科学美国人60秒:城市生活的红腹灰雀同乡村同类相比更胜一筹

City dwellers can attest that the animals they share the city with—the pigeons, rats, roaches—can be pretty brazen when they're prowling for a bite.

attest  [ə'test]    vt. 证明；证实；为…作证 vi. 证明；作证

roaches    n. 蟑螂（roach的复数

brazen  ['breizən]    adj. 厚颜无耻的

While visiting Barbados, McGill University neurobiologist Jean-Nicolas Audet, noticed that local bullfinches were accomplished thieves.

Barbados    n. 巴巴多斯（拉丁美洲国家

bullfinches  ['bulfintʃ]    n. [动]红腹灰雀（欧洲鸣鸟）

bullfinches  ['bulfintʃ]    n. [动]红腹灰雀（欧洲鸣鸟）

"They were always trying to steal our food.
And we can see those birds entering in supermarkets, trying to steal food there."
And that gave him an idea.
"Since this bird species is able to solve amazing problems in cities, and they're also present in rural areas, we were wondering" are the rural birds also good problem-solvers, and they just don't take advantage of their abilities?
Or are they fundamentally different?
So Audet and his McGill colleagues captured Barbados bullfinches, both in the island's towns and out in the countryside.

They then administered the bird equivalent of personality and IQ tests:assessing traits like boldness and fear, or timing how quickly the finches could open a puzzle box full of seeds.

administered  [əd'ministə]    vt. 管理；执行；给予

equivalent  [i'kwivələnt]    adj. 等价的，相等的；同意义的

traits    n. 特性，

boldness    n. 大胆；冒失；显著

bested  [bi'sted]    adj. 在……境遇的 v. 超过；克服

And it turns out the city birds really could solve puzzles faster.
They were bolder, too, except when it came to dealing with new objects—perhaps assuming, unlike their more naive country cousins, that new things can either mean reward…or danger.
The study is in the journal Behavioral Ecology.

The city birds bested their country counterparts in another trait:they have more robust immune systems, possibly from scavenging food and water in dirty places.

scavenging  ['skævindʒiŋ]    n. 清除；净化；[机]除气法 v. 打扫；

Which suggests that sometimes, a city's dirt and grit could be the very thing that gives avian residents a wing up.

grit  [ɡrit]    vt. 研磨；在…上铺砂砾 vi. 摩擦作声 n. 粗砂，砂砾