Unit 6B - Do Animals Fall in Love
Do animals fall in love? These striking tales suggest that they may, but read on and decide for yourself.
Do Animals Fall in Love
Jeffery Moussaieff Masson and Susan McCarthy
Humans believe they know what love is, and value it highly. Yet many who study animal behavior are cautious about saying animals experience love, preferring to say they are not displaying "true love" but simply following the dictates of their genes.
Is it really as simple as all that? What about the animals who stay together until one dies? Evolutionary biologists often say that pairing is a way to ensure adequate parental care, but it's not always clear this is the case. Some animals continue to accompany each other when not raising young. And they appear to exhibit sorrow or show a sense of loss when one of the pair dies.
Konrad Lorenz, studying the behavior of geese, describes a typical example. Ado's mate, Susanne-Elisabeth, was killed by a fox. He stood silently by her partly eaten body, which lay across their nest. In the following days, he hung his head and his eyes became vacant. Because he did not have the heart to defend himself from the attacks of the other geese, his status in the flock fell sharply. A year went by. Finally Ado pulled himself together and found another mate.
Animals may fall in love dramatically. According to Lorenz two geese are most likely to "fall in love" when they have known each other as youngsters, been separated and then meet again. He compared this to a man who meets a woman and ─ astonished that she is the same girl he used to see running around in a school uniform ─ falls in love and marries her. According to parrot specialist Sue Athan, it is common for some parrots to fall in love at first sight.
Instinct may urge animals to love, but it does not say whom they will love. Seeking a mate for a male parrot, Athan purchased a fine-feathered young female and introduced the two birds. To Athan's disappointment, "the male nevertheless acted like the female wasn't even in the room."
A few months later Athan was given an older female in extremely poor condition. "She didn't have a feather from the neck down," she says. "Her feet were all twisted. She had lines around her eyes. And yet the male thought she was the love of his life." The two birds immediately paired off and eventually produced young.
Zookeepers know, to their despair, that many species of animals will not breed with just any other animal of their species. Timmy, a gorilla in the Cleveland Zoo, declined to mate with two female gorillas introduced to him. But when he met a gorilla named Kate, they took to each other at once. When it was thought that Kate was unable to reproduce, because of her advanced age, zookeepers decided to send Timmy to another zoo, where he might have a chance to breed successfully.
Defending the zoo's decision to separate the animals, the zoo director said, "It sickens me when people start to put human emotions in animals. We can't think of them as some kind of magnificent human being: they are animals. When people start saying animals have emotions, they cross the bridge of reality." Jane Goodall, whose work has shed light on the emotional life of chimpanzees, also writes, I cannot think of chimpanzees developing emotions, one for the other, comparable in any way to the tenderness, protectiveness, tolerance and spiritual joy that are the mark of human love in its truest and deepest sense."
Yet there is evidence of love in the devotion that members of pairs heap on each other. Geese, swans and mandarin ducks are all symbols of marital faithfulness; field biologists tell us this is true to life. Coyotes, often thought of as representing trickery, would make equally good symbols of devotion, since they also form lasting pairs. Observations indicate that they begin to form pair attachments before they are sexually active.
In his study of coyotes, Hope Ryden tells how pairs can be observed curling up together, hunting mice together, and greeting each other with elaborate displays. Ryden describes two coyotes mating. Afterward, the female tapped the male with her paw and licked his face. Then they curled up to sleep. This looks a lot like romantic love. Whatever distinctions may be made between the love of two people and the love of two animals, the essence frequently seems the same.
An animal raised by another species will often show affection for a member of that species when it grows up. Gavin Maxwell tells of an otter called Tibby, who was raised by a man who lived on an island off the coast of Scotland and who got around with the help of a walking stick. When he became seriously ill, he took Tibby to Maxwell and asked him to look after the otter. The man died not long after.
Tibby made a habit of escaping and visiting the nearest village. There she found a man who used
a walking stick. She tried to build a nest under his house, but he chased her away.
A short time later Tibby disappeared again. One day Maxwell received a call from a person who had been alarmed by an otter that had acted strangely, even trying to follow him indoors. "You don't by any chance use a walking stick, do you" asked Maxwell.
"Yes," he replied with astonishment in his voice, "but how in the world could you know that"
While the idea of love among animals has been generally rejected by science, doubts remain.
For stories such as these suggest that some animals may experience joy, love and heartbreak remarkably like our own.
