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Biologists used to think turtles belonged to the"silent majority" of reptiles, meaning if turtles made sounds—no one was listening. One reptile guide from the 1950s went so far as to call them, quote, "deaf as a post."
生物学家曾经认为海龟像大多数的爬行动物一样不会发声——这意味着，如果你说海龟会发声的话，是没有人会相信的。20世界50年代的一本爬行动物指南书上至始至终称海龟为“全聋”生物。
But it turns out scientists just weren't listening hard enough. Because in recent years, biologists have identified at least 11 different sounds in the turtle repertoire <<sound>> recorded both in and out of the water. But what do they mean?
但事实上是科学家们没能听仔细。近年来，生物学家已辨别出海龟至少有11种声音，并将这些声音录了下来。这些声音有的录自水里，有的录自陆地。那么，它们的含义又是什么？
In the latest attempt to decode turtle talk, researchers tailed giant South American river turtles—Podocnemis expansa—in Brazil, over a two-year span. They recorded 220 hours of audio, capturing six of those 11 sounds. Two of the calls were extremely common—occurring during just about every turtle activity. Other calls the turtles made only during migration, or while nesting at night <<sound>>. The findings appear in the journal Herpetologica.
在最新一项研究中，研究人员为解读乌龟的声音，对南美巴西的一只巨河龟——侧颈龟展开了逾期两年的追踪。他们录下了长达220个小时的音频，并捕捉到上述11种声音中的6种。其中两种声音很普遍——几乎出现在所有的海龟活动中。而其他声音则是在海龟迁徙或晚上睡觉时发出的。该研究结果发表在《蛙蛇学报》上。
The researchers still aren't sure what any of these sounds actually mean, or whether turtles can recognize each other by voice alone. All the more reason, they say, to use these sounds in playback experiments, which might get these talking turtles out of their shells.
研究人员还未弄清这些声音的真正含义，还不能断定海龟是否仅通过声音就能进行相互识别。他们说，他们之所以要对这些声音进行重复实验，是为了让海龟能说话的事实大白于天下。
