Joshua Klein: The intelligence of crows

譯者: Yu-Ju Chiang 審譯者: Ai-Ying (Erin) Chiang

How many of you have seen the Alfred Hitchcock film "The Birds"?

有多少人看過希區考克的電影 ｢鳥 ｣?

有人覺得那部片很恐怖嗎?

Any of you get really freaked out by that?

You might want to leave now.

那你最好先離開

(Laughter)

(笑聲)

So this is a vending machine for crows.

這就是烏鴉專用的販賣機

Over the past few days, many of you have been asking,

過去這幾天，很多人問我

"How did you come to this? How did you get started doing this?"

你怎麼做到的？你怎麼會想做這個？

It started, as with many great ideas,

靈感來源，跟許多精彩的想法

or many ideas you can't get rid of, anyway,

或是很多令人無法放棄的點子一樣

at a cocktail party.

就在雞尾酒派對裡

About 10 years ago, I was at a cocktail party with a friend of mine.

大約 10 年前，我和朋友去參加一個雞尾酒派對

我們坐在一旁，然後他開始抱怨起烏鴉

We were sitting there, and he was complaining about the crows

他說他的花園到處都是烏鴉而且被搞得亂七八糟

that were all over his yard and making a big mess.

And he was telling me we ought to eradicate these things,

然後他說我們應該想辦法消滅它們

它們那麼愛搗亂，真該全殺光

kill them, because they're making a mess.

我回答這樣很蠢耶！

I said that was stupid,

或許我們應該訓練牠們做一些有用的事

maybe we should just train them to do something useful.

然後他回答這是不可能的

And he said that was impossible.

And I'm sure I'm in good company in finding that tremendously annoying,

相信很多人跟我一樣，覺得這回答很惹人厭

when someone tells you it's impossible.

當別人跟你說這是不可能的

所以接下來的 10 年，我利用空閒時間了解烏鴉

So I spent the next 10 years reading about crows in my spare time.

(Laughter)

(笑聲)

And after 10 years of this, my wife said,

10 年後，我老婆終於說

"You've got to do this thing you've been talking about,

「聽著，你一定要去做這件事」

「都掛在嘴邊那麼久了。還有，把販賣機做出來。」

and build the vending machine."

所以我就做了

So I did.

我覺得這件事有趣的部份原因

But part of the reason I found this interesting is,

就是我注意到

I started noticing that we're very aware of all the species

我們對於那些因為人類棲息地擴張

that are going extinct on the planet

而瀕臨絕種的物種都非常關注

as a result of human habitation expansion,

不過卻沒有人注意

and no one seems to be paying attention to all the species

那些還存活著的物種，也在為生存奮鬥

that are actually living; they're surviving.

我尤其想點出那些與人類共同生活的物種

And I'm talking specifically about synanthropic species,

就是一些已經適應人類生態的物種

which have adapted specifically for human ecologies,

像是老鼠、蟑螂和烏鴉

species like rats and cockroaches and crows.

And as I started looking at them, I was finding that they had hyper-adapted.

我一開始研究牠們時就發現牠們的適應力極高

牠們已經非常融入我們的生活

They'd become extremely adept at living with us.

And in return, we just tried to kill them all the time.

反觀我們，卻隨時想著要殺牠們

(Laughter)

And in doing so, we were breeding them for parasitism.

因此，我們消滅牠們的手段反而有了反效果

We were giving them all sorts of reasons to adapt new ways.

牠們不得不適應新的生活

So, for example, rats are incredibly responsive breeders.

舉例來說，老鼠是對於環境非常敏感的動物

And cockroaches, as anyone who's tried to get rid of them knows,

而蟑螂，所有想消滅牠們的人都知道

have become really immune to the poisons that we're using.

牠們對蟑螂藥有很強的抗藥性

So I thought, let's build something that's mutually beneficial;

所以我想來做個對雙方都有利的東西

使兩方都能獲益

something that we can both benefit from,

同時找到與這些物種建立新關係的方法

and find some way to make a new relationship with these species.

因此我做了這台販賣機

So I built the vending machine.

But the story of the vending machine is a little more interesting

但是販賣機背後的故事更有趣

如果你了解烏鴉的話

if you know more about crows.

It turns out, crows aren't just surviving with human beings;

你會發現牠們不只是與人類共存

牠們還真的族群繁榮

they're actually thriving.

They're found everywhere on the planet except for the Arctic

到處都看得到牠們，除了極地

和南美洲的最南端以外

and the southern tip of South America.

