黃石公園的野牛會自己割草，并給自己的食物施肥

研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，黃石公園的野牛會自己割草，并給自己的食物施肥

A study of grazing in Yellowstone National Park found that bison essentially mow and fertilize their own food. This allows them to graze in one area for two to three months during the spring and summer while other hoofed mammals must keep migrating to higher elevations to follow new plant growth.

一項在黃石國家公園放牧的研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，野牛基本上是自己割草并施肥。這使得它們可以在春季和夏季在一個地區(qū)吃上兩到三個月的草，而其他有蹄哺乳動物必須不斷遷移到更高的海拔去追隨新的植物生長。

Hundreds of bison grazing in an area stimulates the growth of nutritious grasses, in part because their waste acts as a fertilizer, according to research published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

本周發(fā)表在《美國國家科學院院刊》(Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)雜志上的一項研究稱，在一個地區(qū)放牧的數(shù)百頭野牛會刺激營養(yǎng)草的生長，部分原因是它們的糞便可以充當肥料。

“They add fertilizer through urinating and defecating, they drop nutrients back on the landscape, which are then available to plants,” Yellowstone scientist Chris Geremia said Wednesday.

黃石公園的科學家克里斯·格米亞于本周三說:“它們通過排便和撒尿來施肥，然后把養(yǎng)分撒回地面，供植物利用。”

“It’s almost like the bison become this giant fleet of lawnmowers moving back and forth across the landscape,” he said.

他說:“這就像野牛變成了龐大的割草機艦隊，在陸地上來回移動。”

When more bison grazed an area more intensely, the area greened up earlier and faster and the grass stayed greener and had a higher nutritional quality for a much longer time, Geremia said.

Geremia說，當更多的野牛在更密集的地區(qū)吃草時，該地區(qū)會更早、更快地變綠，草也會更綠，而且在更長的時間內(nèi)具有更高的營養(yǎng)價值。

Many other migratory animals in Yellowstone — pronghorn, bighorn sheep, mule deer and elk — do not form these large groups while they migrate and graze, Geremia said.

Geremia說，黃石公園的許多其他遷徙動物，如叉角羚、大角羊、騾鹿和麋鹿，在遷徙和放牧時并沒有形成這些大群體。

“Bison don’t just move to find food, kind of the classic way that we think of animal migration,” Geremia said, “but they create good food by how they move and how they graze.”

“野牛不只是移動來尋找食物，這是我們認為動物遷徙的一種典型方式，”Geremia說，“它們通過移動和放牧的方式來創(chuàng)造優(yōu)質(zhì)食物。”

From 2012 to 2017, researchers fenced off plots of grass along bison migration corridors and compared them to the grazed areas.

從2012年到2017年，研究人員沿著野牛遷徙走廊隔離了一小塊草地，并將它們與放牧地區(qū)進行了比較。

“The data showed that grasses heavily grazed by bison were more productive compared to exclosures where bison were not allowed to graze,” said Matthew Kauffman, unit leader of the US Geological Survey’s Wyoming Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit at the University of Wyoming. “The mowed-down forage had higher ratios of nitrogen to carbon, a standard measure of nutritional quality.”

美國地質(zhì)調(diào)查局懷俄明魚類與野生動物合作研究小組組長馬修·考夫曼說:“數(shù)據(jù)顯示，與不允許野牛放牧的禁獵區(qū)相比，那些被野牛大量放牧的草地產(chǎn)量更高。”“經(jīng)過刈割的飼料具有更高的氮碳比，這是衡量營養(yǎng)質(zhì)量的標準指標。”

Trampling and nibbling by the bison kept the plants shorter and denser and forced the plants to keep growing, giving the bison a steady supply of fresh, nutritious grass.

野牛的踐踏和啃咬使植物變得更短、更密，并迫使植物繼續(xù)生長，給野牛提供了穩(wěn)定的新鮮、有營養(yǎng)的草。