Name: 老鼠眼中的世界史 - Max G. Levy利維 (The history of the world according to rats - Max G. Levy)
Uploaded: 2025-02-03T07:01:21.000Z
Duration: 5 min 52 s

On a gray London day in 1851, a captivated crowd gathered around a makeshift stage.

1851 年倫敦灰濛濛的一天，一群觀眾聚集在臨時搭建的舞臺周圍。

At the center stood a man adorned in a top hat, leather sash, and a swarm of rats.

中間站著一個人，頭戴高帽，身披皮革腰帶，還有一群老鼠。

This showman, Jack Black, had risen to fame claiming to be Queen Victoria's authorized rat catcher, and between tricks he lectured the crowd on his poisons and unique ability to capture hundreds of vermin with just his bare hands.

這位名叫傑克-布萊克（Jack Black）的表演者自稱是維多利亞女王授權的捕鼠人，一舉成名。在表演間隙，他向觀眾介紹了他的毒藥和徒手捕捉數百隻害蟲的獨特能力。

This is just one of many junctures in the long entangled history of human and rat.

這只是人類與老鼠漫長糾纏歷史中的眾多節點之一。

The two most common species of rat, brown and black, both scurried onto the scene roughly one to three million years ago in Asia.

褐鼠和黑鼠這兩種最常見的鼠類都是大約 100 萬到 300 萬年前在亞洲出現的。

There, they craftily survived Earth's most recent ice age, and eventually began living around and with humans.

在那裡，它們巧妙地度過了地球最近的冰河時期，並最終開始與人類共同生活。

Their constant presence even earned them a spot in the Chinese zodiac, where they symbolize new beginnings.

它們的不斷出現甚至讓它們在中國十二生肖中佔據了一席之地，象徵著新的開始。

Brown and black rats are generalists, a biological batch ascribed to species who can brave diverse climates and diets.

褐鼠和黑鼠都是通食性動物，這是生物界對能夠適應不同氣候和飲食的物種的一種稱謂。

So when trade routes opened between East Asia and the West, rats naturally tagged along.

是以，當東亞和西方之間的貿易路線開通時，老鼠自然也跟了上去。

Black rats were the first to venture out, sneaking aboard ships from India to Egypt an estimated 5,000 years ago.

黑鼠是最早的冒險者，據估計，早在 5000 年前，黑鼠就偷偷登上了從印度到埃及的船隻。

Some believe that this rodent influx into Egypt fueled their ancient spiritual reverence of cats.

一些人認為，齧齒動物大量湧入埃及，助長了埃及人對貓的崇敬之情。

After all, they were top-of-the-line rat catchers.

Trade between Egypt and the Romans brought black rats to Europe, and by 300 CE, these stowaways claimed lands as far as the Anglo-Celtic Isles, earning notoriety along the way.

埃及和羅馬人之間的貿易將黑鼠帶到了歐洲，到公元 300 年，這些偷渡者的足跡遍及盎格魯-凱爾特群島，並是以聲名狼藉。

Beyond pilfering and reproducing like there's no tomorrow, black rats brought bacterial and viral infections, which they spread to humans through their droppings and urine.

除了偷竊和瘋狂繁殖外，黑鼠還會帶來細菌和病毒感染，並通過糞便和尿液傳播給人類。

In the late 1340s, history's most infamous plague, the Black Death, killed tens of millions of people, or around half of Europe's population.

1340 年代末，歷史上最臭名昭著的瘟疫--黑死病殺死了數千萬人，約佔歐洲人口的一半。

時至今日，許多人仍把責任歸咎於老鼠。

However, the real story is more complicated.

Black rats don't directly spread the plague to humans, though they can carry the flames that transmit the bacterium responsible.

黑鼠不會直接向人類傳播鼠疫，但它們會攜帶傳播鼠疫細菌的火焰。

And brown rats, which hadn't yet set foot in Europe, don't have any blood on their paws.

褐鼠還沒有踏足歐洲，它們的爪子上沒有任何血跡。

Back in Japan, these brown rats were receiving a warmer welcome as pet rats grew in popularity.

在日本，隨著寵物鼠越來越受歡迎，這些棕色的老鼠也受到了更熱烈的歡迎。

Two hundred and fifty-year-old guidebooks detail tips on rodent domestication and how to breed the most affectionate rats in various coat colors and patterns.

已有 250 年曆史的指南詳細介紹了齧齒動物的馴化技巧，以及如何培育出毛色和花紋各異、最有親和力的老鼠。

Wild brown rats finally entered Europe sometime between the 13th and 18th century by ship and perhaps, sometimes, by treading water.

野生褐鼠最終是在 13 世紀到 18 世紀之間乘船進入歐洲的，有時也可能是踏水而入。

Some say a particularly violent earthquake in 1727 led hordes of brown rats to swim across the Volga River into Russia.

有人說，1727 年一場特別劇烈的地震導致成群結隊的褐鼠遊過伏爾加河進入俄羅斯。

Eventually, the larger and more adaptable brown rats displaced the black rats in homes and cities across Europe and North America by out-competing them for resources.

最終，體型更大、適應能力更強的褐鼠通過與黑鼠爭奪資源，在歐洲和北美的家庭和城市中取代了黑鼠。

The Industrial Revolution only bolstered the lives of industrious brown rats.

工業革命只是改善了勤勞的褐鼠的生活。

As cities expanded, rats thrived by making homes of our sewers and buffets of our trash.

隨著城市的擴張，老鼠在我們的下水道里安家，在我們的垃圾堆裡覓食，從而繁衍生息。

They even evolved resistance to our poisons to the dismay of exterminators through Inheritus Jack Black's mission.

通過繼承人傑克-布萊克的任務，它們甚至進化出了對我們的毒藥的抵抗力，讓滅蟲者大失所望。

But the human rat race took a monumental turn in 1906 when the Weissdorf Institute in Philadelphia bred the first standard rat strain for scientific research.

但是，人類的老鼠競賽在 1906 年發生了重大轉折，費城的魏斯多夫研究所培育出了第一個用於科學研究的標準老鼠品系。

Their bodies function and respond to disease similarly to humans and we share much of the same genome.

它們的身體功能和對疾病的反應與人類相似，而且我們的基因組也基本相同。

Plus, they're smart, which has made them indispensable to neuroscience and psychology research.

此外，它們還很聰明，這使它們成為神經科學和心理學研究中不可或缺的一部分。

In the 1960s, for example, scientists observed that rats raised with toys and companions had thicker cortical brain tissue than those who didn't.

例如，在 20 世紀 60 年代，科學家觀察到，與沒有玩具和同伴的老鼠相比，有玩具和同伴的老鼠的大腦皮層組織更厚。

This helped establish the concept of neuroplasticity, which explains how our environments and learning shape our minds.

這有助於建立神經可塑性的概念，它解釋了我們的環境和學習如何塑造我們的思維。

Today, rats are often regarded as the most successful invasive species in the world.

如今，老鼠通常被認為是世界上最成功的入侵物種。

They often live at the mercy of human priorities.

它們的生活往往受到人類優先事項的擺佈。

In cities like New York, they're reviled enough to warrant multimillion-dollar extermination efforts.

在紐約這樣的城市，它們受到的唾棄足以讓人們花費數百萬美元來消滅它們。

 But if history is any indication, no amount of money nor skill of rat catcher will ever fully rid us of our rodent shadows.

但是，如果歷史能夠說明問題的話，那麼再多的錢，再高超的捕鼠技巧，也無法完全擺脫我們的鼠影。