Name: 海豹的超強可愛（野生鹹海） (Harbor Seals' Super-powered Cuteness (Salish Sea Wild))
Uploaded: 2025-04-29T04:23:35.000Z
Duration: 13 min 54 s

This isolated island out in the middle of nowhere, free from human disturbance and land predators, makes it the ideal haul-out site for one of the Salish Sea's most common, yet also underappreciated marine mammals, the harbor seal.

這座與世隔絕的小島遠離人類干擾和陸地捕食者，是鹹海最常見、但也最不受重視的海洋哺乳動物之一--港海豹的理想棲息地。

This little pup was born just moments ago.

She instinctively knows how to swim using the classic wiggle wiggle seal stroke.

她本能地知道如何用經典的 "擺動擺動 "海豹式泳姿游泳。

A newborn harbor seal is one of the fattest babies on earth, born with enough blubber to survive a dunk in this cold water.

剛出生的港海豹是地球上最胖的嬰兒之一，天生的脂肪足以讓它在冰冷的海水中存活下來。

But she's totally dependent on mom for food and, when her tiny flippers get tired, for piggyback rides around the rookery.

但它完全依賴媽媽給它食物，當它的小腳蹼累了時，媽媽就會揹著它繞著育雛池走一圈。

This precocious pup is already able to follow mom on short Harbor seals, the most successful of the 33 species of flipper-footed mammals, the seals, sea lions, and walrus, which scientists call pinnipeds.

這隻早熟的幼崽已經能跟著媽媽走在矮小的港海豹後面了，港海豹是 33 種鰭足哺乳動物中最成功的一種，它們是海豹、海獅和海象，科學家們稱它們為鰭足動物。

Before the new pup gets too chilled, mom leads her back to the beach to warm her up and have her first meal.

在新幼崽變得太冷之前，媽媽會帶它回到海灘，讓它暖和起來，並吃它的第一頓飯。

Pinnipeds produce the world's highest energy milk.

羽科動物生產世界上能量最高的牛奶。

This suckling pup's six to four meals a day are 50% fat.

這隻吃奶的幼崽每天吃六到四餐，其中 50% 都是脂肪。

Compare that to human and cow's milk, which are less than 4% fat.

相比之下，人奶和牛奶的脂肪含量不到 4%。

In just three to four weeks, our pup will double her weight to around 50 pounds.

只需三到四周，幼犬的體重就會增加一倍，達到 50 磅左右。

She needs to pack it on fast as possible because mom will only feed her for about a month.

她需要儘快吃完，因為媽媽只能喂她一個月左右。

After that, she's on her own and she'll need to draw on the calories stockpiled in her blubber until she gets good at hunting fish.

之後，它就只能靠自己了，它需要消耗脂肪中儲存的熱量，直到它能熟練地捕食魚類。

For young they are with their pups, Harbor seals are attentive mothers.

與幼崽相依為命的海豹是一位細心的母親。

Like our own moms, pregnant seals produce a flush of oxytocin, a hormone that aids in birth and bonding.

就像我們的媽媽一樣，懷孕的海豹也會分泌大量催產素，這是一種有助於分娩和親子關係的激素。

Research on closely related gray seals shows that females with higher levels of oxytocin snuggle closer to their pups, likely increasing their chances during this most vulnerable time.

對密切相關的灰海豹的研究表明，催產素水準較高的雌海豹會依偎在幼崽身邊，這可能會增加它們在這一最脆弱時期的機會。

Unlike their much larger cousins, the elephant seals, Harbor seals can't store enough energy to make it through birthing and nursing a pup without feeding.

與體型大得多的表親象海豹不同，港海豹無法儲存足夠的能量，在不進食的情況下完成分娩和哺育幼崽。

So mom will occasionally leave her baby behind to go out fishing for herself.

所以，媽媽偶爾會丟下孩子，自己出去釣魚。

When she returns, she faithfully finds her pup, even in a crowded haulout, because she's memorized its unique scent and voice.

當它回來時，即使在擁擠的拖網中，它也能忠實地找到自己的幼崽，因為它已經記住了幼崽獨特的氣味和聲音。

Once the pup starts bulking up and gaining confidence, mom lets her splash around in baby pools with other kids from the haulout.

一旦幼犬開始長大並增強了自信心，媽媽就會讓它和其他孩子一起在嬰兒游泳池裡嬉戲。

It's while playing here and by following mom on short foraging trips that our pup learns to be a seal.

