【新译Y宇宙】No. 23 拯救犀牛，就是拯救植物

If Sumatran rhinoceroses vanish, other forest organisms may do so, too.

如果苏门答腊犀牛消失，其他森林生物可能也会消失。

Sumatran rhinoceroses

苏门答腊犀牛

图片来源｜经济学人

All species of rhinoceros are in trouble, as poachers kill them to take their horns. But Sumatran rhinos are in extremis. Fewer than 80 remain alive, and that hand­ful is scattered between three groups in Su­matra and one in Borneo. This is terrible news for the species itself. But Kim McCon­key and Ahimsa Campos­Arceiz at the Uni­versity of Nottingham, in Britain, think it has wider ramifications—for, as they ex­plain in a paper in Biotropica, several plant species also depend on Sumatran rhinos for their survival.

所有种类的犀牛都有麻烦，因为偷猎者会杀死犀牛来获取犀角。但苏门答腊犀牛正处于绝境。这一种群分散在苏马特拉的三个群体和婆罗洲的一个群体之间，只有不到80只生存了下来。这对这个物种本身来说是个可怕的消息。然而，英国诺丁汉大学的Kim McConkey和Ahimsa Campos-Arceiz认为，它具有更广泛的影响— —因为，正如他们在《生物热带》（Biotropica）杂志上发表的一篇论文所揭示的那样，一些植物物种也依赖于苏门答腊犀牛来生存。

A large proportion of a Sumatran rhi­no’s diet is fruit. The evolutionary bargain between frugivores and plants is that the plants coat indigestible seeds with tasty and nutritious pulp as payment for the fru­givores’ dispersal of those seeds by defeca­tion far from the plant that produced them. Some plants, indeed, go further. Their seeds will not germinate unless they have passed through an animal’s digestive sys­tem. This arrangement works well as long as suitable frugivores are available. But for plants with large seeds, these need to be big animals. And of those, there may be a restricted supply.

苏门答腊犀牛的大部分食物是水果。食果动物和植物之间的进化交易是，植物用美味和营养丰富的果肉包裹难以消化的种子，作为回报，食果动物通过排便将种子传播到远离产生种子的植物的地方。事实上，有些植物走得更远。它们的种子只有经过动物的消化系统才能发芽。只要有合适的食果动物，这种安排就很好。但对于种子很大的植物来说，它们必须是大型动物。其中，可能会有有限的供应。

Based on identification of the droppings of rhinoceros and elephants, as well as a historical study of indigenous populations,

Dr McConkey and Dr Campos­Arceiz

found that of 79 known plants that transmit seeds through rhinos, elephants spread only 57. Therefore, if there are no rhinos around them, the remaining 22 species of rhino seeds can only sprout where they fall.

通过对犀牛和大象的粪便的鉴定，以及对一些土著居民的历史研究，McConkey和Campos­Arceiz博士发现，在已知的79种通过犀牛传播种子的植物中，大象只传播了57种。因此，如果周围没有犀牛，剩下的22种犀牛的种子只能在掉落的地方发芽。

So, if a local population of one of these plants is destroyed for some reason, it is unlikely to be replaced. And there is also a risk of local inbreeding. In­ deed, three of the species the researchers identified are already listed as threatened.

因此，如果这些植物之一的当地种群由于某种原因而被摧毁，它就不可能被替换。而且还有当地近亲繁殖的风险。事实上，研究人员确定的物种中有三种已经被列为濒危物种。

因此，苏门答腊犀牛对于保护生物链至关重要，它们的濒危将可能导致严重后果。

Therefore, Sumatra rhinos are vital to protecting the biological chain, and their endangered condition could have serious consequences.

食果动物 frugivores 

排便 defeca­tion

苏门答腊犀牛 Sumatran rhinos