狼网 | 英汉对照：独狼“世界屋脊”

Halfway around the globe from North America, in an expanse so different it might be a moonscape, lies a no-man’s land, its fierce winds sand-blasting everything in their path.

从北美洲到地球的一半，在一片完全不同的地方，这可能是一片月球景观，那里是一片无人区，狂风呼啸着吹沙，沿途的一切都被吹得粉碎。

“The Roof of the World” encompasses the interior of Asia, including the Himalayas, the Pamirs, and the Tibet, Tian Shan and Altai Mountains. For all its remoteness, however, High Asia faces the same challenges as the rest of the planet: climate change, water shortages, desertification, and the rapid disappearance of habitats and species.

“世界屋脊”包括亚洲内陆地区，包括喜马拉雅山脉、帕米尔山脉、西藏、天山和阿尔泰山脉。然而，尽管地处偏远，高亚洲面临着与地球其他地区相同的挑战：气候变化、水资源短缺、荒漠化以及栖息地和物种的迅速消失。

But life is not entirely grim in this forbidding region. Its people may derive health benefits from such high-altitude locales, including a lower risk of chronic diseases such as hypertension and diabetes-associated anemia related to how their bodies have adapted to low oxygen levels.

但在这个令人生畏的地区，生活并不完全严峻。它的人们可能从这些高海拔地区获得健康益处，包括与他们的身体如何适应低氧水平相关的高血压和糖尿病相关贫血等慢性疾病的风险降低。

If that’s true for Homo sapiens, what about other species sharing this distant place?

如果这对智人来说是真的，那么共享这个遥远地方的其他物种呢？

Biologists Geraldine Werhahn, David Macdonald and Claudio Sillero-Zubiri of the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU) at Oxford University and their colleagues have discovered unique genetic adaptations to high altitudes in Himalayan wolves, also known as Tibetan wolves.

牛津大学野生动物保护研究所（WildCCRU）的生物学家杰拉尔丁·韦哈恩（Geraldine Werhahn）、大卫·麦克唐纳（David Macdonald）和克劳迪奥·西莱罗·祖比里（Claudio Sillero Zubiri）及其同事发现了喜马拉雅狼（也称为藏狼）对高海拔的独特遗传适应。

The Himalayan wolf is a top carnivore on The Roof of the World, which holds some of the last intact wilderness areas on our planet.

喜玛拉雅狼是世界屋脊上的顶级食肉动物，这里拥有我们星球上一些最后完好的荒野地区。

“The protection of Himalayan wolves is critical to preserving this ecosystem,” Werhahn says. That becomes even more relevant, she believes, “given that these mountains contain the water resources for billions of people. It’s of global interest to keep this habitat and its wildlife populations healthy.”

“保护喜马拉雅狼对保护这个生态系统至关重要，”Werahn说。她认为，“鉴于这些山脉蕴藏着数十亿人的水资源，这一点变得更加重要。保持这一栖息地及其野生动物种群的健康是全球利益所在。”

Latter-day Genghis Khans

In the ancient tradition of 12th century warlord Genghis Khan, Werhahn and her fellow researchers ascended narrow, steep paths and walked hundreds of kilometers to conduct their studies.

在12世纪军阀成吉思汗的古老传统中，Werahn和她的同事们沿着狭窄陡峭的道路，步行数百公里进行研究。

The team mounted expeditions to the Nepalese Himalayas, western China, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. The outcome was worth the rigors, Werhahn says. The Himalayan wolf, the scientists found, is genetically adapted to thrive in harsh conditions at high altitudes where the air is very thin indeed.

该团队前往尼泊尔喜马拉雅山、中国西部、吉尔吉斯斯坦和塔吉克斯坦。沃哈恩说，结果是值得的。科学家们发现，喜玛拉雅狼的基因适应了在高海拔的恶劣条件下茁壮成长，那里的空气确实非常稀薄。

The researchers conducted field work in spring and summer at three sites across the Himalayas: the Humla and Dolpa districts in the northwestern Nepalese Himalayas, and the Kanchenjunga Conservation Area (KCA) in the northeastern Nepalese Himalayas. Humla and Dolpa are in arid zones with alpine grasslands and alpine steppe habitats. KCA lies in the inner valleys of the eastern Himalayas, with subalpine forests in lower regions and alpine grasslands in upper areas.

