中文导读

坐长途飞机跨越多个时区，人会“倒时差”。牛津大学的一项新研究发现，经常远距离飞行的海鸟大西洋鹱（Manx shearwater）也会遇到类似问题。文章先用人类的时差引出话题；再介绍这种海鸟和研究使用的 20 年 GPS 数据；接着解释原理：鸟用太阳当“指南针”，必须依靠体内时钟判断太阳该在哪里，而快速向东飞回家时，体内时钟会落后当地时间；然后用 335 次归巢飞行的数据和海岸线附近的表现说明证据；随后交代偏差有多大、为什么影响有限，以及首次迁徙的幼鸟可能受影响更大；最后指出还有哪些未知问题。阅读时可留意 so、as a result、however 等词如何串起原因、结果和转折。

正文

Anyone who has flown from London to Tokyo may know the feeling of jet lag. The body’s inner clock still follows the time at home, not the local time. A new study suggests that some seabirds may face a similar problem, and it can push them slightly off course.

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坐过从伦敦飞往东京航班的人，可能都知道倒时差的感觉。身体的内在时钟仍然跟着家乡的时间走，而不是当地时间。一项新研究表明，一些海鸟可能也面临类似的问题，而且这会让它们稍稍偏离航线。

The birds are Manx shearwaters, which nest on islands off the west coasts of Britain and Ireland. To find food, they often fly hundreds of kilometres out to sea, sometimes about 1,000 km to the west. Researchers led by the University of Oxford studied 20 years of GPS data from 1,045 birds, covering 3,688 trips. The results were published in the journal Science.

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这种鸟叫大西洋鹱（Manx shearwater），在英国和爱尔兰西海岸外的岛屿上筑巢。为了寻找食物，它们常常飞到几百公里外的海上，有时向西飞约 1000 公里。牛津大学领衔的研究人员分析了 1045 只这种鸟 20 年的 GPS 数据，涵盖 3688 次出行。研究结果发表在《科学》期刊上。

Like many animals, the birds can use the sun as a compass. But the sun moves across the sky during the day, so a bird needs an inner clock to know where the sun should be. Birds usually reset this clock at sunrise. When a shearwater flies quickly east to return home, it enters places where the sun rose earlier. As a result, its inner clock can fall behind local time by up to about one hour.

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和许多动物一样，这种鸟可以把太阳当作指南针。但太阳白天会在天空中移动，所以鸟需要一个内在时钟来判断太阳应该在哪里。鸟通常在日出时重新校准这个时钟。当大西洋鹱快速向东飞回家时，它会进入日出更早的地方。因此，它的内在时钟可能比当地时间慢最多大约一小时。

The researchers worked out the mistakes each bird should make if its clock stayed set to the time at dawn. In 335 flights home made out of sight of land, the birds’ directions closely matched these predicted mistakes. As they flew east, they tended to turn slightly to the right of their expected path. Patrick Lewin, one of the leaders of the study, said the process behind this is exactly the same as what causes jet lag in humans.

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研究人员计算出，如果每只鸟的时钟一直停留在黎明时的时间，它应该会出现哪些偏差。在 335 次看不见陆地的归巢飞行中，鸟的飞行方向与这些预测的偏差高度吻合。它们向东飞时，往往会稍稍偏向预期路线的右侧。研究负责人之一帕特里克·卢因（Patrick Lewin）说，这背后的过程与导致人类时差的过程完全相同。

The birds also kept using the sun along coastlines, where land could guide them. When the expected error pointed towards land, they flew closer to the coast. When it pointed away from land, they flew further out to sea.

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在本可以借助陆地指引方向的海岸线附近，这些鸟也仍在使用太阳导航。当预期的偏差指向陆地时，它们飞得离海岸更近；当偏差指向远离陆地的方向时，它们就飞得离海岸更远。

The errors were small, reaching about 15 degrees. Because the birds keep checking their position, one returning from 1,000 km away may travel only about 5 km further. For young birds on their first long migration, however, small errors could add up and move them hundreds of kilometres from their goal.

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这些偏差很小，最大约 15 度。由于鸟会不断确认自己的位置，一只从 1000 公里外返回的鸟可能只多飞大约 5 公里。不过，对于第一次进行长距离迁徙的幼鸟来说，小的偏差可能会累积起来，使它们偏离目的地几百公里。

Scientists do not yet know whether the birds suffer other effects, such as poor sleep or eating at the wrong time. Shearwaters usually hunt soon after dawn and before dark, when fish come closer to the surface, so a confused clock could cost them a meal. Lewin hopes these birds might one day help people deal better with jet lag.

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科学家们还不知道这些鸟是否会受到其他影响，比如睡眠不好或在错误的时间进食。大西洋鹱通常在黎明后不久和天黑前捕食，那时鱼会游到离水面更近的地方，所以紊乱的时钟可能让它们错过一顿饭。卢因希望，这些鸟有一天也许能帮助人们更好地应对时差。

新闻来源

• University of Oxford · Study finds that long-distance flights can throw seabirds’ internal clocks out of sync, causing navigation errors (30 Oct 2026)
• Reuters via TimesLIVE · Long-distance flights can interfere with seabirds’ internal clocks: study (30 Oct 2026)
• Science · Rapid longitudinal flights cause time shifts and Sun compass error

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