備註請放最後面 違者新聞文章刪除
1.媒體來源:
phys.org
2.記者署名:
Frank Krell
3.完整新聞標題:
研究發現，一頭大象可以在東非大草原上養活超過200萬隻糞金龜
One elephant can sustain more than 2 million dung beetles in east African
savannas, study finds
4.完整新聞內文:
One elephant can sustain more than 2 million dung beetles in east African
savannas, study finds
by Frank Krell, Denver Museum of Nature & Science
An adult and a young savanna elephant near the Mpala Research Centre in
central Kenya. Credit: Frank Krell
How many dung beetles are there in East Africa? That question inspired a
research project more than 20 years ago when Frank Krell was a research
entomologist with the Natural History Museum London. Throughout a
three-year-long project along with his wife, ecologist Sylvia
Krell-Westerwalbesloh, they looked deep into the ecology of dung beetles in
West and East African savannas.
研究發現，一頭大象可以在東非大草原上養活超過200萬隻糞便甲蟲
作者：Frank Krell，丹佛自然科學博物館
肯亞中部姆帕拉研究中心附近的一頭成年稀樹草原象和一頭年輕的稀樹草原象。圖片來源
：弗蘭克·克雷爾
東非有多少糞金龜？這個問題激發了 20 多年前的研究項目，當時 Frank Krell 是倫敦
自然歷史博物館的研究昆蟲學家。在與生態學家妻子 Sylvia Krell-Westerwalbesloh 一
起進行的為期三年的計畫中，他們深入研究了西非和東非稀樹草原的糞金龜生態。
Their latest research is now published in The Science of Nature.
African grasslands are dung beetle heaven. If one, lacking a restroom nearby,
opts to relieve oneself behind the bushes, their waste can disappear within a
half hour because of the abundance of dung beetles. But for elephants, it
will take a bit longer. This led them to an interesting question: how many
beetles does elephant dung attract?
When they visited the Laikipia region in central Kenya, they went to work to
find out. Elephant dung is easy to find as it occurs in large heaps and often
on the road. Upon locating the elephant waste, they collected two balls—also
known as "boli"—and exposed one of them during the night and one during the
daytime on the bare soil to see what would happen.
他們的最新研究現已發表在《自然科學》上。
非洲草原是糞金龜的天堂。如果附近沒有廁所，選擇在灌木叢後面解手，由於蜣螂大量存
在，他們的排泄物會在半小時內消失。但對大象來說，則需要更長的時間。這讓他們想到
了一個有趣的問題：大象的糞便能吸引多少甲蟲？
當他們訪問肯亞中部的萊基皮亞地區時，他們開始工作以找出答案。大象糞便很容易找到
，因為它成堆出現，而且經常出現在路上。找到大象排泄物後，他們收集了兩個球（也稱
為“boli”），並將其中一個在夜間和一個白天暴露在裸露的土壤上，看看會發生什麼。
After half a day each, they collected the remainder of the dung and soil
beneath and extracted all the dung beetles using the floating method, which
is basically throwing the dung into a bucket of water: dung sinks, beetles
float.
While the "day bolus" contained just over 3,300 beetles, the one exposed
overnight, no longer recognizable as a bolus, harbored 13,399 dung-loving
beetles. Sylvia counted them all—ecologists need stamina. All that was left
of the bolus was a thin mat of dung residue.
每人半天后，他們收集了剩餘的糞便和下面的土壤，並使用漂浮法提取了所有糞甲蟲，這
基本上就是將糞便扔進一桶水中：糞便下沉，甲蟲漂浮。
雖然「日間食團」只含有 3,300 多隻甲蟲，但過夜暴露的甲蟲（不再被識別為食團）卻
藏有 13,399 隻糞金龜。西爾維亞把它們全部數了一遍—生態學家需要耐力。糞丸剩
下的只是一層薄薄的糞便殘渣。
It is known that two pounds of elephant dung serve about 13,400 beetles with
food and shelter. Elephants produce on average 320 pounds of dung per day.
That means that one elephant can sustain more than 2 million dung beetles on
any given day.
The Laikipia-Samburu ecosystem, which hosts approximately 5,000 to 7,500
elephants, would then provide for 14 billion dung beetles in an area of over
21,000 square miles—which is about the size of Maryland and New Jersey
combined.
據了解，兩磅大象糞便可以為大約 13,400 隻甲蟲提供食物和住所。大象平均每天產生
320 磅糞便。這意味著一頭大像在任何一天都可以飼養超過 200 萬隻糞甲蟲。
萊基皮亞-桑布魯生態系統擁有約 5,000 至 7,500 頭大象，其面積超過 21,000 平方英
里，大約相當於馬裡蘭州和新澤西州的面積總和，可提供 140 億隻糞甲蟲。
While the African savanna elephant is not currently close to extinction in
East Africa, the species is classified as threatened by the International
Union for Conservation of Nature and did vanish from other parts of continent.
So, what would happen if the elephants disappeared? Some of the beetles would
find other food, but the dung to support 14 billion dung beetles would cease
to exist. The extinction of the majestic largest land mammal on the planet
would undoubtedly have devastating effects on the billions and billions of
smaller animals depending on them.
雖然東非的非洲草原象目前尚未接近滅絕，但該物種被國際自然保護聯盟列為受威脅物種
，並且確實從非洲大陸的其他地區消失了。
那麼，如果大象消失了會發生什麼事呢？有些甲蟲會找到其他食物，但支撐 140 億隻糞
甲蟲的糞便將不復存在。地球上最大的陸地哺乳動物的滅絕無疑會對依賴它們生存的數十
億小型動物產生毀滅性影響。
5.完整新聞連結 (或短網址)不可用YAHOO、LINE、MSN等轉載媒體:
https://phys.org/news/2024-07-elephant-sustain-million-dung-beetles.html
6.備註:
奇怪的非洲知識增加了
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQcWFBjajqw