This weird trick will help you summon an army of worms - Kenny Coogan

翻译人员: Sirius Xie 校对人员: Yan Li Xiao

In the middle of Florida’s Apalachicola National Forest,

在佛罗里达州的阿巴拉契科拉 国家森林中间

a bizarre, almost magical scene is unraveling.

正上演奇特的、近乎魔法的一幕。

Sliding a metal strip over a wooden stake,

利用一根金属条在木桩上的滑动，

a master summoner is sending deep croaking noises reverberating through the area.

一个大师召唤者让咔吱咔嚓声 回荡在整个区域。

And, as if in a trance,

如同中了迷幻魔法一样，

hundreds of earthworms begin emerging from the soil.

成百上千的蚯蚓从土壤中冒出来。

This is worm grunting, also called worm charming or fiddling.

这就是蚯蚓召唤术，也被称为 蚯蚓吸引法则，或吸蚯大法。

It’s a tradition that’s been practiced for more than a century,

这种传统已有百年之久，

but its inner workings were a mystery until only recently.

但直到最近， 它的原理仍旧是个谜团。

Worms collectively undertaking an underground exodus

蚯蚓们集体进行地下大逃亡,

seems especially unbelievable when you consider how vulnerable this makes them.

考虑到这让它们会变得多么脆弱， 这令人有些难以置信。

So why is surfacing worth the risk?

那么，是什么让他们冒险冒头的呢？

Over the years, people have proposed a number of imaginative hypotheses.

多年来，人们提出了 许多富有想象力的假说。

One was that worms were somehow charmed by the noise,

一种说法是蚯蚓被这种声音蛊惑了，

like the rats from the medieval Pied Piper legend.

就像中世纪的花衣魔笛 传说中的老鼠那样。

Okay, sounds fun, but how would the worms actually become bewitched?

听起来很有趣，可是蚯蚓到底是 怎么被蛊惑的呢？

Another hypothesis was that worm grunting tickled their bodies,

另一种说法是蚯蚓召唤术 使它们的身体发痒，

so they emerged to end the aggravation.

于是它们出来避免它的加剧。

Whimsical!

真是异想天开！

But worm grunting vibrates the ground’s surface.

但是，蚯蚓召唤术给地表带来了震动。

If worms were evading the vibrations, wouldn't they burrow deeper instead?

如果蚯蚓是为了躲避震动的话， 那他们不应该钻得更深吗？

Perhaps the most popular hypothesis was that worm grunting mimicked falling rain

最出名的说法是： 蚯蚓召唤术是在模仿下雨，

and the worms fled to avoid drowning.

而蚯蚓逃出来是为了避免溺水。

In 2008, biologist Kenneth Catania tested this hypothesis,

2008 年，生物学家肯尼斯·卡塔尼亚 （Kenneth Catania）证伪了这个假说，

setting up three arenas filled with soil

他用土填满了三个培养体，

and 300 individuals of the large species of earthworm

并饲养了在佛罗里达狭地

found in the Florida Panhandle.

找到的 300 只大型蚯蚓。

After an hour of rain, water had pooled at the surface,

下了一个小时的雨后， 水已经聚集在土壤表面了，

but only two earthworms emerged.

但是只有两只大型蚯蚓浮出了表面，

The rest remained buried and healthy.

其余的都安然无恙地被埋在下面。

So, unlike those containers, this hypothesis just didn’t hold water.

所以，不像这些容器， 这个假说是站不住脚的。

Catania decided to explore another route of inquiry.

卡塔尼亚 （Catania） 决定换个调查思路。

In 1881, Charles Darwin published his final work,

1881 年，查尔斯·达尔文（Charles Darwin）发表了他最后一部著作，

a bestseller that rivaled his most well-known books at the time:

这本畅销书堪比 他当时最著名的著作:

“The Formation of Vegetable Mould, Through the Action of Worms,

《腐殖土产生与蚯蚓的作用》

with Observations on their Habits.”

《腐殖土产生与蚯蚓的作用》

Yes, it was literally called that—

是的，这就是它的名字—

and it was the culmination of 40 years of earthworm investigations.

