聽說，星巴克有一種飲料是用小蟲子的尸體做成的，香草冰淇淋里有海貍屁股的分泌物，狗和貓都是色盲，蝙蝠是瞎子？不要再散播謠言了，聽科學家來一一澄清誤解。

The animal kingdom is home to one remarkable fact after another.
動物王國里充滿了一個又一個神奇的事實。

To name a few: Sperm whales can hold their breath for an hour, the most venomous animal on Earth is a snail, and tiny freshwater hydras can live so long they may as well be immortal.
舉幾個例子來說：抹香鯨可以屏住呼吸一個小時，地球上毒性最大的動物是蝸牛，微小的淡水水螅屬動物可以活很長很長時間，幾乎可以說是長生不老。

But for each surprisingly true assertion about animals, there's invariably another that's exaggerated, misguided, or just plain wrong.
但是每一個關于動物的驚人真相身邊總是伴隨著另一個被夸大、誤導或完全錯誤的言論。

下面是幾個關于動物最常見的誤解，以及它們背后的真相——或者最接近真相的認識。

MYTH: Beaver butt secretions are in your vanilla ice cream and other foods.
誤解一：香草冰淇淋和其他食品里有海貍屁股的分泌物。

You've probably heard that a secretion called castoreum, isolated from the anal gland of a beaver, is used in flavourings and perfumes.
你大概聽說過有一種叫作海貍香的分泌物，這是從海貍的肛腺中分離出來的物質，用于制作調味料和香水。

But castoreum is so expensive, at up to $70 per pound of anal gland (the cost to humanely milk castoreum from a beaver is likely even higher), that it's unlikely to show up in anything you eat.
但是海貍香非常昂貴，每磅肛腺價格高達70美元（如果用人道的方式從海貍屁股汲取海貍香花費很可能更高），所以海貍香在你食用的東西里出現是不大可能的。

In 2011, the Vegetarian Resource Group wrote to five major companies that produce vanilla flavoring and asked if they use castoreum. The answer: According to the Federal Code of Regulations, they can't. (The FDA highly regulates what goes into vanilla flavoring and extracts.)
2011年，素食資源團體寫信給五個生產香草調味料的大公司，問他們是否使用了海貍香。答案是：根據美國聯邦法規，他們不能這么做。（美國聯邦法規對用于香草調味料和香草精的物質有嚴格規定。）

It's equally unlikely you'll find castoreum in mass-marketed goods, either.
同樣，在大眾化商品中找到海貍香也是不太可能的。

MYTH: Dogs and cats are colourblind.
誤解二：狗和貓都是色盲。

Dogs and cats have much better colour vision than we thought.
狗和貓對顏色的辨別力比我們想的強多了。

Both dogs and cats can see in blue and green, and they also have more rods – the light-sensing cells in the eye – than humans do, so they can see better in low-light situations.
狗和貓都可以辨別藍色和綠色，而且它們的視桿細胞（眼睛里的感光細胞）比人類還多，在弱光環境下視力比人類更好。

This myth probably comes about because each animal sees colours differently than humans.
這個誤解很可能是源于每種動物看到的顏色都和人類不同。

Reds and pinks may appear more green to cats, while purple may look like another shade of blue.
紅色和粉色在貓看來可能更綠一些，而紫色也許在貓眼里是另一種藍色。

Dogs, meanwhile, have fewer cones – the colour-sensing cells in the eye – so scientists estimated that their colour vision is only about 1/7th as vibrant as ours.
與此同時，狗的視錐細胞（眼睛里的感色細胞）更少，所以科學家估計狗對顏色的辨別力只有人類的七分之一。

MYTH: Humans evolved from chimpanzees.
誤解三：人類是從大猩猩進化而來的。

Chimps and humans share uncanny similarities, not the least of which is our DNA – about 98.8 percent is identical.
大猩猩和人類確實是有很多詭異的相似之處，尤其是DNA——大約有98.8%是相同的。

However, evolution works as incremental genetic changes add up through many generations. Chimps and humans did share a common ancestor between 6 and 8 million years ago but a lot has changed since then.
但是，進化是經歷許多代累積產生的基因改變。大猩猩和人類確實在600萬至800萬年前擁有同一個祖先，但是自那以后很多事情都發生了變化。

Modern chimps evolved into a separate (though close) branch of the ape family tree.
現代大猩猩進化成了猿猴大家族的一個獨立（盡管關系很近的）分支。