叢林狼正在悄悄地佔領美國城市

ON A snowy trail that cuts around the trees is a neat line of paw prints which look as though they were made by a domestic dog. But Heidi Garbe, a research scientist with the Max McGraw Wildlife Foundation, can tell that they were made by a special kind of dog: Canis latrans, the coyote. Its footprint is more oval and its tracks more linear than those made by any household pet.

樹周圍的雪地上有一行清晰可見的爪印，看上去像是家養狗留下的。但是 Max McGraw野生動物基金會的研究科學家Heidi Garbe卻能分辨出這是一種特別的狗的足跡——郊狼，即叢林狼。他們的爪印更橢圓，留下的蹤跡比任何家養寵物都更直。

Around 2,000 coyotes are reckoned to live in Chicago and its suburbs, and it seems likely that the animal is thriving in many other built-up parts of the country. Once restricted to the south-western United States, it spread across the continent during the 20th century and more recently made its way into large metropolitan areas such as Los Angeles, Boston and even New York. In 2010 a particularly intrepid specimen was caught in a parking lot in Tribeca, a trendy neighbourhood in Manhattan.

芝加哥市內和郊外發現了大約2000頭叢林狼， 它們似乎也在美國其他建築物多的城市裏迅速繁衍。它們曾經在限制在美國的西南部生活，在20世紀在美洲大陸擴散開來，現在又進入大都市比如洛杉磯、波士頓甚至紐約。2010年，人們在翠貝卡 Tribeca的一個停車場抓到一隻膽大的，這裏可是曼哈頓附近一個熱鬧的街區啊。

In Chicago, the Cook County Coyote Project has been trying to understand how the species is conquering the metropolis. Part of the answer is that the coyote is clever, extremely adaptable and reproduces quickly. They are opportunistic eaters and will eagerly consume rabbits, rats, Canada geese, fruit, insects and family pets. They may also be filling an empty niche for a top predator that was once filled by wolves.

在芝加哥，庫克叢林狼項目試圖研究這個物種是如何侵佔到大都市裏來的。叢林狼的聰明是其中一個原因，他們具有極強的適應性和快速繁殖的能力。他們是機會主義食者，什麼都吃，兔子、老鼠、加拿大雁、水果、昆蟲還有寵物。他們可能填補了曾經是狼的頂級掠食者的空缺。

Scientists on the project are also trying to investigate how the urban animals differ from their rural cousins. For example, the city slickers have smaller territories, live at higher densities and live for longer than their rustic cousins. Such discoveries suggest that the coyote is probably thriving in American cities rather than clinging on at its edges.

項目的科學家還試圖研究城市裏的動物和它們在農村的表親有何不同。比如，城市佬們地盤更小，居住密度更大，更長壽。這些發現表明叢林狼在城市裏蓬勃發展，而不是處在生存的邊緣。

In rural America the coyote remains strongly disliked—partly because it attacks livestock—and is often hunted or trapped. By contrast, urban America is developing quite an affection for the animal. In February a hunting contest in Modoc County, California, drew thousands of complaints to the authorities (it went ahead anyway)

在美國農村地區，叢林狼仍是非常地不受歡迎，往往被人們追捕或設陷阱捉住。因此相比之下，它們就更喜歡城市了。2月在加州莫多克郡舉行了狩獵比賽引起幾千人對當地政府的抗議，但仍沒能阻止比賽。

Coyotes rarely attack humans. Between 1960 and 2006 there were only 159 reported cases of bites across North America. By comparison in 2012 there were 5,000 reported bites by domestic dogs in Cook County, which contains Chicago, alone. Nonetheless, in 2009 a young woman was killed by coyotes while hiking in Nova Scotia; scientists do not understand why. One suggestion is that the animals found in eastern America are a coyote-wolf hybrid that hunt more frequently in packs and can take down larger prey.

叢林狼幾乎從不攻擊人類。1960年到2006年期間，北美只報告了159例叢林狼咬人的案件。而僅在2012年，芝加哥所在的庫克郡就報告了5000例家養狗咬人的案件。但是2009年一個年輕女子在新斯科舍爬山的時候被一隻叢林狼殺害，科學家至今沒有找到合理的解釋。有一種猜測是美國東部有叢林狼和狼的雜交物種，它們經常集體捕獵，能夠搞定大型的獵物。

In America’s cities the key to the coyote’s success is its virtual invisibility, and sightings of the animal during the recent mating season were unusual enough to have been the subject of news reports. This is no accident. Those who watch the beasts say that the coyote is more nocturnal when it lives in cities than when it is in the wild, which has undoubtedly helped its quiet conquest of parts of metropolitan America. Most people do not actually know they have coyotes living in their neighbourhood, says Ms Garbe, and conflicts only arise when an individual becomes a problem—perhaps having developed a taste for kitchen scraps or possibly Tiddles the cat. Once known as the “ghosts of the plains” coyotes are increasingly known as the “ghosts of the cities”. But as long as they stick to the shadows their future looks secure.

叢林狼在美國城市之所以能成功生存下來是因爲它們擅長隱藏自己，我們能在叢林狼的交配季節在新聞報道中讀到它們的信息已經是不尋常了。這不是偶然。觀察過叢林狼的人會知道，它們在城市的時候會傾向於夜行，這點無疑幫助了它們悄悄地佔領美國的大都市。根據 Garbe先生，大部分人甚至不知道他們周圍有叢林狼，只有當它們中的個別成爲問題，比如他們愛上吃剩飯或者寵物貓的時候，與人的矛盾纔會激化。曾經被稱爲“平原幽靈”的叢林狼已經逐漸變成了“城市幽靈”，但只要他們保持低調，未來的生活還是很有安全的。