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喝奶也能抱大腿
作为人类，咱们常常只用抚育1～2个孩子，婴儿出世后，咱们会倾泻一切的精力将其抚育长大。可是其他动物要一起抚育许多幼崽，因而，较弱的个领会堕入极为晦气的地步，比如说，食物缺乏的情况下，鸟妈妈会优先将更多的食物投喂给存活率更高的小鸟。天然险峻，日子不易。
猪这样的哺乳动物无法像鸟相同挑选性地抚育子孙，由于一切幼崽的哺乳都在同一时间进行；但是，身强体健的小猪好像仍占有优势。有一种假定以为，天然生成懦弱的小猪或许没有满足的力气影响它们吸吮的乳腺分泌乳汁，因而最终会因缺乏营养而饿死。
但现实标明，对某一乳腺的激烈影响会添加相邻乳腺的血液活动。所以，假如一只天然生成弱势的小猪可以“正好”凑到最为健壮的兄弟姐妹身边，比较其他方位它或许会喝到更多的奶。
“这个主意天然是在调查小猪仔的时分发生的，由于我感觉强者伴身时，弱者的体现会更好。”斯洛文尼亚马里博尔大学（University of Maribor）的生物学家杨科·斯科克（Janko Skok）说道。
为了查验自己的主意是否正确，斯科克调查了18窝150头小猪，其中有23只被分入弱势组，也就是说它们出世时的体重不到1千克，或许在断奶前就死了。然后，他研讨了那些活下来的小猪和死掉的小猪之间的不同。
现实证明，活下来的弱势小猪往往……[检查全文]
Weakest Piglets May Sneak Help From Strongest Siblings
Human parents usually have one or sometimes two offspring at a time, and when babies get delivered we pour all our energy into child rearing. But other animals raise lots of babies at once. And the weaker individuals can be at a big disadvantage. If there's not enough food, for example, a mother bird might offer more to those chicks who are more likely to survive. Nature's a rough place.
But mammals like pigs can't selectively provision their offspring the way birds do, because all the babies nurse at the same time. And yet the strongest piglets still seem to have an edge. One hypothesis goes that the weaklings might not have sufficient energy to stimulate the mammary gland while they suckle, so they eventually starve from a lack of nutrition.
But it turns out that vigorous stimulation of one mammary gland can increase blood flow in neighboring glands. So if a weakling was canny enough to position himself next to one of his strongest siblings, he might get more milk than positioned elsewhere.
"I got this idea during observations of piglets, of course, because I had a feeling that weaklings are doing better in the company of [the] strongest siblings."
Biologist Janko Skok from Slovenia's University of Maribor.
To see if his hunch was right, Skok observed 18 litters, including 150 piglets. Twenty-three of them were classified as weaklings, which meant they weighed lessthan one kilogram at birth or they died before weaning. Then he looked to see what differentiated the weaklings that survived from those that died.
And indeed, those weaklings that survived were more likely...[full transcript]
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