DNA证实美洲卡罗莱纳犬起源

D.N.A. Backs Lore on Pre-Columbian Dogs
By JACK HITT July 29, 2013

DNA证实美洲卡罗莱纳犬起源
JACK HITT 2013年07月29日
BISHOPVILLE, South Caorlina — Inside a fenced acre on the swampy Lynches River flood plain in central South Carolina, seven of Don Anderson’s primitive dogs spring into high alert at approaching strangers. Medium-sized, they fan out amid his junkyard of improvised habitat: a few large barrels to dig under, an abandoned camper shell from a pickup, segments of black plastic water pipe and backhoed dirt mounds overgrown with waist-high ragweed.
南卡罗莱纳州毕晓普维尔——在南卡罗莱纳州中部林奇河多沼泽的漫滩地带，有一片栅栏围起来的地方，多恩·安德森(Don Anderson)养着一些品种古老的狗。当陌生人靠近时，其中7只会高度警觉地跳起来。这些狗体型中等，在安德森这片废品站般简陋的栖息地上，它们一字排开。在这里有几个大桶，供这些狗在桶下面挖洞，有一个别人扔掉的皮卡车野营车壳，有几节黑塑料水管，还有一些挖出来的土堆，上面长满了齐腰高的豚草。
These are [要查看本链接请先注册并登录], and though they are friendly, one can instantly sense they are different from other dogs. Several rush to the gate, their whole bodies wagging eagerly. Others sprint off and take position — their jackal ears fully erect, their fishhook tails twitching like flags in a stiff wind. A black pup scrabbles away in crablike submission that eventually takes her into an underground den, dug deep enough that she is not seen again.
它们是卡罗莱纳犬，尽管它们很友好，但是一眼就能看出来它们跟别的狗不一样。有些狗冲到门前，整个身子都急切地摇晃。其余的狗跑开站在远处，它们的豺狼耳竖着，钓钩形状的尾巴旗子一般在大风中抖动着。一只黑色的小狗像螃蟹一样慌乱地飞快跑开，钻进了地下的洞穴里，那个洞很深，它很快就看不见了。
Walking into the pen is dangerous for only one reason: one of the dogs’ defining habits is digging snout pits, or gallon-size holes in the ground, perhaps to root for grubs or munch the soil for nutrients.
走进栅栏之所以是危险的，只有一个原因：这种狗的特性之一就是在地面上用鼻子拱出深坑，或者小桶大小的洞，可能是为了翻掘食物，或者是咀嚼泥土以获取营养。
[要查看本图请先注册并登录]
John W. Adkisson for The New York Times
卡罗莱纳犬牡丹。这种犬类的一些罕见特征包括：钓钩形状的尾巴、有些像狼的尖脸，用鼻子挖洞的习惯。
“It’s like a lunar landscape,” Mr. Anderson warns as we tread carefully into the underbrush.
当我们小心翼翼的进入大树下的矮树丛时，安德森警告说，“这儿就像月球表面似的。”
Some Carolina dogs still live in the wild, and local people have long thought they were one of the few breeds that predated the European arrival in the Americas: “Our native dog,” as Michael Ruano, another enthusiast who often works with Mr. Anderson, put it. “America’s natural dog.”
一些卡罗莱纳犬仍然生活在荒野中。而且，当地人一直认为，这种狗是欧洲人来之前，生活在在美洲大陆上的几种不多的犬类之一。迈克尔·卢亚诺(Michael Ruano)也对这种狗极感兴趣，他常常跟安德森合作。他将这种狗称为“我们的原住犬，美洲土生土长的狗”。
Now, [要查看本链接请先注册并登录] backs up the folklore. A team led by Peter Savolainen at the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden has reported that several dog breeds in the Americas — among them the Peruvian hairless, the Chihuahua and the Carolina dog — are without some [要查看本链接请先注册并登录] indicative of European origin, suggesting they arrived in an earlier migration from Asia.
现在，一项有关犬类DNA的新研究证实了这个民间传说。瑞典皇家理工学院(Royal Institute of Technology)的彼得·萨沃莱宁(Peter Savolainen)领导的一个团队称，美国有些犬类缺乏一些证明其源自欧洲的基因标志，说明它们来自亚洲，先于欧洲人到达美洲。这些犬类包括秘鲁无毛犬、吉娃娃及卡罗莱纳犬。
The study also reawakens the long debate about where and how dogs were domesticated. Current theory speculates that they are descended from wolves that somehow became attached to humans perhaps 12,000 to 33,000 years ago — an early amity that has an extensive pedigree in human folklore. (Think [要查看本链接请先注册并登录].)