正是在這裡玩耍和跟隨媽媽短途覓食時，我們的幼崽學會了如何成為一隻海豹。

She grows stronger each day and builds up the ability to store large amounts of oxygen in her blood and muscles, which will ultimately enable her to dive well over 1,500 feet deep and hold her breath for half an hour.

她每天都在變得更加強壯，並增強了在血液和肌肉中儲存大量氧氣的能力，這最終將使她能夠潛入超過 1500 英尺深的水下，並憋氣半小時。

It's time for the month-old pup to spread her flippers and fly solo.

這隻一個月大的幼崽是時候張開蹼，單飛了。

We call these newly weaned youngsters weaners.

我們稱這些剛斷奶的幼犬為斷奶仔犬。

Chances are she won't move very far and might even spend her entire life around the same haulout where she was born, but there would be no more free meals on mom.

她有可能不會搬得很遠，甚至可能一輩子都在她出生的那個船塢附近度過，但媽媽再也不會有免費餐吃了。

Fortunately, Mother Nature has given the pup an incredible set of tools designed for the unique lifestyle of an amphibious mammal.

幸運的是，大自然賦予了幼崽一套不可思議的工具，專為兩棲哺乳動物的獨特生活方式而設計。

So how does a harbor seal get a head in this world?

那麼，在這個世界上，港海豹是如何得到頭的呢？

These specimens from the SeaDoc Society Museum tell us a lot about the animals they came from and they're also going to show us how the harbor seal is supremely adapted to a This harbor seal was about half my size, but look at how gigantic the eye sockets are.

這些來自 SeaDoc Society 博物館的標本告訴了我們很多關於動物的知識，同時也向我們展示了港海豹是如何極好地適應海洋環境的。 這隻港海豹只有我的一半大小，但看看它的眼窩是多麼巨大。

Harbor seals eyeballs are about twice the size of a human's.

港海豹的眼球大約是人類的兩倍。

Their eyes are packed with rod cells, making them extremely good at seeing in the low light situations they find deep beneath our sometimes murky water.

它們的眼睛裡佈滿了桿狀細胞，這使它們在光線不足的情況下也能看得非常清楚。

Humans are built to stand upright and to look straightforward, but the position of the This works great when they're swimming and they can look up to see schools of prey silhouetted against a bright surface.

人類的體型是直立和直視的，但當它們游泳時，這個姿勢非常有效，它們可以抬頭看到明亮水面上的獵物群剪影。

But what about when they're on top getting a breath?

但是，當他們在上面喘氣的時候呢？

This is why you see them swimming on their back or rolling over to dive.

這就是為什麼你會看到它們仰泳或翻身潛水的原因。

When we dive without a mask, everything is blurry.

當我們不戴面罩潛水時，一切都是模糊的。

Seals fix that by having eyes that are like the dome port of an underwater camera.

海豹的眼睛就像水下攝影機的圓頂端口，可以解決這個問題。

Teeth can tell us a lot about an animal's lifestyle.

牙齒可以告訴我們很多關於動物生活方式的資訊。

The most obvious teeth are these gigantic canines, the fangs.

最明顯的牙齒是巨大的犬齒，也就是獠牙。

They use these to catch and to kill large prey and also to fight.

它們用這些來捕殺大型獵物，也用來戰鬥。

Our harbor seal has canines, but in proportion they're much smaller, which makes sense for its lifestyle.

我們的港海豹也有犬齒，但比例上要小得多，這也符合它的生活方式。

In the Salish Sea, stellars have basically the same diet as a harbor seal.

在薩利什海，星海豹的食物與港海豹基本相同。

So why do they need such gigantic canines?

那麼，它們為什麼需要如此巨大的犬科動物呢？

The answer lies in the difference in their reproductive strategies.

答案就在於它們的繁殖策略不同。

Harbor seal males and females are close to the same size, with boys only 20 to 30 percent larger than girls.

雄性和雌性海豹的體型接近，男孩只比女孩大 20% 到 30%。

But stellar sea lion males are 300 percent bigger than stellar females.

但是，恆星級的雄海獅要比恆星級的雌海獅大 300%。

They grow that large because their mating style is for males to fight each other over harems of females.

它們之所以長得那麼大，是因為它們的交配方式是雄性之間為爭奪雌性而相互廝殺。

Harbor seal males don't need giant canines because they're a bit more mellow.

雄性港海豹不需要巨大的犬齒，因為它們比較溫順。

They still do battle, but it's usually more like a dance-off combined with a water aerobic splash fight.

