专家解析惊悚事件：为什么巨蟒袭击并生吞了一名印尼女子

THE REPORTED KILLING of a woman in Indonesia by a large snake has raised questions about how human development is impacting both people and serpents.

报道称印度尼西亚一名女子被一条巨蟒杀死，引发了人类发展如何影响人类和蛇的问题。

Fifty-four-year-old Wa Tiba was checking on her home vegetable garden when she was believed to have been attacked by a 23-foot reticulated python.

当这位五十四岁的Wa Tiba正在检查她家的菜园时，受到一条23英尺长的网纹蟒袭击。

Local news reports say a search effort was launched when Tiba didn’t return home. The snake was reportedly found nearby with a bloated stomach. When locals from Tiba’s town killed the snake and sliced it open, the woman was found dead, fully intact, and swallowed whole. Video of the deadly encounter has been making the rounds online.

当地新闻报道说，当知道Tiba没有回家后，搜索工作就开始了。据报道，这条蛇在附近被发现，它的肚子肿胀。当来自Tiba所住的镇上的当地人杀死这条蛇并将其切开时，发现该女子身体完全无损地被蛇全部吞下，已经死亡。解剖蛇的视频在网上传播。

The incident comes just over a year after a 25-year-old man was swallowed whole by a reticulated python, also in Indonesia.

该事件发生在一名25岁的男子在印度尼西亚被网纹蟒吞噬后的一年。

Reticulated pythons are native to Indonesia and some have speculated that human development is giving python attacks a greater chance to occur. But more research is needed to say for sure, experts say.

网状蟒是印度尼西亚本土生物，有人猜测人类的发展给予蟒蛇攻击更大的发生机会。但专家认为，需要更多的研究来确认其原因。

“They stop the heart,” says Max Nickerson from the Florida Museum of Natural History. “It’s amazing how fast it happens.”

“它们先让心跳停止，”佛罗里达自然历史博物馆的马克斯-尼克森说。 “它发生的速度之快，令人惊奇。”

Nickerson has kept reticulated pythons as pets and says that, while each snake is different, the species is “touchy.” When they kill, they sink their large jaws into their victims and coil around them until blood flow stops.

尼克森曾将网状蟒作为宠物来养，他表示，虽然每条蛇都不同，但这些物种“很坏”。当它们杀死猎物时，它们将大大的下颚陷入受害者体内并卷绕在猎物周围，直到猎物停止流血。

Scott Boback, a vertebrate ecologist at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, notes that the species is an ambush predator. Instead of seeking out prey, it lies in wait for its victims to walk by.

宾夕法尼亚州卡莱尔市迪金森学院的脊椎动物生态学家斯科特-鲍勃克指出，该物种是一种伏击捕食者。它不寻找猎物，而是等待受害者走过来。

“An ambush predator like a reticulated python will use its tongue for chemosensation,” says Boback. “They’ll find areas in which a prey animal walked past back and forth. They detect those chemicals and might set up an ambush along that path.”

“像网状蟒蛇这样的伏击捕食者会用它的舌头进行化学感应，”鲍勃克说。 “它们会找到动物来回走动的区域。它们检测到这些化学物质，并可能沿着这条路线埋伏。“

Reticulated python attacks are rare, which makes their gruesome outcomes all the more shocking. Typically, the snakes feed on mammals (up to the size of deer) and birds, but they’ve been seen eating more dangerous targets like alligators.

网状蟒蛇攻击很少见，这也让这种可怕的结果更加令人震惊。通常，蛇以哺乳动物（达到鹿的大小）和鸟类为食，但他们也曾被发现把鳄鱼等更危险的猎物作为目标。

When the Indonesian man was killed last March, experts speculated that deforestation from the country’s palm oil industry might be making attacks more likely by killing the snake’s other prey and removing their natural habitat.

当印度尼西亚男子去年3月遇害时，专家推测，该国棕榈油行业的森林砍伐导致蛇的其他猎物减少并破坏其自然栖息地，而导致蛇袭击人类的情况更可能再发生。

“The larger ones love to crawl and climb, and they get a lot of their food from the forests and the trees,” says Nickerson. By erasing their habitat, they may be forced to stay alive through alternative means.

“大的蛇喜欢爬行，它们从森林和树木中获得大量食物，”尼克森说。栖息地减少导致它们可能会被迫通过其他方式维持生计。

It’s currently unclear, however, if the snake that attacked Tiba had experienced the same habitat disruption. And Boback notes that human conflict with snakes is nothing new.

然而，目前还不清楚，袭击Tiba的蛇是否遭受了同样的栖息地破坏。 鲍勃克指出，人类与蛇的冲突并不是什么新鲜事。

“There’s a lengthy relationship we’ve had with large snakes over the course of our history,” he says. Studies have shown our brains may even be hardwired to detect and fear snakes, as an evolutionary form of protection.

“历史上，我们人类与大型蛇有着很悠久的关系，”他说。研究表明，我们的大脑甚至可能被设定以检测蛇和对蛇作出恐惧，以作为一种进化的保护形式。

One study published in 2011 showed that a group of people living in the Philippine jungles not only shared an evolutionary history with snakes, but also compete with them. One survey found that 26 percent of the village’s men had been attacked by pythons.

2011年发表的一项研究表明，一群生活在菲律宾丛林中的人不仅与蛇有共同的进化史，而且还与它们竞争。一项调查发现，该村26％的男子遭到蟒蛇袭击。

Additional research is needed to know if python attacks on people are really on the rise in Indonesia, or elsewhere. Boback notes that any change to their landscape may influence the reptiles’ behavior—but scientists are unsure to what extent pythons may adapt by targeting more human beings, or if recent reports have received more attention because of social media, the rapid proliferation of cameras, and rising news coverage.

需要进一步的研究来了解印度尼西亚或其他地区的人们受蟒蛇袭击的状况是否真的在增加。鲍勃克指出，任何景观变化都可能影响爬行动物的行为 - 但科学家们不确定蟒蛇在多大程度上通过把更多的人类作为目标来适应变化。或者是由于社交媒体，近期报道更多关注类似事件，以及相机迅速普及和新闻报道不断增加。