该研究也重燃了存在已久的一场辩论：狗是在哪里、又是如何被驯化的？现在的理论推断是，在1.2万年前到3.3万年前，有些狼不知怎么就跟人类发生了联系，人类民间传说中有各种各样的故事讲述这种早期的友好关系（想想罗慕路斯[Romulus]与雷穆斯[Remus]吧），而狗就是这些狼的后代。
But where that may have happened is not entirely settled. Some say the earliest dogs emerged in the Middle East. Others point to an area south of the Yangtze River in China. Dr. Savolainen’s study provides more evidence for the China hypothesis and, as a result, lends support to the idea that the earliest domesticated dogs crossed the Ice Age land bridge known as [要查看本链接请先注册并登录] some 12,000 years ago.
但是尚未完全确定这是在哪里发生的。有人说，狗最早出现在中东。也有人说，是在中国长江以南某地。萨沃莱宁博士的研究为中国最早出现狗的假说提供了更多证据。而且，如此一来，对于那种说最早的家犬于大约1.2万年前穿过叫做白令陆桥的冰川时代大陆桥的说法，该研究也提供了支持。
Carolina dogs, then, could be camp followers that wandered off from their Paleo-Indian masters and took up residence in swampy areas where they can easily hide out from their own natural predators.
所以，卡罗莱纳犬可能是跟着它们的古印第安主人随军迁徙到了这里，然后脱离了大部队，就在沼泽地带住下来。在那里，他们可以容易地躲开自己的天敌。
Encounter With a Puppy
遇见一只小狗
[要查看本链接请先注册并登录], 79, is a Virginian who moved to South Carolina in 1961. He’s a garrulous man dressed in comfortable blue stretch pants, a pair of Crocs on his feet, and a headband to hold back shoulder-length hair that stubbornly retains some glints of blond.
79岁的安德森是弗吉尼亚人。他于1961年搬到南卡罗莱纳州。他很健谈，穿着舒服的蓝裤子，脚踩一双卡骆驰鞋(Crocs)，及肩长发用头绳束在脑后，头发仍然略带金色。
He remembers the day, back in the Nixon administration, when he had his first encounter with these wild dogs. Down by a nearby water hole on his land, he spied a mother and three pups, and they immediately bolted.
他记得他初遇这些野狗的日子，那时的总统还是尼克松(Nixon)。离他所站不远的地方有一个水洼，那一年他就是在水洼所在地以南，看到了一只母狗和三只幼犬，它们立刻跑散了。
“Two of the puppies went east, and one puppy tried to get out west and he got stuck,” he explained. He took the pup home and named him Tadpole.
他解释道，“两只小狗朝东，一只小狗试图从西面出去，但是他困住了。”他把这只小狗带回家，给它起名叫做蝌蚪。
Not long afterward a stranger saw the dog and offered Mr. Anderson $300 for what his neighbors called a “Lynches River wild dog.” He refused the deal, thinking, he says now, “if he’s worth $300 to you, then he’s worth $300 to me.”
邻居们称小狗蝌蚪为“林奇河野狗”。不久，一个陌生人看到了这只狗，出价300美元要向安德森买下它。安德森拒绝了，他说他当时想，“如果它在你眼中值300美元，那在我眼中也值300美元。”
Mr. Anderson soon learned that others called them Carolina dogs, a name given to them by I. Lehr Brisbin, a biologist with the Savannah River nuclear power plant, near Aiken, and the man most responsible for the current interest in the breed. In the early 1970s, Dr. Brisbin was employed checking out the wildlife on the periphery of the plant and often came upon these wild dogs in the swampier parts of his domain. He took a few in and today maintains an 18-acre enclosure where he has his own pack.
很快，安德森发现别人称这种狗为卡罗莱纳犬。命名者是艾肯附近萨瓦娜河核电站(Savannah River nuclear power plant)的生物学家I·勒尔·布里斯宾(I. Lehr Brisbin)。而且，现在人们对于这种狗的兴趣，也主要归因于布里斯宾。在20世纪70年代早期，布里斯宾博士被该核电站聘用，检查核电站周边的野生动物。他常常在该地区的沼泽地带看到这些野狗，抓了一些。他现在有一片18英亩的土地，养着他自己的狗群。
Dr. Brisbin got the Carolina dog recognized by the [要查看本链接请先注册并登录] and was the first to describe some of the breed’s rare traits, including the fishhook tail, the pointed, somewhat lupine face and the habit of digging snout pits. The dogs cooperate as a pack when they hunt a field mouse or a rabbit, possibly using their white hindquarters as signals.
在布里斯宾博士的努力下，美国育犬协会(United Kennel Club)承认了卡罗莱纳犬这种品种。他是最早描述这种犬类一些鲜见特点的人。这些特征包括钓钩形尾巴，尖尖的、有点儿像狼的脸，以及用鼻子拱洞的习惯。它们追田鼠或兔子时，会集体协作，可能是用它们白色的身体后部发出信号。
“That white fishhook can be hoisted like a white-tailed deer’s and can flash back and forth,” Dr. Brisbin explained. “I saw them do it, and I saw the rest of the pack honor it.”