研究人员于春季和夏季在喜马拉雅山脉的三个地点进行了实地调查：尼泊尔喜马拉雅山脉西北部的胡姆拉和多尔帕地区，以及尼泊尔喜马拉雅山脉东北部的坎钦容加保护区（KCA）。Humla和Dolpa位于干旱地带，有高山草原和高山草原栖息地。KCA位于喜马拉雅山脉东部的内谷，下部地区有亚高山森林，上部地区有高山草原。

The biologists searched for Himalayan wolf samples in the form of scats and hair over a total of 1,770 kilometers (nearly 1,100 miles), they reported in 2018 in the journal Global Ecology and Conservation. They walked 605 kilometers (376 miles) in Humla, 810 kilometers (503 miles) in Dolpa and 355 kilometers (220 miles) in KCA.

研究人员于春季和夏季在喜马拉雅山脉的三个地点进行了实地调查：尼泊尔喜马拉雅山脉西北部的胡姆拉和多尔帕地区，以及尼泊尔喜马拉雅山脉东北部的坎钦容加保护区（KCA）。Humla和Dolpa位于干旱地带，有高山草原和高山草原栖息地。KCA位于喜马拉雅山脉东部的内谷，下部地区有亚高山森林，上部地区有高山草原。

They found that Himalayan wolves prefer wild prey over domestic prey, and smaller ungulates such as Tibetan gazelles over larger ones like white-lipped deer. Small mammals such as the Himalayan marmot, woolly hare and pika are important supplements to the wolves’ main meals, Werhahn and co-authors stated in a 2019 paper in Global Ecology and Conservation.

他们发现，喜玛拉雅狼更喜欢野生猎物而不是家养猎物，而像藏羚羊这样的小型有蹄类动物更喜欢白唇鹿这样的大型有蹄类。Werhahn及其合著者在2019年发表于《全球生态与保护》的一篇论文中表示，喜马拉雅旱獭、长毛兔和鼠兔等小型哺乳动物是狼的主要食物的重要补充。

“We found that livestock was avoided when wild prey was available,” said the researchers. “The protection of Himalayan wolves and other sympatric carnivores can be enhanced by securing healthy, wild prey populations through setting aside wildlife habitat refuges and by more sustainable livestock herding, including improved herding practices.”

研究人员说：“我们发现，当有野生猎物时，牲畜是可以避免的。”。“通过留出野生动物栖息地保护区和更可持续的畜牧业，包括改进放牧做法，确保健康的野生猎物种群，可以加强对喜马拉雅狼和其他同域食肉动物的保护。”

Werhahn’s research focused on the Himalayan wolf, but she and colleagues also obtained scats from red fox, Tibetan fox, snow leopard and Eurasian lynx. For genetic reference, they collected samples from the region’s dominant breed of domestic dog, the Tibetan mastiff. This mastiff ‘s ability to avoid hypoxia in high altitudes is a result of higher hemoglobin levels compared to dogs at low altitudes, state biologists at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and other institutions in the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution. Prehistoric interbreeding with Tibetan wolves led to the adaptation, these scientists believe.

Werahn的研究重点放在喜马拉雅狼身上，但她和同事也从红狐、藏狐、雪豹和欧亚猞猁身上获得了粪便。为了遗传参考，他们从该地区的主要家养犬品种藏獒中采集了样本。中国科学院和其他机构的国家生物学家在《分子生物学与进化》杂志上表示，与低海拔地区的狗相比，这种獒在高海拔地区避免缺氧的能力是血红蛋白水平较高的结果。这些科学家认为，与藏狼的史前杂交导致了这种适应。

During Werhahn’s far-flung travels, she and her colleagues collected a total of 287 samples—104 in Humla, 139 in Dolpa and 44 in KCA.

