螞蟻也愛垃圾食品

Urban Ants Love Junk Food Almost As Much As Humans

螞蟻也愛垃圾食品

Dropped a chip or cookie on the pavement? Don't bother picking it up especially if you live in an urban area like Manhattan. That's because according to a team of researchers led by North Carolina State University's Clint Penick, some industrious ants will soon carry it away. For believe it or not, many city ants have come to love junk food almost as much as humans do!

薯條或曲奇掉到人行道上了？在曼哈頓這樣的大城市中，不要急着把它撿起來。因爲北卡羅萊納州立大學進行的一項研究證明：辛勤的螞蟻們會很快把它伴奏。信不信由你，越來越多在城市生存的螞蟻開始像人類一樣，喜歡上垃圾食品。

The team began by collecting 100 specimens of 21 ant species that dwell across Manhattan - from sidewalks to medians, as well as parks. They then measured the levels of carbon 13 in the bodies of each species. That's because foods containing corn and sugar cane, which is pretty much all processed food as well as meat, contain a considerable amount of this isotope.

該研究小組先後從人行道、主幹道和公園裏收集了在曼哈頓生活的21種螞蟻的100個樣本。然後檢測C13在每個種類中的含量。發現它們的食物含有大量C13同位素，其中包括加工過的玉米、蔗糖還有肉類。

They discovered that the Tetramorium ant species that live in the nooks and crannies of city pavements across the world had the highest level of C13. Those that dwell in parks and lawns had considerably lower levels of the isotope. While these findings were not surprising, the high levels of C13 in the ginatus ant species, certainly was, given that they live close to humans. The researchers believe this could be because the ants are recent migrants and have yet to acquire a taste for junk food.

他們發現生活在全球各個城市角落與縫隙的克氏鋪道蟻體內含有最多C13元素，而那些生活在公園和草坪的螞蟻體內含量則相對較少。這樣的結果並不那麼兩人吃驚，ginatus螞蟻體內含C13也多，因爲它們生活的最靠近人類。對這個結果，研究者稱這種螞蟻雖是最近遷徙過來的，但也開始品嚐垃圾食品了。

Penick believes that adapting to human food is probably the reason the ants are able to thrive in an area where their natural diet of dead insects is scarce. The researchers now plan to test if the tiny insects show a preference for human junk food even when their normal diet is readily available - so stay tuned!

Penick相信螞蟻開始習慣人類食物，也許是因爲它們具有在自然食物比如說昆蟲等資源缺乏時還保持快速繁殖的能力。研究者最近打算調查一下那些自然食物資源豐富的小昆蟲是否會喜歡人類垃圾食品。敬請期待吧！

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