在這些地方，牠們很少在

And in all that area, they're only rarely found breeding

距離人類棲地超過 5 公里之外的地方繁殖

more than five kilometers away from human beings.

我們可能忘記牠們的存在

So we may not think about them, but they're always around.

但是牠們一直在我們身邊

And not surprisingly, given the human population growth,

如我們預料的，因為人口成長的關係

more than half of the human population is living in cities now.

超過一半的人居住在都市

And out of those, nine-tenths of the human growth population

其中，90% 的人口成長

都發生在都市

is occurring in cities.

We're seeing a population boom with crows.

我們同時也觀察到烏鴉族群數量暴增

So bird counts are indicating

鳥類數量調查顯示烏鴉數量

that we might be seeing up to exponential growth in their numbers.

可能以超過指數成長的速度增加

這沒什麼好驚訝的

So that's no great surprise.

But what was really interesting to me was to find out

對我來說真正有趣的是

that the birds were adapting in a pretty unusual way.

烏鴉適應環境的方式非常特別

給大家看看這個例子

And I'll give you an example of that.

這是貝蒂。一隻新加利多尼亞烏鴉

This is Betty. She's a New Caledonian crow.

And these crows use sticks in the wild

這種烏鴉在野外會利用樹枝

to get insects and whatnot out of pieces of wood.

來抓木頭裡的昆蟲等等的食物

Here, she's trying to get a piece of meat out of a tube.

影片中她想把一小塊肉從試管中叼出來

但是研究人員出了一點小差錯

But the researchers had a problem.

They messed up and left just a stick of wire in there.

不小心把一根鐵絲留在那裡

這是貝蒂第一次做這種事

And she hadn't had the opportunity to do this before.

你看，一開始不太順利

You see, it wasn't working very well.

So she adapted.

所以她開始變通

這全是自發性的，她從沒看過別人這麼做

Now, this is completely unprompted; she had never seen this done before.

No one taught her to bend this into a hook

沒人教過她把鐵絲彎成鉤子

or had shown her how it could happen.

也從來沒有示範給她看過

完全是她自己想到要這麼做

But she did it all on her own.

So keep in mind -- she's never seen this done.

請記住她從來沒看過這樣的舉動

(Laughter)

Right.

像這樣

(Laughter)

(笑聲)

Yeah. All right.

她成功了

(Applause)

(掌聲)

So that's the part where the researchers freak out.

就是這個行為把研究人員嚇壞了

(Laughter)

(笑聲)

It turns out,

結果發現越來越多證據顯示

we've been finding more and more that crows are really intelligent.

烏鴉是非常非常聰明的

牠們的大腦容量比例很均衡

Their brains are in the same proportion as chimpanzee brains are.

跟黑猩猩大腦容量比例一樣

到處都有各種牠們聰明行為的趣聞

There's all kinds of anecdotes

for the different kinds of intelligence they have.

像在瑞典

For example, in Sweden, crows will wait for fishermen

烏鴉會等漁夫在冰上鑽洞放線釣魚

to drop lines through holes in the ice.

漁夫一走

And when the fishermen move off,

烏鴉就飛下來，拉起釣線，吃掉魚或餌

the crows fly down, reel up the lines, and eat the fish or the bait.

漁夫不堪其擾

It's pretty annoying for the fishermen.

On an entirely different tack,

烏鴉還有另一種行為

at University of Washington a few years ago,

發生在華盛頓大學，幾年前

學生因為實驗需要到學校裡抓些烏鴉

they were doing an experiment where they captured some crows on campus.

幾個學生到校園用網子捕到幾隻烏鴉

Some students went out, netted some crows, brought them in,

帶到實驗室，量牠們的體重、身長等等的

weighed and measured them, and let them back out again.

然後再放牠們走

And they were entertained to discover that for the rest of the week,

然後就發現了好笑的事

接下來的整個禮拜，那些烏鴉

只要在學校看到那幾個抓牠們的學生

whenever these particular students walked around campus,

就會大聲鼓譟

these crows would caw at them and run around,

而且在上頭盤旋，讓那些學生日子很難過

and make their life kind of miserable.

(Laughter)

到下個禮拜情況還沒改善，這下他們笑不太出來了

They were significantly less entertained

when this went on for the next week.

然後持續到下個月，甚至到暑假結束

And the next month.

And after summer break.

Until they finally graduated and left campus,

一直到他們畢業離開學校

and -- glad to get away, I'm sure --

我想他們一定很高興終於解脫了

came back sometime later, and found the crows still remembered them.