在沃哈恩的远行中，她和她的同事共采集了287份样本——在乌姆拉采集了104份，在多尔帕采集了139份，在KCA采集了44份。

Their expeditions provide evidence for the genetic distinctiveness of the Himalayan wolf.

他们的探险为喜马拉雅狼的遗传特性提供了证据。

“The Himalayan wolf differs from the Holarctic [northern continental] gray wolf in a set of functional genes suspected to be related to the hypoxia pathway,” the biologists state. “These genes are seemingly involved in adaptation to life at high altitudes where less atmospheric oxygen is available.”

生物学家表示：“喜马拉雅狼与全北极（北方大陆）灰狼的不同之处在于，一组功能基因被怀疑与缺氧途径有关。”。“这些基因似乎与适应高海拔地区的生活有关，那里的大气氧气较少。”

The results confirm the hypothesis that the Himalayan wolf is an evolutionarily distinct wolf lineage. The distribution and population size of this unusual Asian wolf compared to its relative, the more widely distributed gray wolf found at lower altitudes, are a major focus of Werhahn’s study.

Research on “The Roof of the World”

Very little is known about the Himalayan wolf “because science and conservation have overlooked this high-altitude wolf as just another gray wolf,” Werhahn says. “Almost no research has been conducted and no conservation action has been in place, risking a ‘silent’ population decline.”

对喜马拉雅狼知之甚少，“因为科学和保护忽略了这只高海拔的狼，它只是另一只灰狼，”沃哈恩说。“几乎没有进行任何研究，也没有采取任何保护行动，这可能导致人口‘无声’下降。”

Results she and co-authors published in 2020 in the Journal of Biogeography reveal the Himalayan wolf’s evolutionary uniqueness, including adaptations for coping with a high-altitude environment that haven’t been found in any other wolf.

她和合著者于2020年发表在《生物地理学杂志》上的研究结果揭示了喜马拉雅狼的进化独特性，包括适应高海拔环境的能力，这是其他狼所没有的。

Far beyond Tibet, the scientists also analyzed 280 wolf scat samples from western China, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. The countries are home to Himalayan wolves and gray wolves (the latter at lower altitudes), snow leopards, red foxes, Tibetan foxes, Pallas’s cats, Eurasian lynx, brown bears and domestic dogs.

远在西藏之外，科学家们还分析了来自中国西部、吉尔吉斯斯坦和塔吉克斯坦的280个狼粪样本。这些国家是喜马拉雅狼和灰狼（后者海拔较低）、雪豹、赤狐、藏狐、帕拉斯猫、欧亚猞猁、棕熊和家养狗的家园。

Of the carnivores on the Qinghai Tibetan Plateau of China, brown bears are the ones humans fear most, Werhahn reveals. “The bears break into homes in search of food, at times frequently. They devastate houses. When people leave their winter homes to stay in their summer herding houses, they usually leave the doors of their deserted homes open, so the bears don’t destroy those, too.”

沃恩透露，在中国青藏高原的食肉动物中，棕熊是人类最害怕的动物。“熊闯进家里寻找食物，有时很频繁。它们毁坏房屋。当人们离开冬天的家，留在夏天的放牧房屋时，他们通常会把被遗弃的家的门打开，这样熊也不会破坏那些房屋。”

A carpet of nails is often deployed at house entrances to prevent bears from entering, “but the measure shows only limited effect against a determined brown bear,” relates Werhahn. “Support is needed to help local communities live alongside a carnivore community of brown bears, wolves, Eurasian lynx and snow leopards.”

沃哈恩说：“通常会在房屋入口处铺上一层钉子，防止熊进入，但这项措施对一只意志坚定的棕熊来说效果有限。”。“需要支持帮助当地社区与棕熊、狼、欧亚猞猁和雪豹等食肉动物共存。”

Werhahn’s efforts to do just that began in 2014 and led to the Himalayan Wolves Project. The research recently branched out and is now called the Himalayan Carnivores Project, reflecting an ecosystem that supports several carnivore species.

