任何已经或可能怀孕的女儿
any daughters who are or could become pregnant.
但接着，她发现了一些东西
But then, she spots something.
碧碧，这些女儿中最弱的一个，
Bebe, the weakest of these daughters,
试图不被注意到
is trying not to be noticed.
她差点就逃脱了惩罚
She almost gets away with it.
克林奇想要确保这个群体只抚养一组后代
Klinky wants to make sure the group raises just one set of offspring –
她自己的
her own.
它们都在争夺有限的资源，
They’re all fighting for limited resources,
任何竞争都会使克林奇的幼崽受到威胁
any competition would put Klinky’s pups under threat.
她不会让这种事发生的
She won’t let that happen.
克林奇已经把她的四个女儿赶出了家门
Klinky has driven four of her daughters out of her family.
它们在安全距离外孤独地看着
They watch forlornly from a safe distance.
对它们来说，流亡的生活将是艰难的
Life for them in exile is going to be tough.
不管这看起来多么残酷，
However brutal this seems,
克林奇准备走得更远
Klinky is prepared to go much further
为了保护她未出生的幼崽，如果需要的话
to protect her unborn pups, if she needs to.
蒂姆·克拉顿-布洛克研究猫鼬的决定让他来到了这里，
Tim Clutton-Brock’s decision to work with meerkats led him here,
到南卡拉哈里，1993年
to the Southern Kalahari, in 1993.
最终，他和他的团队发现了一个空农场
Eventually, he and his team discovered an empty farm
位于南非和博茨瓦纳的边境
on the border between South Africa and Botswana.
在这个荒凉的环境中，他亲眼目睹了一切
In this desolate environment, he saw at first-hand
为什么猫鼬是最适合研究的哺乳动物，
how meerkats could be the perfect mammal to study,
如果你能接近它们
IF you could get close to them.
这里的环境如此开放，当我看到它们的时候，我想，
The environment is so open that when I saw them, I thought,
“哇，在这里你真的可以看到它们在做的一切。”
“Wow, here you can really see everything that they’re doing.”
如果能让几个不同的群体习惯，
If only it were possible to habituate several different groups,
那我们就能真正上位了
then we could really get on top
回答有关它们的重要问题
of answering important questions about them.
习惯化是得到动物的过程
Habituation is the process of getting an animal
变得完全不害怕你，以至于你被忽视
to become so completely unafraid of you that you are ignored.
他哼哼
HE HUMS
如果蒂姆能做到这一点，他就能近距离研究它们
If Tim could manage this, he could get close enough to study them
没有猫鼬的介意
without the meerkats minding.
猫鼬不容易和陌生人交朋友
Meerkats don’t make friends with strangers easily
要进入它们的世界，没有捷径可走
and there are no shortcuts when it comes to breaking into their world.
摄制组需要在猫鼬群中行走数年
It would take the team years of walking amongst the meerkats
在灌木丛中，它们总是以一种轻柔的哼哼声宣告自己的存在
in the bush, always announcing themselves with a gentle hum.
他哼哼
HE HUMS
我在远处还能看见它们
I can still see them in the distance
而且它们还没有真的逃跑
and they’re not actually running away yet.
但它们正在逐渐离开
But they’re gradually moving off.
如果我一直压♥迫♥它们，它们就会跑得很快
And if I kept pressing them, they would run quickly.
所以我要做的就是告诉它们，这是我
So what I’m trying to do is to tell them that it’s me.
他哼哼
HE HUMS
我根本不想躲着它们
I’m not trying to hide from them at all.
经过数千小时的辛勤工作，
After thousands of hours of hard graft,
它们现在距离一个数字只有几英尺
they could now get to within a few feet of a number
猫鼬家族的
of meerkat families.
他哼哼
HE HUMS
这是一项了不起的成就
It was a remarkable achievement.
现在，这项工作可以开始了
Now, the work could begin.
如果猫鼬真的合作
If the meerkats weretruly cooperating,
团队中的每个成员都会做得更好
each individual member of the group would be doing better
而不是靠自己生活
than if they were living on their own.
为了验证这个理论，
To test this theory,
蒂姆需要衡量它们互相帮助的成本和收益
Tim needed to measure the costs and benefits of them helping each other
通过测量它们的体重是增加还是减少
by measuring if they were gaining or losing weight.
他怎么才能让猫鼬们同意呢?
How was he to get the meerkats to agree to that?
他开始尝试用他能想到的所有食物来引诱它们
He began by trying to lure them with every food he could think of.
任何能刺♥激♥猫鼬味蕾的食物
Anything that might tickle a meerkat’s taste buds.
粉虱
Mealworms.
鸡肉
Chicken.
花生酱
Peanut butter.
炼乳
Condensed milk.
我们想尽了一切办法，看它们会不会吃
We tried everything we could find to see if they would eat it…
．．但它们根本不感兴趣
..but they weren’t interested at all.