它是蚯蚓研究 40 年的巅峰。

Within it, Darwin noted that worms sometimes left their burrows

在书中，达尔文提到，地面震动时 蚯蚓有时会离开它们的洞穴

when the ground trembled and mentioned an interesting hypothesis:

并提出了一个有趣的假说：

maybe they flee because they believe they’re being pursued by moles.

也许蚯蚓的逃离是因为 它们认为自己在被鼹鼠追赶。

Catania got to work testing this hypothesis himself.

卡塔尼亚决定验证这个假说。

He found that Eastern moles had astounding tracking abilities,

他发现鼹鼠有惊人的追踪能力，

could eat their weight in worms every day,

他们每天都能吃 和自己体重相当的蚯蚓，

and were abundant in the Florida Panhandle.

而且大量存在于佛罗里达狭地。

When Catania released a single mole into worm- and soil-filled arenas,

当卡塔尼亚将一只鼹鼠放到满是 蚯蚓和泥土的培养体里时，

about 30% of the worms crawled to the surface in the first hour—

大约 30% 的蚯蚓在 第一个小时内爬到地面—

a markedly different result from the control and rain trials.

这与对照的降雨试验结果明显不同。

And when he recorded the vibrations produced

他记录下并对比了

by worm grunters and moles digging,

蚯蚓召唤术和鼹鼠挖掘时 所产生的震动，

their frequencies overlapped substantially.

并发现它们的频率基本相同。

This was it.

就是这个。

Over hundreds of thousands of years,

在数十万年的时间里，

these earthworms evolved a behavior that helped them escape a top predator.

这些蚯蚓进化出了这种行为 来帮助它们躲避最顶尖的捕食者。

Aboveground, they were immune to the moles,

在地表之上， 鼹鼠不再是它们的威胁，

which usually stayed subterranean.

因为它们通常在地下活动。

But then humans came along.

但后来人类出现了。

And, funnily enough, we aren’t even the only ones

而且有趣的是， 我们并不是这种行为的

that take advantage of this behavior.

唯一受益者。

Herring gulls and wood turtles also sometimes drum their feet on the earth

银鸥和木雕水龟有时 也会在地面上跺脚

to summon worms.

来吸引蚯蚓。

So then why does this behavior persist?

那么为什么蚯蚓还会保持这种习性呢？

Scientists think it’s beneficial for a prey species

科学家认为，对于猎物来说，

to maintain its adaptations against a more frequent predator,

保持这种适应能力使它们面对 更为频繁的捕食者时是有利的，

even if it makes it more vulnerable to a rarer one.

尽管这意味着可能更容易受到 较为罕见的捕食者的攻击。

Many insects, for example, use flight to avoid predation.

例如，许多昆虫通过飞行来躲避捕食。

But painted redstarts take advantage of this:

而彩色的红尾鸲则会利用这一点：

they boldly flash their colorful tail and wing feathers to elicit this response,

它们会大胆地亮出五颜六色的尾巴 和羽毛来引起这种反应，

then catch the insects as they try to fly away.

然后在昆虫试图飞走时抓住它们。

It seems the prey species’ response remains

被捕食物种的反应似乎很单一

simply because it’s beneficial most of the time.

因为它在大多数时候都是有益的。

For over a century, humans in the southern US, the UK, and elsewhere

一个多世纪以来，美国南部、 英国和其他地方的人类

have been unknowingly exploiting the worm’s escape response.

一直在不知不觉地利用 这种蚯蚓的逃跑反应。

The current world record for “most worms charmed”

当前 “召唤最多蚯蚓” 的世界纪录

was set by a 10-year-old British girl in 2009.

是由一名 10 岁的英国女孩 在 2009 年创造的。

Wiggling a fork in the ground and hitting it with a stick,

她把草叉插进地里晃动， 用木棍敲打木柄，

she made 567 worms surface in just 30 minutes.

然后在短短 30 分钟内 使 567 条蚯蚓浮出地表。

Charming, really.

真迷人。