出国留学首选一诺留学

　　中英文本

　　A large flock of starlings performs its endless random dance above a beach in southern England, constantly changing direction as if commanded by a leader. Their movements resemble an organized structure-but careful observations fail to identify the one bird that all the others follow.

　　一大群椋鸟在英格兰南部的海滩之上恣意翱翔,不断改变方向,好像是由一位首领指挥一样。鸟群的动作就像一个有组织的团队，但就算仔细观察也无法认出是哪一位首领带领群鸟。

　　A group of scientists at the University of Warwick say that's because of birds'instinctive need to maintain optimal density of the flock, in order to be able to see through it and watch for predators, while keeping the flock together.

　　华威大学的科学家小组表示这是因为鸟类的本能需要保持最佳的群体密集性,为了能够看穿而且观察捕食者,同时保持鸟群的整体性。

　　The lead researcher of the study, Daniel Pearce, said every bird in the flock has the same set of information.

　　这项研究的首席研究员丹尼尔·皮尔斯表示鸟群体中的每只鸟都有着相同的信息模式。

　　“So it"s like lots of individuals independently choosing to behave in a way that from the outside looks like a very organized structure, but it's actually lots of individuals doing the same thing at the same time.”

　　“所以就像很多独立的个体选择从外面看起来像一个非常有组织结构的行为方式,但实际上是很多个体在同一时间做着同样的事情。”

　　In video recordings, starlings pursued by a predatory bird showed similar behavior.

　　在录像中,被猛禽所捕食的椋鸟们表现出类似的行为。

　　This was further confirmed by a computer model algorithm simulating a flock of starlings in flight.

　　这是通过计算机模型算法模拟飞行中的椋鸟群进一步所证实。

　　“Because the flock is always marginally opaque, the individuals are more likely to be able to see the predator, they're more likely to see the responses of other birds to the predator, and also because they're always trying to keep this high information within their view they always come back together, so the predator is unable to permanently split the flock up.”

　　“因为鸟群总是看起来稍微的密不透风,而个体们更希望可能看到捕食者,更希望看到同类鸟对于捕食者的反应,也正因为总是试图保持这样的高频信息它们总是一起回来,所以捕食者无法永久分裂鸟群。”

　　Physics professor Matthew Turner said what works in the air could work in the water.

　　物理学家教授马修·特纳称鸟类的这种特性在海中的鱼群也同样拥有。

　　“Fish are a little bit different to birds, in that they have other senses. They can measure pressure, for example, but basically they're still visually-based organisms. They look at one another as they move, so we are optimistic that a very similar model could also explain the behavior of fish.”

　　“鱼是有点不同与鸟类,它们有其他的感官。比如鱼类可以测量压力,但基本上仍然依靠视觉的生物。它们在移动时互相观察彼此,所以我们乐观地认为非常类似的模型也可以解释鱼的行为。”

　　Scientists say understanding the behavior of birds may help them create algorithms to direct flocks of small robots, tasked with forming certain shapes or objects.

　　科学家们表示理解鸟类的行为可以帮助他们创建算法用以特定形状或特别物体的成群小机器人。