畢業一陣子後返校，發現這群烏鴉竟然還記得他們

(Laughter)

所以這告訴我們，放聰明點，不要去招惹烏鴉

So, the moral being: don't piss off crows.

所以現在華盛頓大學

So now, students at the University of Washington

that are studying these crows, do so with a giant wig and a big mask.

研究烏鴉的學生

抓烏鴉前必須先戴大假髮和面具變裝

(Laughter)

(笑聲)

It's fairly interesting.

這其實相當有趣

(Laughter)

So we know these crows are really smart,

現在我們知道烏鴉非常聰明

but the more I dug into this, the more I found

我了解的越深入，就發現越多證據

顯示牠們的適應力甚至更高更強

that they actually have an even more significant adaptation.

Video: Crows have become highly skilled at making a living

影片旁白 -- 烏鴉有很高明的生存技能

讓牠們能在都市環境生存下去

in these new urban environments.

In this Japanese city, they have devised a way of eating a food

日本城市裡的烏鴉想出一種方法

可以吃到牠們通常無法自行處理的食物

that normally they can't manage:

drop it among the traffic.

把食物丟到馬路上

The problem now is collecting the bits, without getting run over.

剩下的難題，就是把東西撿回來

而且不被撞到

Wait for the light to stop the traffic.

等到紅燈讓車流停下來

Then, collect your cracked nut in safety.

然後，就能安全的撿回壓碎的果仁了

(Laughter)

(笑聲)

(Applause)

(掌聲)

Joshua Klein: Yeah, pretty interesting.

很有趣吧！

What's significant about this isn't that crows are using cars

這段影片的重點不是烏鴉利用車流來壓碎果實

to crack nuts.

事實上，這已經是烏鴉的老把戲了

In fact, that's old hat for crows.

這是 10 年前的事

This happened about 10 years ago

in a place called Sendai City, at a driving school

發生在仙台的一所駕訓中心

in the suburbs of Tokyo.

位在東京的市郊

And since that time,

從此以後

all the crows in the neighborhood are picking up this behavior.

附近的所有烏鴉都學會這個技巧

現在，方圓 5 公里內的所有烏鴉都會等在人行道旁

Now every crow within five kilometers is standing by a sidewalk,

準備撿回壓碎的果實吃

waiting to collect its lunch.

So they're learning from each other. And research bears this out.

所以牠們會互相學習，研究印證了這一點

父母似乎會教育下一代

Parents seem to be teaching their young.

也會向同伴，甚至是敵人學習

They learn from their peers, they learn from their enemies.

If I have a little extra time,

如果我有多餘的時間，我可以說個烏鴉外遇的故事

I'll tell you about a case of crow infidelity

正清楚表現出這個特性

that illustrates that nicely.

影片的重點是，烏鴉發展出適應環境的習性

The point being, they've developed cultural adaptation.

就像我們昨天聽的

And as we heard yesterday,

that's the Pandora's box that's getting human beings in trouble,

這種人類養成的習性反而為我們帶來麻煩

現在我們必須跟牠們一起承擔

and we're starting to see it with them.

牠們可以快速又靈活的適應

They're able to very quickly and very flexibly adapt

to new challenges and new resources in their environment,

環境變遷帶來的阻礙與挑戰

which is really useful if you live in a city.

如果生活在都市，這是很有用的生存技能

我們知道烏鴉數量很多

So we know that there's lots of crows.

也知道牠們非常聰明又會互相學習

We found out they're really smart and they can teach each other.

這些都確定之後

When all this became clear,

I realized the only obvious thing to do is build a vending machine.

我發現唯一合理的事就是做出一台販賣機

So that's what we did.

這是我們的做法

This is a vending machine for crows.

這是為烏鴉量身打造的販賣機

And it uses Skinnerian training to shape their behavior over four stages.

應用操作制約，以 4 階段步驟訓練烏鴉行為

其實很簡單

It's pretty simple.

Basically, what happens is that we put this out in a field

基本上，過程就是把機器放在野外

or someplace where there's lots of crows.

或任何烏鴉很多的地方

We put coins and peanuts all around the base of the machine.

然後在機器底部放上一些銅板和花生

烏鴉會飛來吃花生

Crows eventually come by, eat the peanuts,

先讓牠們習慣機器

and get used to the machine being there.

最後花生吃光了

Eventually, they eat all the peanuts.

接著牠們發現在餵食盤裡還有一些花生

Then they see peanuts here on the feeder tray,

and hop up and help themselves.