参考译文——动物也有情
动物也有情？这些令人注目的故事表明它们也许就是如此，不妨读后自作判断。
动物也有情
杰弗里·M.·马森苏珊·麦卡锡
人类相信自己懂得什么是爱情，并高度珍视它。然而，许多动物行为研究者在谈及动物是否体验爱情时都非常谨慎，他们喜欢说动物表现的不是“真正的情爱”，而仅仅是受各自遗传因子的支配。
情况果真如此简单吗？如何解释那些终生相伴直至死亡的动物呢？进化论生物学家常说，配对是保障足够的亲本照顾的一种方式，但实际情况是否如此，并不总是很清楚。有的动物不在生儿育女的时候依然相伴。而且它们在配偶死后表现出悲哀或是一种失落感。
研究鹅的行为特点的康拉德·洛伦茨讲述了一个典型的例子。厄杜的配偶苏珊娜·伊丽莎白被一头狐狸咬死了。它默默地守着横躺在窝巢里被吃掉一半的尸体。在接下来的日子里，它垂着头，目光也变得迷惘。由于它无心抵抗其它鹅的攻击，它在鹅群里的地位急剧下降。一年过去了。最后阿杜重振精神，另找了一个伴。
动物会戏剧性地相爱。据洛伦茨观察，幼时相知，而后分开，嗣后又重逢的两头鹅最可能‘堕入情网’。 他将此比作一位男士遇见一位女士，男士惊讶地发现此人正是自己过去常常看见、身着校服东奔西跑的那个女孩，于是爱上了她，并娶其为妻。根据鹦鹉研究专家苏·埃森的观察，有些鹦鹉常常会一见钟情。
本能或许促使动物相爱，但本能并不叫它们去爱谁。埃森为了替一只雄鹦鹉找只配偶，买了只羽毛漂亮的雌性幼鹦鹉，并让两只鹦鹉相识。令埃森失望的是，“那只雄鸟表现得就好像雌鸟根本就不在房间里似的。”
几个月之后，有人给了埃森一只形象极其可怕、年纪较大的雌鸟。“它脖子以下就没有一根羽毛，”她说，“她的爪子都扭曲了。眼圈处还有皱纹。可那只雄鸟却认定此鸟乃其一生挚爱。”两只鸟很快就双飞双宿，最终还孵出了幼鸟。
动物园的饲养员知道，许多种动物不会随便就与同类动物交配，他们对此一筹莫展。克利夫兰动物园的一头大猩猩蒂米不肯与介绍给它的两头雌性大猩猩交配。而当它遇见一头名叫凯特的大猩猩时，彼此一见钟情。考虑到凯特年纪太大不能生育，饲养员决定把蒂米送往另一个动物园，在那儿它或许有机会顺利交配。
动物园园长在为该动物园将两头大猩猩分开的决定作辩护时说：“当人们将人类的情感赋予动物时，本人深感厌恶。我们不能将它们视为某种了不起的人：它们仅仅是动物。人们在说动物有感情时，他们就逾越了现实的鸿沟。” 简·古多尔的研究工作使人们对黑猩猩的情感生活有所了解，但她在其着作中也写道：“我无法想象黑猩猩之间会产生一种可以与最真挚、最深沉的人类之爱相比的情感，如温柔、呵护、容忍和心灵快乐。
然而，一对对动物相互倾注的忠诚之中却有爱的明证。鹅、天鹅以及鸳鸯都是忠于婚姻的象征；野外生物学家告诉我们，实际生活就是如此。常常被看作象征狡猾的北美郊狼也是完美的忠诚的象征，因为它们也都白头偕老。观察表明，它们在性成熟之前就开始成双成对，相互倾情。
在他的北美郊狼研究文章中，霍普·赖登谈到可以看到成对的北美郊狼依偎在一起、共同捕捉老鼠、煞费苦心地表露情意。赖登描述了两只北美郊狼交配的情景。交配后雌狼用爪子拍打雄狼，舔它的脸。然后双双依偎而睡。这与浪漫的爱情颇为相似。无论人类的男欢女爱与动物雌雄相悦之间有多少区别，两者的本质常常是一致的。
一头被不同种类的动物抚养长大的动物长大后常常会对那种动物中的一员表现出情感。加文·马克斯韦尔谈到一头叫做蒂比的水獭。它是由一位居住在苏格兰沿海一个岛上、借助拐杖出行的人饲养大的。此人患重病之后，便将蒂比带到马克斯韦尔处，托付他照顾。不久后他便去世了。
蒂比经常要逃到邻近的村子去看看。它在村里找到一个使用拐杖的男子。它试图在他屋檐下做窝，可那人把它赶走了。
过了一段时间，蒂比又失踪了。一天，马克斯韦尔接到一个电话，那人对一头行为怪异，甚至想跟他进屋的水獭感到惊恐不安。“你不会是使用拐杖的吧”马克斯韦尔问道。
“是呀，” 他回答说，声音里露出惊讶，“可你究竟是怎么知道的呢？”
虽然科学界普遍不接受动物间存在爱的看法，但是疑问并未消除。因为这些故事表明有些动物可能体验着和我们人类极其相似的快乐、爱情和悲伤。
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