, Nahoko Tokuyama of Kyoto University in Japan, says she does not know why the behaviour occurred. "It may be explained by nutritional benefit. However, the number of cases is too small to find biological reasons."
其中的一位研究作者、日本京都大学的Nahoko Tokuyama表示,她不知道为什么会出现这种行为。“可能可以通过营养价值对其进行解释。然而,几次案例很难找出这类生物学原因。”
She was shocked when she saw Hideo (pictured above), an older brother of one of the dead babies appearing to look "happy when he was eating his dead younger sibling". She says they treated the dead infants as any other meat.
当她看到Hideo(上图)——一个夭折的小猩猩的哥哥——“在食用它死去的弟弟的肉体时,表现得十分开心”时,她感到非常震惊。她表示,它们将死去的猩猩幼仔看作其他的肉类。