The history of the world according to rats - Max G. Levy

翻译人员: Arianna Malik 校对人员: Bruce Wang

On a grey London day in 1851,

在1851年伦敦的一个灰暗的日子里，

a captivated crowd gathered around a makeshift stage.

一群迷住的人群聚集在临时舞台 周围。

At the center stood a man adorned in a top hat,

中间站着一个戴 着大礼帽、

leather sash, and a swarm of rats.

皮腰带和一群老鼠的男人。

This showman, Jack Black, had risen to fame

这位表演者杰克·布莱克

claiming to be Queen Victoria’s authorized rat catcher.

声名鹊起， 声称自己是维多利亚女王的 授权捕鼠者。

And between tricks, he lectured the crowd on his poisons

在技巧之间，他向观众讲授 了自己的毒药

and unique ability to capture hundreds of vermin with just his bare hands.

和赤手空拳捕获 数百只害虫的独特能力。

This is just one of many junctures in the long entangled history

这只是人类和老鼠漫长而纠结的历史

of human and rat.

中的众多转折点之一。

The two most common species of rat, brown and black,

两种最常见的老鼠， 棕色和黑色老鼠，

both scurried onto the scene roughly 1 to 3 million years ago in Asia.

都是在大约 100万到300万年前在亚洲匆忙出现的。

There, they craftily survived Earth’s most recent ice age,

在那里，他们巧妙地在 地球最近的冰河时代幸存下来，

and eventually, began living around and with humans.

并最终开始与人类 一起生活和生活。

Their constant presence even earned them a spot in the Chinese zodiac,

他们的持续存在甚至为 他们在中国十二生肖中赢得了一席之地，

where they symbolize new beginnings.

在那里他们象征着新的开始。

Brown and black rats are generalists—

棕鼠和黑鼠是通才，

a biological badge ascribed to species who can brave diverse climates and diets.

这是一种生物学标志，归因于能够勇敢面对不同气候和饮食的物种。

So when trade routes opened between East Asia and the West,

因此，当东亚和西方 之间的贸易路线开通时，

rats naturally tagged along.

老鼠自然会随波逐流。

Black rats were the first to venture out,

据估计，黑老鼠是第一个冒险出去的人，他们

sneaking aboard ships from India to Egypt an estimated 5,000 years ago.

潜入了从印度到埃及的船只， 大约在5000年前。

Some believe that this rodent influx into Egypt

有些人认为，这种啮齿类动物涌 入埃及

fueled their ancient spiritual reverence of cats.

激发了他们古老对猫的精神崇敬。

After all, they were top-of-the-line rat catchers.

毕竟，他们是顶级的捕 鼠者。

Trade between Egypt and the Romans brought black rats to Europe.

埃及和罗马人之间的贸易将黑老鼠 带到了欧洲。

And by 300 CE,

到公元300年，

these stowaways claimed lands as far as the Anglo-Celtic Isles—

这些偷渡者夺取了远至盎格鲁-凯尔特群岛的土地，

earning notoriety along the way.

一路上声名狼藉。

Beyond pilfering and reproducing like there's no tomorrow,

除了 像没有明天一样偷窃和繁殖外，

black rats brought bacterial and viral infections,

黑老鼠还带来了细菌 和病毒感染，

which they spread to humans through their droppings and urine.

它们 通过粪便和尿液将其传播给人类。

In the late 1340s, history's most infamous plague, the Black Death,

在1340年代后期，历史上最臭名昭著的 鼠疫黑死病

killed tens of millions of people, or around half of Europe’s population.

造成数千万人死亡，约 占欧洲人口的一半。

To this day, many lay the blame on rats.

时至今日，许多人仍将责任归咎于老鼠。

However, the real story is more complicated.

但是，真实的故事 要复杂得多。

Black rats don’t directly spread the plague to humans;

黑鼠不会将鼠疫直接传播 给人类；

though they can carry the fleas that transmit the bacterium responsible.

