In the spring of 1930, a biologist named Israel Aharoni went to Syria on a mission. He was searching for a rare golden mammal. Its name in Arabic translates as “Mr. Saddlebags.” Thanks to Aharoni, the little rodent (啮齿动物) with the big cheeks can now be found in many grade-school classrooms, running on a little wheel in a little cage. That’s right. Aharoni’s big find was the hamster.
1930年春天，一位名叫伊斯雷尔·阿哈罗尼的生物学家前往叙利亚执行一项任务。他在寻找一种稀有的金色哺乳动物。它的名字在阿拉伯语中翻译为“马鞍袋先生”。多亏了阿哈罗尼，现在许多小学的教室里都能看到这种长着大脸颊的小啮齿动物，它们在一个小笼子里的小轮子上奔跑。这是正确的。阿哈罗尼最大的发现是仓鼠。
Of course, Aharoni didn’t set out looking for a schoolchild’s pet, biologist Rob Dunn said. Dunn, an assistant professor at North Carolina State University, wrote about the hamster’s discovery in an article on Smithsonian.com. One of Aharoni’s colleagues, Saul Adler, thought the animal might be similar enough to humans to use for medical research. “Aharoni saw this as a chance to both to discover this creature in the wild and to bring them back to Adler so he could make major discoveries about humans,” Dunn says.
生物学家罗布·邓恩说，当然，阿哈罗尼并不是来找小学生的宠物的。邓恩是北卡罗来纳州立大学的助理教授，他在Smithsonian.com上发表了一篇关于仓鼠发现的文章。阿哈罗尼的一位同事索尔·阿德勒认为，这种动物可能与人类足够相似，可以用于医学研究。“阿哈罗尼认为这是一个机会，既可以在野外发现这种生物，又可以把它们带回给阿德勒，这样他就可以对人类做出重大发现，”邓恩说。
Following tips from local farmers, Aharoni tracked down a litter of 11 hamsters in a Syrian wheat field. He put the little family in a box, and trouble started immediately when the mother hamster ate one of her babies.
根据当地农民的提示，阿哈罗尼在叙利亚的一片麦田里找到了一窝11只仓鼠。他把这个小家庭放在一个盒子里，当仓鼠妈妈吃掉了她的一个孩子时，麻烦马上就来了。
More troubles followed. There was more hamster cannibalism (同类相食), and five others escaped from their cage — never to be found. Finally, two of the remaining three hamsters started to produce young, an event praised as magic by their frustrated caretakers.
更多的麻烦随之而来。还有更多的仓鼠同类相食，另外5只仓鼠从笼子里逃了出来——再也没有被找到。最后，剩下的三只仓鼠中有两只开始产仔，这一事件被它们沮丧的饲养员称赞为魔法。
Those Adam-and-Eve hamsters produced 150 babies, Dunn says, and they started to travel abroad, sent between labs or via the coat pocket. Today, the hamsters you see in pet stores are most likely descendants of Aharoni’s litter.
邓恩说，这些亚当夏娃仓鼠生了150个孩子，它们开始在国外旅行，在实验室之间被运送，或者通过外套口袋被运送。今天，你在宠物店看到的仓鼠很可能是阿哈罗尼发现的仓鼠的后代。
Because these hamsters are so inbred (近亲的), they typically have heart disease similar to what humans suffer. Dunn says that makes them the most suitable research models. “They do matter to us in this unusual way,” Dunn says. “In addition to turning those wheels all around the world.”
因为这些仓鼠是近亲繁殖的，它们通常患有与人类相似的心脏病。邓恩说，这使它们成为最合适的研究模型。“它们确实以这种不同寻常的方式影响着我们，”邓恩说。“除了在世界各地转动这些轮子之外。”
剩余段落暂不支持预览，下载文章即可阅读全文，有任何疑问请您联系客服【18011429143】微信同号。
