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Updated: 2002-08-28 01:00

A Mane's a Pain, but Equals Gain for Lions (2002/08/28)

痛并快乐着--雄狮浓黑的鬃毛原是无价宝 (2002/08/28)

A Mane's a Pain, but Equals Gain for Lions
A big, black mane is hot, shaggy and attracts trophy hunters, but it makes a lion irresistibly sexy to the lionesses
A big, black mane is hot, shaggy and attracts trophy hunters, but it makes a lion irresistibly sexy to the lionesses, researchers reported.

The bigger and darker the mane, the more mates a lion attracts, and the better his cubs survive, Peyton West and Craig Packer of the University of Minnesota wrote in Friday's issue of the journal Science.

A male with a long, dark mane intimidates other lions and for good reasons, they found. He has higher levels of testosterone and wins fights more often.

But he pays for this. He is hotter than lions with lighter manes, eats less in summer and produces more abnormal sperm, the researchers found.

"We suggest the mane's evolution is the result of sexual selection," said West, a doctoral candidate whose dissertation led to the paper.

Lions' manes vary from light blond to black and can be up to a foot long.

One big question about lions is why the males even have a mane, said West, who studied lions in Tanzania's Serengeti National Park.

Like a peacock's elegant but heavy tail, it signals biological fitness to females. Females choose mates with beautiful tails, or in the case of lions, with big, black manes, because it turns them on. Thus the trait is passed on.

West checked to see what good the mane does to a lion. Some people have suggested it protects the head and shoulders during fights or hunting, but West said their data didn't show the neck and head were a special target.

West set up pairs of model lions with short and long manes and watched to see which ones wild lions would approach. Males chose the short-maned dummy nine out of 10 times, she found, while females approached the darker-maned dummy, 13 out of 14 times.

West also found that the higher the testosterone level in the blood of male lions, the darker the mane. "Therefore, it isn't surprising that females would prefer darker manes and males would be intimidated," West said.

(Agencies)

浓密乌黑的鬃毛虽然给雄狮带来不少的麻烦,除了夏天格外闷热之外,还会招来捕猎者的注意,不过研究人员发现,雄狮的鬃毛对母狮来说却具有无法抵抗的性吸引力。

明尼苏达州立大学的佩顿和克雷格·帕克在8月23日出版的《科学》周刊上写到,鬃毛越长越黑,雄狮吸引的配偶就越多,而且也有助于其幼狮的生存。

他们发现,有着一头又长又黑鬃毛的雄狮具备诸多良好的素质以胁迫其他狮子,这样的雄狮能够分泌更多雄性荷尔蒙,从而得以在争斗中保持常胜。

不过"常胜"是要付出代价的。研究者发现,同那些鬃毛稀少的同类相比,鬃毛浓重的雄狮会感觉更热,夏天的食量也少多了,而且排出异常精子的情况会更多。

著文指导该项研究的博士候选人瓦斯特说:"我们认为鬃毛的进化是性别选择的必然结果"。

狮子的鬃毛颜色从金黄色到黑色不等,而且长度可以达到一英尺。

曾在坦桑尼亚的塞伦盖蒂国家公园研究狮子的瓦斯特说,有待我们研究的一个重要问题是,为什么只有雄狮才有鬃毛。

正如雄孔雀优美厚重的雀屏,那是一种向雌性表明自己体魄强健的生理标志。雌性孔雀通常会选择有漂亮尾巴作为配偶,而母狮子则选择有浓黑鬃毛的雄狮,因为这样的鬃毛能刺激它们在交配过程中感到兴奋。因而这种雄性特征就这样遗传给了下一代。

瓦斯特研究了鬃毛对雄狮的确切作用。有些人认为鬃毛可以在争斗和猎捕时保护头部和肩部,但是瓦斯特说他们收集到的数据并未表明狮子的颈部和头部会受到特别的袭击。

瓦斯特制作了几对鬃毛长短不同的狮子模型,来观察野生狮子到底会接近哪一对。结果她发现,在对雄狮10次测试里,它们有9次会选择短鬃毛的狮子模型,而母狮则14次测试中有13次选择了长鬃毛的模型。

瓦斯特在研究中还发现,雄狮的鬃毛越黑,它血液中睾酮的含量就越高。她说道:"因此,鬃毛较黑的雄狮会得到母狮的青睐,而且让其他雄狮相形见绌也就不足为奇了。"

(中国日报网站译)

 
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