尽管它们可以携带 传播致病细菌的跳蚤。

And brown rats, which hadn't yet set foot in Europe,

而且， 尚未涉足欧洲的棕老鼠的爪子上

don't have any blood on their paws.

没有任何血迹。

Back in Japan, these brown rats were receiving a warmer welcome

回到日本，

as pet rats grew in popularity.

随着宠物老鼠越来越 受欢迎，这些棕老鼠受到了更热烈的欢迎。

250-year-old guidebooks detail tips on rodent domestication,

拥有 250 年历史的指南详细 介绍了啮齿类动物驯化的小贴士，

and how to breed the most affectionate rats

以及如何用各种毛色和图案

in various coat colors and patterns.

繁殖最亲切的老鼠。

Wild brown rats finally entered Europe

野生棕鼠终于在13 至18世纪的

sometime between the 13th and 18th century,

某个时候

by ship and perhaps, sometimes, by treading water.

通过船只进入欧洲， 有时甚至可能通过踩水进入欧洲。

Some say a particularly violent earthquake in 1727 led hordes of brown rats

有人说，1727年发生的一 次特别猛烈的地震导致成群的棕鼠

to swim across the Volga River into Russia.

游过伏尔加河 进入俄罗斯。

Eventually, the larger and more adaptable brown rats displaced the black rats

最终，在欧洲和北美的家庭和城市中，体型更大、适应性更强的 棕老鼠

in homes and cities across Europe and North America

在资源 上竞争，

by outcompeting them for resources.

从而取代了黑老鼠。

The Industrial Revolution only bolstered the lives of industrious brown rats.

工业革命只会提振 勤劳的棕老鼠的生活。

As cities expanded,

随着城市的扩张，

rats thrived by making homes of our sewers and buffets of our trash.

老鼠通过建造下水道 和垃圾自助餐来蓬勃发展。

They even evolved resistance to our poisons,

他们甚至进化出 对我们毒药的抵抗力，这

to the dismay of exterminators who inherited Jack Black’s mission.

让继承了杰克·布莱克使命的灭虫 者感到沮丧。

But the human-rat race took a monumental turn in 1906,

但是在1906年，人鼠竞赛发生了极为庞大的转变，

when the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia bred the first standard rat strain

当费城的Wistar研究所培育出第一种用于科学研究的

for scientific research.

标准大鼠菌株。

Rats are unrivaled lab animals.

老鼠是无与伦比的实验动物。

Their bodies function and respond to disease similarly to humans,

它们的身体机能和 对疾病的反应与人类相似，

and we share much of the same genome.

而且我们的基因组大致相同。

Plus, they’re smart, which has made them indispensable to neuroscience

另外，它们很聪明，这使得它们在神经科学

and psychology research.

和心理学研究中 不可或缺。

In the 1960s, for example,

例如，在1960年代，

scientists observed that rats raised with toys and companions

科学家观察到用玩具和同伴 抚养的老鼠的脑皮质组织 比

had thicker cortical brain tissue than those who didn’t.

没有玩具和同伴的老鼠的脑皮层组织更厚。

This helped establish the concept of neuroplasticity,

这有助于建立神经可塑 性的概念，

which explains how our environments and learning shape our minds.

它解释了我们的环境 和学习如何塑造我们的思想。

Today, rats are often regarded as the most successful invasive species

今天，老鼠通常被认为是世界上 最成功的

in the world.

入侵物种。

And this comes at a price—

这是有代价的——

they often live at the mercy of human priorities.

他们往往受人类优先事项 的摆布。

In cities like New York, they’re reviled enough to warrant

在纽约这样的城市， 它们受到的谴责足以证明需要

multi-million-dollar extermination efforts.

数百万美元的灭绝行动。

But if history is any indication,

但是，如果历史有任何迹象的话，

no amount of money, nor skill of rat catcher,

任何金钱或捕鼠技巧

will ever fully rid us of our rodent shadows.

都无法完全摆脱我们的 啮齿动物阴影。