尽管蒂姆竭尽全力烹饪
Despite Tim’s best culinary efforts,
猫鼬对一切都不屑一顾
the meerkats turned up their noses at everything.
团队注意到有一种食物
The team had noticed that there was one food
它们会竭尽全力去抓住
that they would go all out to get hold of –
千鸟的蛋
plover’s eggs.
这促使它们尝试新的东西
It led them to try something new.
要吃千鸟蛋，蒂姆尝试了鸡蛋
For plover’s eggs, Tim tried hen’s eggs.
我们想看看它们是否感兴趣
We thought we’d see whether they were interested
鸡蛋里的东西
in the contents of the eggs.
但我们发现
But what we found out was that
它们一点也不感兴趣
they weren’t in the slightest bit interested.
但就在这时，蒂姆看到猫鼬正在吞食一个鸡蛋
But then, Tim saw meerkats devouring a hen’s egg
在阳光下烤熟的
that had cooked in the sun.
最后，当我们发现这一点时，我们的生活完全改变了
In the end, our lives changed totally when we discovered this.
经过两年勇敢的失败，
After two years of valiant failures,
这是一个顿悟的时刻
this was a eureka moment.
煮蛋渣并不能改变野外猫鼬的行为，
Crumbs of boiled egg don’t change the meerkats’ behaviour in the wild,
但它们确实让它们变得合作
but they do make them cooperative.
这一发现是启动卡拉哈里猫鼬项目所需的动力
This discovery was the kick-start the Kalahari Meerkat project needed.
她哼哼
SHE HUMS
嘿，我的爱，来吧!
Hey, my love, come!
你好，我的爱人，好吃
Hello, my love, yum-yum.
越来越多的研究人员开始加入蒂姆的项目
More researchers began to join Tim on his project.
现在，他们可以开始收集有关猫鼬的适当数据了
Now, they could begin to gather proper data on the meerkats.
当与团队合作时，
When working with a group,
他们每天给一个猫鼬称重三次
they would weigh an individual three times a day.
当它们在中午起床时
When they get up, at midday
就在它们睡觉前
and just before they went to sleep.
有了无线电项圈，它们就永远不会丢失
With radio collars, they would never be lost.
所有人都得到了自己的代码和电脑文件
All the individuals were given their own codes and computer files.
和名字
And names.
现在，蒂姆可以开始为他的大问题寻找答案了
Now, Tim could start to find answers to his big questions.
为什么猫鼬想要群居呢?
Why does a meerkat actually want to live in a group?
它们为什么要互相帮助?
Why do they help each other out?
当它们知道的时候，它们怎么知道该做什么工作?
And when they do, how do they know what job to do?
这项研究现在可以开始了，
The study could now get underway,
这一切都是因为猫鼬对小零食的喜爱
all because of the meerkats’ love of a tiny snack.
在功夫群，威胁性的雌性消失后，
At the Kung Fu, with the threatening females out of the way,
克林奇带领她的团队进入越来越干燥的地方
Klinky leads her group into the increasingly dry
和无情的灌木丛
and unforgiving bush.
从表面上看，在这片古老的沙漠里，它们几乎没有生存的空间，
On the surface, there’s little for them here, in this ancient desert,
但克林奇是一个有经验的猎人
but Klinky is an experienced hunter.
如果它们挖足够多的沙子，就能找到足够多的幼虫
If they dig through enough sand, they’ll find sufficient grubs
还有蝎子来喂它们一天
and scorpions to feed them all for the day.
然而，功夫群不只是捕食者
However, the Kung Fu aren’t simply predators.
它们也是猎物
They’re also prey.
从天上降下来的死亡的危险真的存在
There is a real danger of death descending from the skies.
但猫鼬有一个早期预警系统
But meerkats have an early warning system.
哨兵
The sentinel.
它们的工作是放哨
Their job is to keep a lookout
好让其他功夫群高手埋头
so the rest of the Kung Fu can keep their eyes down
专注于寻找食物
and focus on finding food.
当蒂姆第一次看到猫鼬哨兵时，他很感兴趣
When Tim first came across the meerkat sentinel, he was fascinated.
他哼哼
HE HUMS
配上他最信赖的煮鸡蛋，
With his trusty boiled egg,
他调查了
he investigated how devoted
它们要完成它们的任务
they were to their task.
我将向你们展示我20年前尝试过的东西，来展示这个
I’m going to show you something that I tried, 20 years ago, to show this.
我要给这家伙一些他最喜欢的食物，一些鸡蛋
I’m going to offer this guy some of his favourite food, some egg.
猫鼬有工作要做
The meerkat has a job to do
而且不会动摇
and won’t be swayed.
他在值班，他在监视捕食者
He’s on duty, he’s watching for predators
显然他的心思都在这上面
and his mind is obviously fixed on that.
他只是对其他事情不感兴趣
He’s just not interested in other things.
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