布里斯宾博士解释道，“这种钓钩状白尾巴可以像白尾鹿的尾巴一样翘起来，可以前后摇摆。我看到它们这么做过，而且狗群中的其它狗都会对这表示尊重。”
Carolina dogs typically go into heat once a year, like wolves, instead of twice, like domesticated dogs. They cover up their scat by pushing dirt over it with their noses, not by using their hindquarters to scratch the ground.
卡罗莱纳犬一般一年发情一次，跟狼是一样的。而不像家犬那样每年发情两次。他们用鼻子拱土，把粪便盖上，而不是用后腿刨土。
Most Carolina dogs are ginger-colored, like Australian dingoes, but they can also be black and piebald. Most, but not all, are short-haired.
多数卡罗莱纳犬是淡黄色的，像澳洲野犬一样，但是也有黑色的和杂色的。多数，而非全部，是毛发很短的。
Some have tiny patches, right above their distinctive almond eyes, that look like a spare set of eyes, what Mr. Anderson calls “spirit eyes.” Some have an unusual white stripe at the shoulder. There are the noticeable ears and the tail, but also the athletic tucked-in stomach (like a Doberman). DNA studies may soon make it easier to assert the Carolina’s distinctions from other dogs.
一些卡罗莱纳犬在独特的杏仁眼正上方有小斑点，看起来像是多余的眼睛。安德森称之为“灵魂之眼”。一些在肩部有罕见的白色条纹。他们的耳朵和尾巴，及健壮的陷进去的肚子（像杜宾犬一样），都很特别。借助DNA研究，可能会很快就能比较容易确定卡罗莱纳犬与其他犬类的不同之处。
Early Sightings
早期发现
Awareness of this unusual dog has its own history. According to Mark Eden, another enthusiast working with Mr. Anderson, the journals of the 16th-century Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto include possible references to Carolina dogs.
人类意识到这种罕见犬类的存在，已经有一段时间了。马克·伊登(Mark Eden)也对卡罗莱纳犬极感兴趣，他正在与安德森合作。他说，16世纪西班牙探险家埃尔南多·索托(Hernando de Soto)的日记中可能提到了卡罗莱纳犬。
In the essential narrative of early American natural history, William Bartram’s 1791 book “Bartram’s Travels,” the author runs across a Seminole Indian maintaining some horses and writes: “One occurrence, remarkable here, was a troop of horse under the control and care of a single black dog, which seemed to differ in no respect from the wolf of Florida, except his being able to bark as the common dog.”
威廉·巴特拉姆(William Bartram)1791年写作的书《巴特拉姆游记》(Bartram’s Travels)是一部记录早期美国自然历史的关键著作，作者曾遇到一位养马的塞米诺尔族印第安人。他在书中写道，“这里有件事值得称道，一只黑狗会控制和照料整个马群。除了会像普通的狗一样叫，此狗看上去与佛罗里达狼别无二致。”
The occasional revival of interest in the Carolina dog happens this time just as enthusiasts make the case for its inclusion among the ancient dogs the world over. Dr. Brisbin also suggests that the Carolina dog fits in the niche of “pariah dogs,” dingo-like and appearing to survive in difficult habitats, like Don Anderson’s swamps, typically on the outskirts of ancient human migration routes.
对卡罗莱纳犬的兴趣偶尔会复燃一下。这一次人们重燃兴趣之时，热捧这种狗的人士刚好也在主张，应该把卡罗莱纳犬包括到世界古老犬种的行列中。布里斯宾博士还说，卡罗莱纳犬属于“野犬”的狭窄分类，外形像澳洲野犬，似乎能在艰苦的生活环境中存活，比如多恩·安德森的沼泽地。这种生活环境通常在古人类迁徙路线附近。
There are many of these older dogs: the Canaan dog of Israel, the Santal hound of India, the Jindo of Korea, the Telomian of Malaysia, the New Guinea singing dog, the Kintamani dog of Bali, the African basenji — and the images that pop up in a Web search are oddly similar to those of the Carolina dog.
有许多这种比较古老的犬类：以色列的迦南犬、印度的檀香犬、朝鲜金多犬、马来西亚泰卢米安犬，新几内亚的歌唱犬、巴厘岛的金塔马尼犬及非洲的巴辛吉犬。而且，上网一搜索，出现的图片与卡罗莱纳犬惊人地相似。
Continents and millenniums aside, they possess many of the qualities Dr. Brisbin and Mr. Anderson describe. These primitive dogs started living near people tens of thousands of years ago, finding a place just out of sight of human encampments — where, if the current studies hold up, they steadfastly remain.
不考虑它们生活的时间与地点，这些犬类具备布里斯宾博士及安德森描述的许多特点。这些古老犬种从几万年前就开始靠近人类生活。它们生活的地点就在人类宿营地的不远处。如果现在的研究结果属实的话，它们其实仍然生活那些地方。