Werahn的努力始于2014年，并促成了喜马拉雅狼项目。这项研究最近得到了扩展，现在被称为喜马拉雅食肉动物项目，反映了一个支持多种食肉动物的生态系统。

Genetic adaptations to high altitudes

The adaptations that allow humans to survive in these extreme environments “remain poorly understood,” says Werhahn. “The situation is similar for the Himalayan wolf. The genetic and physiological mechanisms involved in high-altitude adaptation have only recently been studied.”

Werhahn说，让人类在这些极端环境中生存的适应“仍然鲜为人知”。“喜马拉雅狼的情况也类似。参与高海拔适应的遗传和生理机制最近才被研究过。”

Where Himalayan wolves roam, less than 12.7% effective oxygen is available, compared to 21.9% at sea level. Werhahn’s research revealed Himalayan wolf adaptations in three hypoxia-pathway genes: two that increase oxygen delivery and one that strengthens heart function. “These mutations indicate an adaptive advantage for Himalayan wolves in hypoxic environments,” the biologist reports.

在喜马拉雅狼出没的地方，有效氧气不足12.7%，而海平面的有效氧气只有21.9%。Werahn的研究揭示了喜马拉雅狼对三种缺氧途径基因的适应性：两种增加氧气输送，一种增强心脏功能。生物学家报告说：“这些突变表明喜马拉雅狼在缺氧环境中具有适应性优势。”。

The Himalayan wolf lineage pre-dominates above 4,000 meters (roughly 13,000 feet). “The low oxygen availability at this high altitude presents environmental stress in the form of severe, lifelong hypoxia,” says Werhahn. “This constitutes a constant selective pressure that has shaped the genomes of species inhabiting these ecosystems and led to functional and physiological adaptations to cope with the conditions.”

喜马拉雅狼系在4000米（约13000英尺）以上的地方占主导地位。Werhahn说：“在这个高海拔地区，氧气供应量低，造成了严重的、终生缺氧的环境压力。”。“这构成了一种持续的选择压力，它塑造了居住在这些生态系统中的物种的基因组，并导致了功能和生理适应，以应对这些条件。”

That evolution can be driven by genetic variations that affect fitness in one habitat, according to Werhahn and colleagues, and are neutral or almost so in others, like the genes responsible for the Himalayan wolf’s high altitude hypoxia adaptation. “Speciation can be facilitated through strong habitat clines,” state the biologists, “such as the dramatic altitude difference that separates the Tibetan Plateau and the Himalayas from the surrounding, lower-lying regions.”

Werahn及其同事认为，这种进化可能是由影响一个栖息地适应性的基因变异所驱动的，而在其他栖息地中则是中性的或几乎是中性的，比如负责喜马拉雅狼高原缺氧适应的基因。生物学家们表示：“通过强大的栖息地梯度可以促进物种的形成，比如青藏高原和喜马拉雅山脉与周围地势较低的地区之间巨大的海拔差异。”

The scientists hypothesize that the Himalayan wolf’s genetic adaptation gives it a fitness benefit over gray wolves. “Himalayan wolves show a consistent genotype of hypoxia adaptation across [high mountain] Nepal, the Tibetan Autonomous Region and Sichuan,” Werhahn says, “whereas gray wolves in [lower elevation] Qilianshan don’t show this adaptation.”

科学家们假设，喜玛拉雅狼的基因适应使它比灰狼更适合健康。“喜马拉雅狼在尼泊尔（高山）、西藏自治区和四川表现出一致的缺氧适应基因型，”Werahn说，“而在祁连山（海拔较低）的灰狼则没有表现出这种适应。”

When Werhahn and colleagues started the project, the scarce data available indicated a genetic difference between Himalayan wolves and gray wolves, but the researchers had no explanation. “We now know that Himalayan wolves are indeed different, from their genetics to their ecology, and we have an indication why,” Werhahn says. “It’s the evolutionary challenge posed by the low oxygen levels in these extreme high altitudes.”