它們仍然在戰鬥，但通常更像是舞蹈比賽與水上有氧潑水大戰的結合。

Males pick a territory and then display their fitness by doing breaches and acrobatic flips, slapping the surface with their back flippers.

雄性選擇一塊領地，然後用背鰭拍打海面，進行衝撞和雜技翻轉，展示自己的體能。

They also blow bubbles, growl, and roar underwater, all to attract females and intimidate rivals.

它們還在水下吹泡泡、咆哮和怒吼，所有這些都是為了吸引雌性和恐嚇對手。

Instead of external ear flaps, harbor seals only have small holes on their side of their heads.

港海豹沒有外耳瓣，只有頭側有小孔。

This is evolution making them more hydrodynamic like whales and dolphins.

這種進化使它們像鯨魚和海豚一樣更具水動力。

During dives, they close their ear openings, but they can hear even better underwater.

潛水時，它們會關閉耳孔，但它們在水下的聽力更好。

Along with listening for other seals and for the seal-eating type of killer whales, researchers believe harbor seals use their ears underwater for hunting.

研究人員認為，除了傾聽其他海豹和虎鯨吃海豹的聲音外，港海豹還利用耳朵在水下捕獵。

Herring are one of the seals' favorite foods, and this forage fish has a distinctive way of communicating with their schoolmates, making high-frequency sounds by blowing bubbles out their backsides.

鯡魚是海豹最喜歡的食物之一，這種覓食魚有一種獨特的與同伴交流的方式，它們會從背上吹出氣泡，發出高頻率的聲音。

That's right, harbor seals are probably tuning in to the sound of fish farts, and maybe they're giggling.

沒錯，港灣海豹可能正在收聽魚放屁的聲音，也許它們還在咯咯地笑。

Harbor seals also have another sense, and this is their secret weapon, a real super spidey sense that enables them to hunt and catch fish even in black water in the middle of the night.

海豹還有另一種感官，這就是它們的祕密武器，一種真正的超級蜘蛛感官，使它們即使在深夜的黑水中也能捕獵和捕魚。

These are vibrici, commonly known as whiskers, but the harbor seals whiskers are anything but common.

這些是振須，俗稱鬍鬚，但港灣海豹的鬍鬚並不常見。

We know that cats whiskers are highly evolved sensors that can detect air currents, act as trip wires, and allow cats to safely navigate in the dark.

我們知道，貓須是一種高度進化的傳感器，可以探測氣流，充當絆馬索，讓貓在黑暗中安全導航。

These vibrici are so sensitive that a harbor seal can read underwater vibrations like an expert animal tracker.

這些振動器非常靈敏，以至於港海豹可以像動物追蹤專家一樣讀取水下振動。

They can even tell the species, size, speed, and direction of fish that swam by 30 seconds ago and are now out of sight.

它們甚至能分辨出 30 秒前遊過但現在已看不見的魚的種類、大小、速度和方向。

You'd think that when a seal swims fast, its whiskers would wind up plastered to the sides of its face like our hair when we stick our head out the window of a moving car.

你會認為，當海豹快速遊動時，它的鬍鬚會像我們把頭伸出車窗外時的頭髮一樣，貼在臉的兩側。

Well, maybe not my hair, but see those little bumps and waves?

好吧，也許不是我的頭髮，但看到那些小凸起和波浪了嗎？

Sea lions and walrus whiskers don't have those.

海獅和海象的鬍鬚就沒有這些。

Only the harbor seals and their closest cousins do.

只有港海豹和它們的近親才會這樣做。

Those tiny structures allow the vibrici to slice smoothly through the water instead of being buffeted by the seals movements as it hunts.

這些微小的結構使 vibrici 能夠平穩地劃過水面，而不會在捕食時受到海豹運動的衝擊。

This is the magic because it means that the whiskers can stay focused on the vibrations caused by prey.

這就是它的神奇之處，因為這意味著鬍鬚可以集中在獵物引起的振動上。

Like a dog hot on a scent, the seal follows the invisible trail through every twist and turn the fish makes until it catches up and then chomp.

海豹就像一隻嗅到氣味的獵狗，在魚兒的每一次轉折中都會跟隨著無形的蹤跡，直到追上魚兒，然後大口咀嚼。

This sense is so amazing that we've seen blind seals surviving just fine, even raising pups.

這種感覺非常神奇，我們看到失明的海豹也能很好地生存，甚至還能養育幼崽。

Put all these incredible harbor seal senses and adaptations together and you can see how our little pup could not only survive on her own, but can grow up to be one of the most awesome animals in the Salish Sea.

