狼网 | 阿尔法·沃尔夫：这是什么意思，还应该继续使用吗？

2020年08月18日 11:50:10 来源:国际狼中心访问量：759次

Dr. L. David Mech 大卫·梅奇博士

ALPHA WOLF: WHAT DOES IT MEAN, AND SHOULD IT STILL BE USED?

阿尔法·沃尔夫：这是什么意思，还应该继续使用吗？

When visitors come to the International Wolf Center in Ely, Minnesota, and observe our pack of ambassador wolves, many of them ask: “Which one is the alpha?” So begins a long conversation about the term and what it means.

当游客来到明尼苏达州伊利的国际狼中心，观察我们的狼群大使时，很多人会问：“哪一个是阿尔法？“所以开始了一场关于这个术语及其含义的长时间对话。

It’s a term that started in the field of ethology, or animal behavior, and is now widely used in popular culture. While it is popular, it’s also misleading when applied to wolves. In fact, the International Wolf Center has stopped using the term altogether.

这是一个起源于动物行为学或动物行为学领域的术语，现在广泛应用于流行文化。虽然它很流行，但当它应用到狼身上时也会产生误导。事实上，国际狼中心已经完全停止使用这个词。

Dr. L. David Mech

大卫·梅奇博士

Ironically, the International Wolf Center’s founder, Dr. L. David Mech, had a hand in popularizing the term.

具有讽刺意味的是，国际狼中心的创始人L.DavidMech博士参与了这个词的推广。

It all started in 1947, when Rudolph Schenkel wrote a paper titled Expressions Studies on Wolves. It can be read in its entirety by clicking here.

这一切都始于1947年，当时鲁道夫·申克尔写了一篇题为《狼的表情研究》的论文。点击这里可以阅读全文。

On his website, Mech said: “This is the study that gave rise to the now outmoded notion of alpha wolves. That concept was based on the old idea that wolves fight within a pack to gain dominance and that the winner is the ‘alpha’ wolf.”

在他的网站上，Mech说：“这项研究催生了现在已经过时的阿尔法狼概念。这个概念是基于一个古老的观念，即狼在一个群体中战斗以获得统治地位，而赢家是‘阿尔法’狼。”

Then Mech referred to Schenkel’s study as he was writing a popular book on wolves.

然后，当他在写一本关于狼的畅销书时，Mech提到了Schenkel的研究。

On his website, Mech puts it like this:

在他的网站上，Mech这样说：

The concept of the alpha wolf is well ingrained in the popular wolf literature, at least partly because of my book “The Wolf: Ecology and Behavior of an Endangered Species,” written in 1968, published in 1970, republished in paperback in 1981, and currently still in print, despite my numerous pleas to the publisher to stop publishing it. Although most of the book’s info is still accurate, much is outdated. We have learned more about wolves in the last 40 years than in all of previous history.

阿尔法狼的概念在流行的狼文学中根深蒂固，至少部分原因是我的书《狼：濒危物种的生态和行为》，这本书写于1968年，1970年出版，1981年再版，目前仍在印刷，尽管我多次请求出版商停止出版。尽管这本书的大部分信息仍然是准确的，但有很多已经过时了。在过去的40年里，我们对狼的了解比以往任何时候都多。

One of the outdated pieces of information is the concept of the alpha wolf. “Alpha” implies competing with others and becoming top dog by winning a contest or battle. However, most wolves who lead packs achieved their position simply by mating and producing pups, which then became their pack. In other words they are merely breeders, or parents, and that’s all we call them today, the “breeding male,” “breeding female,” or “male parent,” “female parent,” or the “adult male” or “adult female.” In the rare packs that include more than one breeding animal, the “dominant breeder” can be called that, and any breeding daughter can be called a “subordinate breeder.”

过时的信息之一是阿尔法狼的概念。“阿尔法”意味着与他人竞争，通过赢得比赛或战斗而成为头号人物。然而，大多数领导狼群的狼只是通过交配和生产幼崽来达到他们的地位，然后这些幼崽就成了他们的狼群。换言之，它们只是繁殖者，或者说父母，这就是我们今天所说的“繁殖雄性”、“繁殖雌性”或“雄性父母”、“雌性父母”或“成年雄性”或“成年雌性”。在包括不止一种繁殖动物的稀有群体中，“优势繁殖者”可以被称为，而任何一个育女都可以被称为“下属育种家”

编辑：张惠

上一篇：狼网 | 狼成群结队穿越雪地的照片上的说明是假的
下一篇：狼网 “发现狼”是国际狼中心的一个新展览，于2019年开幕

评论区

发表评论

在此发表评论！

评论仅供会员表达个人看法，并不表明网校同意其观点或证实其描述