当Werahn和他的同事开始这个项目时，现有的稀少数据表明喜马拉雅狼和灰狼之间存在遗传差异，但研究人员没有解释。Werahn说：“我们现在知道，喜马拉雅狼确实不同，从它们的基因到它们的生态，我们已经知道了原因。”。“这是这些极端高海拔地区低氧水平带来的进化挑战。”

Adds Dave Mech, a wolf biologist at the U.S. Geological Survey and the University of Minnesota, and founder of the International Wolf Center, “The most interesting consequence of the Himalayan wolf’s unique high-altitude adaptation is that it separates this wolf genetically from neighboring wolves that lack it.”

美国地质调查局和明尼苏达大学的狼生物学家、国际狼中心的创始人戴夫·梅奇补充道，“喜马拉雅狼独特的高空适应最有趣的结果是，它在基因上将这只狼与缺少它的邻近狼区分开。”

The WildCRU scientists originally believed that the Himalayan wolf was found only in the Himalayas proper. Himalayan wolves, they discovered, in fact live across the high-altitude regions of Asia.

WildCCRU的科学家最初认为，喜马拉雅狼只在喜马拉雅山脉地区发现。他们发现，喜马拉雅狼实际上生活在亚洲的高海拔地区。

A wolf that stands alone

The team’s work adds to growing evidence that the Himalayan wolf “merits taxonomic recognition,” write the researchers. The lineage is monophyletic: a group of organisms in the same taxon that share a common recent ancestor; inhabits a geographically distinct region; and has genetic characteristics not found in populations of its closest relatives.

研究人员写道，该团队的工作进一步证明，喜马拉雅狼“值得分类学认可”。谱系是单系的：同一分类单元中的一群生物，它们有共同的最近祖先；居住在地理上不同的地区；并且具有其近亲群体中没有的遗传特征。

The findings can be used as the basis for a formal recognition of the Himalayan wolf as its own taxon, Werhahn believes. “That would pave the way to assign it a conservation status by the International Union for Conservation of Nature [IUCN]. These are pivotal steps needed to advance the protection of these wolves and their habitats.”

沃哈恩认为，这一发现可以作为正式承认喜马拉雅狼为自己的分类单元的基础。“这将为国际自然保护联盟（IUCN）授予其保护地位铺平道路。这些是推进保护这些狼及其栖息地所需的关键步骤。”

Assignment on the IUCN Red list, the biologists say, “could focus the attention of regional and international bodies on Himalayan wolves, their habitat and the imperiled ecosystem in which they live.”

生物学家表示，被列入世界自然保护联盟红色名录“可能会让地区和国际机构关注喜马拉雅狼、它们的栖息地以及它们生活的濒危生态系统”

The Red List shows trends in extinction risk for species; it is used by governments to track progress toward biodiversity-loss reduction targets. Werhahn’s group plans further studies to explore behavioral and ecological aspects of the wolves’ lives. “That, along with helping local communities develop conservation plans for Himalayan wolves that would apply across the region,” she says, are the keys to this rare canid’s future in far lands on The Roof of the World.

红色名录显示了物种灭绝风险的趋势；它被各国政府用来跟踪生物多样性减少目标的进展。Werahn的小组计划进行进一步研究，以探索狼生活的行为和生态方面。她说：“这一点，再加上帮助当地社区制定喜马拉雅狼的保护计划，将在整个地区适用。”这是这只稀有犬科动物在世界屋脊上遥远土地上未来的关键。

Ecologist and science journalist Cheryl Lyn Dybas, a Fellow of the International League of Conservation Writers, also writes for National Wildlife, Ocean Geographic, Natural History, BioScience, Canadian Geographic, Lake Superior Magazine and other publications.

生态学家和科学记者Cheryl Lyn Dybas是国际保护作家联盟的会员，同时也为《国家野生动物》、《海洋地理》、《自然历史》、《生物科学》、《加拿大地理》、“高级湖泊杂志”和其他出版物撰稿。