为什么一些动物不能被驯化？Why Some Animals Can't be Domesticated？

为什么一些动物不能被驯化？Why Some Animals Can't be Domesticated？
Let's make a domestication checklist, shall we?
我们来创建一个驯化清单，好吗？
First up: Feedable. A cow is a machine that turns grass into steaks. And a tiger, a machine that turns steaks into tiger.
首先来讲：可饲养。牛能把草转化为牛排；而老虎，则能把牛排转化为老虎。
Ten pounds of grass make a pound of steak.
十磅草能够转化成一磅的牛排。
And ten pounds of steak make a pound of tiger.
而十磅牛排可以转化成一磅老虎。
But these have the same number of calories -- so you might as well just eat the cow and save yourself a lot of work.
但它们的卡路里是一样的——因此你不妨直接吃牛肉，省下不少麻烦。
So pure carnivores: you're not going to domesticate, just because of thermodynamics.
因此，对于那些纯肉食动物：仅仅因为热力学的原因，人类是不会去驯化它们的。
You're looking for herbivores that aren't picky.
你要找的是那些不挑食的食草动物。
They should eat something that's everywhere that you can't eat.
它们吃的应该是你无法食用，但却随处可见的东西。
Any omnivores better be happy eating whatever and better be super worth it.
任何杂食动物都应该乐于吃下任何东西，并且它们的存在非常值得。
We are, however, putting the pig before the pen here because first we need to catch something that's friendly.
然而，在这之前，我们似乎把车前马后了，因为我们首先需要去捕捉一些友好的东西。
OK, obviously catching a carnivore is a bad idea anyway because their day job is murder.
显然，去捕捉食肉动物是个坏主意，因为它们的日常工作可是“谋杀”。
But plenty of omnivores like grizzleys moonlight in murder.
但很多像灰熊这样的杂食动物，也会偷偷进行捕杀。
No safety in vegetarians either: buffalo are terrifying tanks for all the reasons mentioned before.
连素食动物也不例外：正如之前所述，水牛就像是可怕的坦克一样令人畏惧。
Hippos hold the murder high-score in Africa.
在非洲，河马的杀戮记录可谓是数一数二的。
Giraffes look real dorky until you consider their striking range -- lions mostly leave them alone.
长颈鹿看起来可能有点傻，但当你了解到它们那惊人的打击范围后，就会发现即便是狮子也多半会选择避开它们。
Animals it would be awesome to domesticate are, not coincidentally, super dangerous.
值得驯化的动物，往往也是非常危险的。
War bears would be a hell of an advantage for your tribe, but it's not going to happen.
如果你的部落拥有战熊，那将是极大的优势，但这几乎不可能实现。
And if it's big and not dangerous, it's a nervous wreck.
如果它体型庞大却不具威胁性，那它的存在也会让人惊慌。
Try sneaking up on a gazelle?
尝试偷偷接近一只瞪羚怎么样？
Rhymes with "LOL".
我只能大笑了之。
Sure, you and a team of buddies could spend the whole day marathon, jogging it down to exhaustion.
当然，你可以和一群伙伴一起，用整整一天的时间来马拉松式地追逐，直到追得它精疲力尽。
But if it doesn't break it's own neck as you try to drag it back home, then it's going to casually leap out of whatever pen you built for it.
但如果你试着把它拖回家的时候，它没有因此而断了脖子。那它很可能会轻而易举地跳出你为它搭建的围栏。
Ok, next up: some animals have reproductive -- ah -- preferences... that make them incompatible with captivity.
好，下一个话题：有些动物在繁殖上有着特定的偏好，这让它们不适应生活在圈养环境中。
Looking at you, Pandas.
说到这，不得不提熊猫。
The time and energy humans have spent to get pandas to get on with it is comical.
人类花费如此多的时间和精力试图让熊猫繁衍，这一幕实在令人啼笑皆非。
Hunter-Gatherers need an animal so eager to breed, it gets it wrong sometimes.
狩猎采集者需要的是一种繁殖欲望十分强烈，有时候会出错的动物。
Not an animal whose mating seasons they have to keep careful track of.
而不是那种需要他们密切跟踪配种季节的动物。
So: Friendly, Feedable and -- Fecund.
因此，值得驯化的动物要既友好、可饲养，也极为多产。
It also needs to grow up fast.
它还需要迅速成长。
This gets us to the heart of domestication versus taming.
这引出了驯化与驯服之间的关键区别。
Again: to domesticate a species is to change it to make it better for us.
再次说明：驯化一个物种的目的是改变它，让它更加符合我们的需求。
And side note here: we domesticate plants as well.
顺便说一下：我们同样也对植物进行驯化。
We've bred them to be monstrous versions of their wild selves.
我们把它们培育成了其野生形态的巨大变异版本。
So when hippies talk about going back to nature, they forget that these plants are just as man made as this pop-tart.
因此，当嬉皮士们提倡回归自然时，他们忽略了这些植物其实和小甜饼一样，同样是人工培育出来的。
Anyway, back to the animals...
话说回来，再来讨论动物们。
The pig porkification project succeeded because pig generations are shorter than human generations.
猪肉化项目之所以成功，是因为猪的繁殖周期比人类的更短。
A single, clever human can make porky progress in their lifetime.
一个聪明的人在其一生中，能够在猪肉化方面取得显著进展。
Compare and contrast: Elephants.
对比分析：大象。
Two years to make a calf, five years in between calves, nine years until female maturity, fifteen years for males?
生育一头小象需要两年时间，两胎之间相隔五年，雌象九岁成熟，而雄象要到十五岁才成熟？
You've got to be kidding, Elephants.
你在开玩笑吗，大象。
There's no time for this.
现在没空搞这些。
But humans can still tame elephants.
但人们依然能够驯服大象。
You can catch an elephant, and train it not to freak out around humans.
你可以捕捉一头大象，并且训练它在人类附近时保持镇定。
Then, put it to work.
接着，让它开始工作。
But elephant domestication would require accurate records over several human lives...
但是驯化大象需要跨越几代人的精确记录……
Never mind that keeping one or two tamed elephants around is incredibly costly, which is why war elephants only happened on occasion in already complex societies.
养一两头驯象的成本极为昂贵。这正是战象仅在那些已高度发达的社会中偶尔才会出现的原因。
Tame elephants are a luxury, hence this rule of thumb: if it's on farm, it's domesticated, if it's in a circus, it's tame.
驯服大象属于奢侈之举，因此有个简单的判断原则：如果在农场，它是被驯养了；如果在马戏团，它是被驯服了。
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