1 Sneeze, 1 Vote among African Wild Dogs

一个喷嚏响，一只非洲野犬投一票

Individuals in packs of African wild dogs appear to sneeze to make their wishes known regarding when to get up and hunt.

根据观察研究，非洲野犬种群中的个体会用打喷嚏的方式来表达自己希望什么时候起床，什么时候去捕猎。

撰文/播音：贾森·G·戈德曼

翻译：许楠

审校：潘磊

When is a sneeze more than a sneeze? For African wild dogs, it turns out that sneezes are a form of voting. Gather a bunch of wild dogs together and a sneezing chorus becomes a way of implementing democratic decision-making.

什么时候，喷嚏不仅仅是一个喷嚏呢？对于非洲野犬来说，喷嚏某种意义上就是一种投票形式。当一群野犬聚到一起后，“喷嚏交响曲”便成了民主决议的一种方式。

African wild dogs, also known as painted dogs thanks to their colorful, splotchy coats, are known for highly energetic greeting rituals called social rallies.

非洲野犬，因为它们毛皮上毛发上带有各种颜色各种式样的色斑，也被称为杂色狼。它们因为种群内部充满激情的会面仪式，即社会集会（social rallies）而闻名。

"It's kind of flat and shrubby in Botswana where these dogs are living. So they spend all day sleeping usually in the shade in dog piles without 20 meters of one another.”

Botswana Predator Conservation Trust and Brown University researcher Hallie Walker.

“这种犬栖息于博茨瓦纳的平原地区和灌木地带。他们通常会成群趴在阴凉处上睡一整天，每只野犬与彼此的间隔不超过20米。” 博茨瓦纳肉食动物保护协会和布朗大学的研究人员哈莉•沃克（Hallie Walker）这样描述。

“And so once one dog wants to leave and go hunting, they'll get up from rest and assume this kind of stereotyped posture…I think the easiest way to imagine it is when you get home from work and your dog is really excited to see you; they do that but with each other."

She and her colleagues noticed that dogs would sneeze a lot near the end of their social rallies. At first, they thought the dogs were simply clearing out their dusty airways, but a closer look revealed something more complex.

“当有一只野犬想要离开去捕猎时，休息着的其他野犬也会随着站起身来。这是似乎一种程序性的姿势……我认为最简单的联想是：当你下班回家，你的狗狗看到你时会非常兴奋——野犬们也会这样做，但对象是同群的伙伴。”

她和她的同事们注意到，野犬在社会集会接近尾声的时候，会打很多的喷嚏。一开始，研究者们认为这只是野犬在清理气道内的灰尘，但是更近距离的观察显示，事实并非如此简单。

Walker and her team recorded the details of 68 social rallies from five different wild dog packs in Botswana. And the more sneezes they counted, the more likely it was that the pack would move off and begin hunting. One sneeze, one vote. The finding is in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. [Reena H. Walker et al., Sneeze to leave: African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus) use variable quorum thresholds facilitated by sneezes in collective decisions]

沃克和她的团队详细记录了博茨瓦纳五种野犬的68次社会集会。他们发现，一次集会中记录到的喷嚏越多，这个种群就越可能迁徙或开始捕猎。一个喷嚏，就是一票。该发现被收录于英国皇家学会汇刊。

It's not a perfectly democratic system though. When the dominant pair of dogs was involved in the sneeze-fest, the pack only required a few sneezes before they took off. But if the dominant pair was not involved, an average of 10 sneezes was needed to decide the matter. Seems that some votes carry more weight than others.

但是这并不是完美的民主制度。当地位高的野犬参与到“喷嚏会议”时，便只需要很少的几个喷嚏就可以决定这个种群的行动。但是如果地位高的野犬没有参与其中，就需要平均十个喷嚏的投票才能进行决定。看来有的投票所占权重比较高。

African wild dogs are highly endangered—there may be just 1,400 fully grown adults left in the wild. Walker argues that the more we can understand their behavior and pack dynamics, the better positioned we can be to protect them.

非洲野犬是极度濒危物种，在野外环境下，也许只有1,400只完全成年的个体存留。沃克表示，我们越了解它们的行为和族群内部权力行驶方式（pack dynamics），我们就越有可能从更好的角度保护它们。

"Anything that we learn more about their decision making can help us manage them better and anticipate those decisions. So that even something as simple as understanding…how they make decisions amongst themselves will help conservationists anticipate those decisions and try to prevent any human–wildlife conflict."—Jason G. Goldman

“我们对于它们进行决策的各个方面了解的更多，就可以更好地从大层面上管理它们和预测它们的行为。即便只是简单地了解到它们之间是如何进行决策的，也可以帮助自然资源保护学家们预测它们的动向，从而避免人类和野生动物之间的冲突。” 贾森·G·戈德曼发言。