就會跳上來吃掉

Then they leave, the machine spits up more coins and peanuts,

然後烏鴉離開後，販賣機會再吐出一些銅板跟花生

這樣的生活對烏鴉來說簡直是一大享受

and life is dandy if you're a crow --

隨時飛回來就可以吃到花生

you can come back anytime and get yourself a peanut.

So when they get really used to that, we move on to the crows coming back.

牠們很習慣後，我們對回來的烏鴉採取進一步行動

現在他們習慣了機器的聲音，也會一直飛回來

Now they're used to the sound of the machine;

they keep coming back and digging out peanuts

從一堆銅板中挑出花生

from the pile of coins that's there.

當他們吃的樂不思蜀

When they get really happy about this, we stymie them.

我們就干擾牠們吃花生

We move to the third stage, where we only give them a coin.

然後進展到第 3 階段，我們只給一個銅板

Now, like most of us who have gotten used to a good thing,

就像大部分被寵壞的人一樣

烏鴉很生氣

this really pisses them off.

牠們發揮在野外覓食的本能

So they do what they do in nature when they're looking for something:

用鳥喙把東西掃到一旁

sweep things out of the way with their beak.

這樣做恰好把銅板掃進投幣孔

They do that here, and that knocks the coins down the slot.

When that happens, they get a peanut.

如果投進了，就會得到一粒花生

This goes on for some time.

這樣維持了一段時間

烏鴉知道只要牠們飛過來

The crows learn that all they have to do is show up,

等銅板出來，再把銅板投進投幣孔，就有花生

wait for the coin to come out, put it in the slot,

then get their peanut.

當牠們很得心應手的時候

When they're good and comfortable with that,

我們進入最後階段，這時牠們飛過來但是什麼都沒有

we move to the final stage, where they show up and nothing happens.

This is where we see the difference between crows and other animals.

這下烏鴉就表現出和其他動物不同之處

例如松鼠，牠們會跑來找花生，然後離開

Squirrels, for example, would show up, look for the peanut, go away.

再回來找花生，又離開

Come back, look for the peanut, go away.

They do this maybe half a dozen times before they get bored,

重複約 5、6 次後牠們就厭倦了

and then they go off and play in traffic.

然後離開走人

Crows, on the other hand, show up and they try and figure it out.

烏鴉則是會飛來，試著搞清楚狀況

They know this machine has been messing with them

牠們知道販賣機在捉弄牠們

through three different stages of behavior.

因為有過之前的 3 段式行為訓練

(Laughter)

(笑聲)

They figure there must be more to it.

牠們知道一定有什麼機關

So they poke at it and peck at it.

所以牠們就戳戳機器、啄啄機器

And eventually some crow gets a bright idea:

終於有隻烏鴉想到好主意

"Hey, there's lots of coins lying around from the first stage,

「嘿! 地上有好多一開始掉出來的銅板」

「到處都是。」 牠飛下來，撿起銅板，投到投幣孔

hops down, picks it up, drops it in the slot, and we're off to the races.

我們就不再插手干預

That crow enjoys a temporary monopoly on peanuts,

這隻烏鴉很享受這種暫時獨占所有花生的過程

直到同伴們都想到這樣做，我們就達成目的

until his friends figure out how to do it, and then there we go.

So, what's significant about this to me

我覺得這項實驗值得注意的

isn't that we can train crows to pick up peanuts.

不只是我們可以訓練烏鴉撿花生

Mind you, there's 216 million dollars' worth of change lost every year,

請注意，每年有價值 2 億 1600 萬的零錢損失

but I'm not sure I can depend on that ROI from crows.

但是我不確定烏鴉的投資報酬率有這麼高

(Laughter)

Instead, I think we should look a little bit larger.

不過，我覺得我們應該將眼光看遠一點

I think crows can be trained to do other things.

我認為還能訓練烏鴉做其他的事

For example, why not train them to pick up garbage after stadium events?

舉個例子，為什麼不訓練牠們在演唱會後撿垃圾?

Or find expensive components from discarded electronics?

或是從廢棄的電子儀器中找出昂貴的零件?

或是參與搜救行動?

Or maybe do search and rescue?

對我來說，最主要的重點是

The main point of all this for me is,

we can find mutually beneficial systems for these species.

我們可以為這些動物找到一個互利的生存方式

我們可以用其他方法與牠們共存

We can find ways to interact with these other species

不需要消滅他們

that doesn't involve exterminating them,

而是找到一個有效的平衡點與牠們和平共存

but involves finding an equilibrium with them that's a useful balance.

Thanks very much.

感謝大家

(Applause)

(掌聲)