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Don't Poo-Poo This: Why Dogs Feast on Feces 不要这样对待便便：为什么狗会吃粪便？ By Mindy Weisberger, Senior Writer Poop eating in dogs is a common and — much to their owners' disdain — enthusiastic habit, but what drives them to doo-doo it? 大便是狗的家常便饭，而且是——非常令主人鄙视——一种狂热的习惯，但到底是什么让它们去吃屎呢？ Scientists recently dug into the patterns of crap-consuming canines and flushed out an answer. 科学家们最近探索了犬类吞吃排泄物的行为模式，并且得出了一个答案。 It turns out that not just any old poo will do. For poop-seeking pups, fecal freshness is a factor. And this predilection for poop could be behavior that originated in dogs' wolf ancestors, and is linked to parasite prevention, according to a new study. 事实证明，不是任何陈旧的大便都会被吃。对于寻找大便的小狗，粪便新鲜程度是一个因素。而且，根据最新研究，这种对大便的嗜好行为，可能起源于狗的祖先狼，并且与预防寄生虫有关。 Also known as coprophagia, poop eating is widely distributed across the mammal family tree. The behavior — which is also found in rodents, rabbits, beavers, elephants and non-human primates, to name just a few — is generally viewed as a second chance for an animal to extract nutrients from its diet. Domestic dogs, which can also be avid eaters of poop, have been found to turn to poop eating due to nutritional deficiencies in their diets caused by starvation or disease, prior research has suggested. 食粪行为又叫食粪癖，在哺乳动物家族树中广泛存在。这种行为——仅举几例，还发生在啮齿类动物、兔子、河狸、大象和非人灵长类动物身上——通常被视为动物从饮食中提取营养物质的二次机会。对同样热衷于食粪的家犬，早先的研究表明，人们已经发现它们由于饥饿或疾病导致饮食摄入营养不足时，就会去吃大便。 However, that doesn't explain why otherwise healthy dogs would develop a taste for waste. Puppies may learn this behavior from their mothers, who lick their babies when they are very young to encourage elimination and to clean them up afterward. But most dogs tend to grow out of this youthful poop-eating stage by the time they are 9 months old, according to the American Kennel Club. 然而，这并不能解释为什么健康的狗也会对进食垃圾产生兴趣。幼犬可能会从母亲那里学习这种行为，母亲在孩子们很小的时候舔舐它们，以进行优胜劣汰，并随后清洁它们。不过，根据美国养犬俱乐部的说法，大多数犬类都会从9个月大开始，逐渐摆脱这种幼年食粪的阶段。 What makes this behavior even more puzzling is that dogs generally distance themselves from their own droppings and those of other dogs, researchers reported in the new study. This avoidance may stem from ancestral wolves' habits of eliminating outside their dens, perhaps to reduce the risk of infection from parasites found in their stools, the researchers suggested. 研究人员在这项新的研究中报告说，这种行为更令人困惑的是，狗一般会远离自己和其他狗的排泄物。研究人员认为，这种逃避可能源于其祖先狼在巢穴外面排泄的习惯，也许是为了减少它们受到粪便中寄生虫感染的风险。 Fresher is better 越新鲜越好 To get to the bottom of why dogs eat feces, the scientists conducted two online surveys, gathering about 3,000 responses from dog owners in the U.S. and Canada. One survey investigated the habits of dogs that ate poop and dogs that didn't, while the other addressed only the poo eaters, to gather data about frequency, persistence of the behavior and the type of poop that attracted them the most. 为了查清狗吃粪便的真相，科学家们进行了两次在线调查，收集了来自美国和加拿大狗主人的大约3000个答复。其中一项调查询问了食粪和不食粪的狗的生活习惯，而另一项调查只针对食粪的狗，收集关于频率、行为持续性以及最吸引它们的大便类型的数据。 About 16 percent of responders to the first survey said that they had observed their dog eating poop, and feces feasting did not appear to be linked to generally compulsive behavior or dietary deficiencies. Interestingly, 82 percent of the poo eaters only consumed poop that was no more than 2 days old, the study authors reported. 第一项调查中，大约有16%的人答复说，他们曾经看到狗在食粪，而且它们饱餐粪便似乎与一般的强迫症行为或饮食缺乏无关。研究作者报告说，有趣的是，82%的食粪狗只会食用两天以内的大便。 In the second survey — the poop eaters only — 38 percent of the dogs ate poop weekly, and 62 percent sampled poop daily. And 85 percent preferred their poop fresh, less than 2 days old. 在第二项调查中——只针对食粪狗——有38%的狗每周吃大便，62%的狗每天都要品尝。有85%的狗喜欢新鲜的大便，最好不超过两天。 This preference emerged in both surveys, and could be an important clue to the origins of poop-eating behavior, linking it to an adaptive behavior practiced by the ancestors of domestic dogs — wolves, the study authors reported. 研究作者报告说，两项调查都显示出同样的偏爱，这可能是关于食粪行为起源的一个重要线索，可以联系到由家犬的祖先——狼发展出的一种适应性行为。 Wolves expel the eggs of intestinal parasites such as tapeworms, roundworms, pinworms and flukes in their feces, and these eggs typically don't develop into an infectious larval form for several days. By eating fresh poop found in or near their den areas, wolves may perform a type of housekeeping that reduces the risk of parasitic infection, the researchers explained in the study. 狼通过粪便排出肠道寄生虫的虫卵，如绦虫、蛔虫、蛲虫和吸虫，这些虫卵通常不会在几天之内发育成具有感染能力的幼虫。研究人员在研究结果中解释说，狼吃掉那些在巢穴区域或附近发现的新鲜大便，也许是在执行一项减少寄生虫感染风险的家务劳动。 However, this hypothesis for the origins of poop eating in dogs doesn't draw from observed behavior in wolves, "and should be considered tentative," the study authors wrote. 然而，这种关于狗食粪起源的假说，并没有从已经观察到的狼类行为中得到证实。研究作者写道，“这应该被看作是试探性的。” Another unsatisfying conclusion for disgruntled dog owners is that pooches' poop-eating habits are hard to change, the scientists found. They discovered that dogs who fancied feces weren't easily deterred, and regardless of the method owners tried — food additives, punishment for eating poo or rewards for leaving poop alone — their reported success rate was 0 to 4 percent. 另一个让不满的狗主人大失所望的结论是，科学家们发现，狗狗食粪的习惯是很难改变的。他们了解到，阻止狗对粪便的爱好势比登天，不管主人尝试什么方法——食物添加剂、对食粪行为的惩罚或对离开大便的奖励——他们报告的成功率只有0到4%。 The findings were published online Jan. 12 in the journal Veterinary Medicine and Science. 以上研究结果发表在1月12日的《兽医医学与科学》杂志网络版上。 Original article on Live Science. |
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