大象鼻子也分 “左撇子”和“右撇子”

Elephants have amazing trunks. They can use their trunks to do a great many things， such as picking up food， digging holes for water， spraying water or sand on their backs to cool down and warning other elephants. The muscles and wrinkles of the trunk help them do these things. The wrinkles make it possible for the trunk to move easily.

大象長有神奇的鼻子，能用鼻子做許多事情，比如，卷取食物、刨坑取水、噴水揚沙降溫，甚至向同伴發出警報。大象能夠完成這些事，得益于鼻子上的肌肉結構和表皮褶皺，正是這些褶皺讓象鼻能夠靈活運動。

But do you know？ Just as some people are left-handed and others areright-handed，thereare also“lefttrunked\" and\"right-trunked\" elephants. People can tell this by looking at the wrinkles on their trunks. A study has found this.

但你知道嗎？就像人類有左撇子和右撇子之分，大象鼻子也分“左撇子”和“右撇子”。一項研究發現，人們通過觀察象鼻褶皺的分布就能判斷大象使用鼻子的偏好。

Why do elephants have “left-trunked\" and 'right-trunked\" differences？ Scientists find that elephants like to bend their trunks to one side to put food into their mouths. As time goes by， the trunk on this side gets more wrinkles than the other side. Elephants have about a 50：50 chance of being “left-trunked\" or “right-trunked\". So， it's not surprising that scientists find half of elephants trunks have more wrinkles on the right， and half on the left.

象鼻為什么會有“左撇子”和“右撇子”之分呢？科學家發現，大象習慣將鼻子彎向一側來送食入口。長此以往，常彎曲那側的褶皺會比另一側更為密集。大象鼻子“左撇子”和“右撇子”的比例約各占一半，因此，科學家的這一發現有一半大象的鼻子右側褶皺更多，而另一半大象的鼻子左側褶皺更多 就不足為奇了。

What's more， Asian elephants have more wrinkles on their trunks than African elephants.African elephants have two finger-like structures at the end of their trunks to get things， but Asian elephants have only one. So Asian elephants bend their trunks more often to get things than African elephants. The study helps us learn about wrinkles of elephants' trunks and gives us a new way to look into the growth of these animals.

更有趣的是，亞洲象的鼻子褶皺比非洲象的更多。這是因為非洲象鼻的末端長有兩根“手指狀”突起便于卷取物品，而亞洲象僅有一根，因此它們需要更頻繁地彎曲鼻子來完成卷取動作。這項研究不僅揭示了象鼻褶皺的奧秘，更為人類了解這種動物的進化歷程提供了全新視角。

Word Bank

warn /wsmv. 警告

Itried towarn him，buthewouldn't listen. muscle /masln. 肌肉；肌 wrinkle /rmkln （尤指臉上的）皺紋 bend /bend/ v. （使四肢等）彎曲 Bend your knees，keeping yourback straight.