Now listen to part of a lecture on this topic in a biology class.
现在请听生物课上关于这个话题的部分内容。
OK, so we sometimes see this with animals that live in parts of the world where it gets very cold in the winter.
我们有时候会看见生活在冬天十分寒冷的地区的动物采用这种做法。
For example, in the northeaster United States, there's a species of squirrels that does this.
比如,在美国东北部,有一种松鼠就是这么做的。
This squirrel, like many species of squirrel, loves to eat nuts.
和其他种类的松鼠一样,这种松鼠也非常喜欢吃坚果。
Nuts are one of its primary sources of food.
坚果是它主要的食物来源之一。
Now, nuts are very difficult to find in the winter.
不过,冬天很难找到坚果。
But in the autumn, they are lying all over the place because that's when they fall from the trees.
但是在秋天的时候,坚果遍地都是,因为它们就是这个时节从树上掉下来的。
So, what this squirrel does is in the autumn it spends a lot of time finding nuts.
所以,这种松鼠的做法就是:秋天的时候,它会花大量的时间去寻找坚果。
After it finds a nut, it prepares it. It takes off the outer shell and cleans it.
找到坚果之后,就开始收拾它们,把外壳剥掉并清理干净。
This preparation may in some way help preserve the nut and or may make it easier to eat later on.
这种准备工作也许在某种程度上会有利于坚果的保存,或者方便之后食用。
The squirrel then digs a little hole in the ground and buries the nut.
接着松鼠会在地上挖一个小洞,把坚果埋起来。
In one autumn, this squirrel may bury hundreds of nuts.
这种松鼠一个秋天能埋起来数百颗坚果。
But it doesn't just dig a big hole and put all the nuts in it and cover them up.
但它并不是简单地挖一个大洞,把所有的坚果扔进去然后埋起来。
No, it digs hundreds of holes all over the place.
它会挖上数百个小洞,到处都是。
And it puts just one nut in each hole. Now, why would it do that?
每个洞它只放一颗坚果。那么,它为什么这么做呢?
Well, probably primarily because even if other animals happen to find some of the holes,
也许主要是因为即使别的动物碰巧发现了其中的一些洞,
some of the nuts, the squirrel will still have a lot of other holes with nuts in them so it'll still have enough food to survive the winter.
拿走了洞里的坚果,松鼠仍有很多别的埋着坚果的洞,所以它还是有充足的食物过冬。