把所有這些令人難以置信的港海豹的感官和適應能力放在一起，您就會明白我們的小海豹不僅能獨自生存，而且還能成長為鹹海中最令人敬畏的動物之一。

If she can dodge speeding boats and hungry orcas, she'll start having her own pups in three to four years and could live to be more than 20.

如果它能躲過疾馳的船隻和飢餓的虎鯨，它將在三到四年後開始產崽，並可能活到 20 多歲。

Harbor seals were long hunted sustainably by the Coast Salish for food, medicine, and pelts.

長期以來，海岸薩利什人一直以可持續的方式捕獵海豹，以獲取食物、藥物和皮毛。

European settlers, however, called them nearly out of existence, in part because they saw them as competing with human fisheries.

然而，歐洲定居者幾乎將它們趕盡殺絕，部分原因是他們認為它們與人類的漁業競爭。

Harbor seals are such an adaptable and resilient species that as soon as they were protected in the 1970s, they bounced back.

海豹是一種適應力和復原力極強的物種，20 世紀 70 年代它們一受到保護，就立即反彈回來。

That's a stark contrast to the other species we've been trying to recover, like some salmon that unfortunately continue to suffer declines.

這與我們一直在努力恢復的其他物種形成了鮮明對比，比如一些鮭魚，不幸的是，它們的數量仍在減少。

Salmon are essential to Coast Salish culture and they're critical to the survival of our fish-eating orcas.

鮭魚是海岸薩利什文化的重要組成部分，也是食魚虎鯨生存的關鍵。

In fact, the entire ecosystem needs salmon.

事實上，整個生態系統都需要鮭魚。

We've reached the complicated and controversial point where there's a real concern that harbor seals, still a protected species, might be eating too many endangered salmon.

我們已經到了這樣一個複雜而又充滿爭議的地步：人們確實擔心，仍然屬於受保護物種的港海豹可能會吃掉太多瀕臨滅絕的鮭魚。

Research is underway to see if pinnipeds need to be managed at places like Rivermouse, where human disturbances have made salmon very vulnerable to predators.

目前正在進行研究，以確定是否需要在裡弗姆斯等地對針足類動物進行管理，因為在這些地方，人類的干擾使得大馬哈魚非常容易受到捕食者的攻擊。

There are natural controls on harbor seals.

They're limited by food, including their favorite prey, herring and hake.

它們受到食物的限制，包括它們最喜歡的獵物鯡魚和無須鱈。

There's also a rapidly increasing number of mammal-eating bigs orcas in the Salish Sea, and they're here to hunt one of their favorite foods, harbor seals.

在薩利什海，吃哺乳動物的大虎鯨數量也在迅速增加，它們在這裡捕食它們最喜歡的食物之一--港灣海豹。

Another natural control is that not all harbor seal pups survive.

另一個自然控制因素是，並非所有幼海豹都能存活下來。

Each summer, SeaDoc and our partners in the Marine Mammal Straining Network respond to hundreds of calls about pups seen alone on the beach.

每年夏天，SeaDoc 和我們在海洋哺乳動物網絡中的合作伙伴都會接到數百個關於在海灘上看到幼崽獨自活動的電話。

Most of these are just waiting for their mothers to come back from fishing trips, like this plump puppy, patiently waiting for his mom.

它們中的大多數都在等媽媽出海捕魚回來，就像這隻豐滿的小狗一樣，耐心地等待著媽媽。

Others look so defenseless and impossibly cute that it's tempting to intervene.

還有一些孩子看起來毫無防備，可愛得讓人想去幹預。

But their best chance for survival is to give them plenty of room so their moms aren't afraid to come back to care for them.

但是，它們最好的生存機會就是給它們足夠的空間，這樣它們的媽媽就不會害怕回來照顧它們了。

Unfortunately, each year there are seal pups seriously injured by pet dogs and other human-related impacts that permanently separate them from their mothers.

不幸的是，每年都有海豹幼崽被寵物狗或其他與人類有關的撞擊嚴重傷害，導致它們與母親永久分離。

That's when trained personnel bring pups to rehab facilities like SR3 in Seattle and the Vancouver Aquarium.

這時，訓練有素的工作人員就會把幼崽送到康復中心，如西雅圖的 SR3 和溫哥華水族館。

Pups there are nursed on specially formulated sushi smoothies.

那裡的幼犬可以喝到專門配製的壽司冰沙。