Extreme Sleep Behavior of Antarctic Penguins

Extreme Sleep Behavior of Antarctic Penguins

南极企鹅的极端睡眠行为

【原文听力】

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　　By Gregory Stachel

　　04 December 2023

　　Almost all new parents struggle to get enough sleep while caring for their newborns. For some penguin parents, though, periods of sleep are especially short.

　　Penguins are birds that cannot fly but use their wings for swimming. They live in or near the Antarctic.

　　Researchers recently found that Chinstrap penguins only sleep for about four seconds at a time in order to protect their eggs and newborn chicks. They do this thousands of times throughout the day.

　　A study on the findings recently appeared in the publication Science.

　　The short "microsleeps" total around 11 hours each day. The microsleeps appear to be enough to keep the parents going for many weeks.

　　Niels Rattenborg is a sleep researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence in Germany. He helped write the new study. He said these penguins blink "... their eyes open and shut, and they do it 24/7 for several weeks at a time."

　　"What's surprising is that they're able to function okay and successfully raise their young," he said.

　　Chinstrap penguins usually lay their eggs in November in nests made up of small rocks. As with many other kinds of penguins, mated pairs share parenting responsibilities. One parent usually watches the eggs and chicks alone while the other goes off fishing for family meals.

　　Adult penguins do not face many natural predators in the mating season. But large birds called brown skuas eat the penguin eggs and small chicks. Other adult penguins may also try to steal the small rocks from nests. So, penguin parents must always be on guard.

　　For the first time, scientists followed the sleeping behavior of Chinstrap penguins in an Antarctic mating colony. They did this by attaching devices that measure brain waves. They collected data on 14 adults over 11 days on King George Island off the coast of Antarctica.

　　Won Young Lee is a biologist at the Korean Polar Research Institute. He thought of the idea for the study when he saw mating penguins often blinking their eyes and possibly sleeping during his long days of field observations. But the team needed to record brain waves to confirm the animals were sleeping.

　　"For these penguins, microsleeps have some restorative functions," he said. He added that they would not survive without it.

　　The researchers did not collect sleep data outside the mating season. But they suspect that the penguins may sleep for longer periods at other times of the year.

　　Paul-Antoine Libourel is a sleep researcher at the Neuroscience Research Center of Lyon in France. He also helped write the study. He said scientists do not yet know if the gains from microsleep are the same as gains from longer periods of time. Scientists also do not know if other kinds of penguins sleep in such short periods.

　　Researchers have documented a few other animals with special sleeping adaptations. For example, frigatebirds can sleep with one half of their brain at a time while flying.

　　But researchers say the Chinstrap penguin microsleeps appear to be a new extreme.

　　Daniel Paranhos Zitterbart studies penguins at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts. He was not involved in the study. He noted that penguins mate in crowded colonies and their predators are around at the same time. He described microsleeping as "an amazing adaptation" that permits the penguins to be nearly always on guard.

　　I'm Gregory Stachel.

　　Christina Larson reported this story for The Associated Press. Gregory Stachel adapted it for VOA Learning English.

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　　作者：Gregory Stachel

　　2023年12月4日

　　几乎所有的新生父母在照顾新生儿时都难以获得足够的睡眠。然而，对于一些企鹅父母来说，睡眠时间尤其短暂。

　　企鹅是不能飞翔但用翅膀游泳的鸟类。他们生活在南极或其附近。

　　研究人员最近发现，颏带企鹅为了保护他们的蛋和新生小鸟，每次只睡眠大约四秒钟。他们一天要这样做上千次。

　　关于这些发现的研究最近发表在《科学》杂志上。

　　这些短暂的“微睡眠”每天总共约11小时。这些微睡眠似乎足以让父母们持续几周。

　　尼尔斯·拉滕堡是德国马克斯·普朗克生物智能研究所的一名睡眠研究员。他帮助撰写了这项新研究。他说这些企鹅眨眼“...他们的眼睛开开关关，他们一天24小时，连续几周都这样做。”

　　“令人惊讶的是，他们能够正常运作并成功养育他们的幼崽，”他说。

　　颏带企鹅通常在11月份在由小石头堆成的巢中产蛋。像许多其他种类的企鹅一样，配对的企鹅共享育儿责任。一般情况下，一只企鹅会独自看守蛋和小鸟，而另一只则去捕鱼为家庭提供食物。

　　在繁殖季节，成年企鹅面临的自然捕食者并不多。但是一种叫做棕色贼鸥的大鸟会吃企鹅的蛋和小鸟。其他成年企鹅也可能试图从巢中偷走小石头。所以，企鹅父母必须时刻保持警惕。

　　科学家们首次跟踪了南极繁殖群体中颏带企鹅的睡眠行为。他们通过附着测量脑电波的设备来实现这一目标。他们在南极洲海岸的乔治王岛上，对14只成年企鹅进行了11天的数据收集。

　　Won Young Lee是韩国极地研究所的一名生物学家。他在长时间的野外观察中看到繁殖的企鹅经常眨眼，可能在睡觉，于是他想到了进行这项研究的想法。但是，团队需要记录脑电波以确认动物们是否在睡觉。

　　"对于这些企鹅来说，微睡眠有一些恢复功能，"他说。他补充说，没有它们就无法生存。

　　研究人员没有在繁殖季节之外收集睡眠数据。但他们怀疑，企鹅在一年的其他时间可能会睡更长的时间。

　　Paul-Antoine Libourel是法国里昂神经科学研究中心的一名睡眠研究员，他也参与了这项研究的撰写。他说，科学家们还不知道微睡眠带来的益处是否与长时间睡眠的益处相同。科学家们也不知道其他种类的企鹅是否也有如此短暂的睡眠时间。

　　研究人员已经记录了一些具有特殊睡眠适应性的动物。例如，军舰鸟可以在飞行时一次只用脑的一半来睡觉。

　　但研究人员说，颏带企鹅的微睡眠似乎是一种新的极端情况。

　　Daniel Paranhos Zitterbart在马萨诸塞州的伍兹霍尔海洋研究所研究企鹅。他并未参与这项研究。他指出，企鹅在拥挤的群体中交配，而他们的捕食者也在同一时间出现。他将微睡眠描述为"一种令人惊奇的适应性"，使企鹅几乎总是保持警惕。

　　我是Gregory Stachel。

　　Christina Larson为美联社报道了这个故事。Gregory Stachel为VOA学习英语改编了它。

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　　这个故事中的词汇

　　blink - v. 快速地闭上然后睁开你的眼睛

　　shut - v. 关闭（某物），nest - n. 鸟类产卵和照顾幼崽的地方

　　predator - n.通过捕杀和食用其他动物来生存的动物：捕食其他动物的动物

　　restore - adj. 大量的，大的，或者数量众多的

　　adaptation - adj.有使人恢复强壮或健康的能力

　　amazing - adj. 引起极大惊奇或惊讶的