2011年3月，日本发生了强烈地震和海啸，随后福岛核电站发生核事故。许多家庭被迫逃离，许多狗被遗弃，但并非出于自愿。后来，研究人员想了解这些狗的情况。麻布大学的长泽美穗、茂木一孝和菊水武史在2012年发表于《科学报告》的一项研究发现，从福岛救出的17只狗的尿皮质醇水平比日本另一地区被遗弃的狗高5到10倍。
In March 2011, a huge earthquake and tsunami struck Japan, and a nuclear accident followed in Fukushima. Many families had to flee, and many dogs ended up abandoned, though not by choice. Later, researchers wanted to know how those dogs were doing. A 2012 study in Scientific Reports by Miho Nagasawa, Kazutaka Mogi and Takefumi Kikusui of Azabu University found that 17 dogs rescued from Fukushima had five to 10 times higher levels of urine cortisol than abandoned dogs from another part of Japan.
皮质醇是一种主要的应激激素。一场分离家庭与宠物的悲剧2011年3月11日的地震是有史以来最强的地震之一。它还导致了一起重大核事故。论文发表时，仍有约34万人流离失所。这种长期流离失所导致许多宠物被意外遗落。有些狗在流浪或被拴住，长时间独自一人。另一些狗则处于核反应堆周围禁区的半野生状态。狗需要家庭陪伴来维持正常的应激反应，而这些狗突然失去了这种支持。
Cortisol is a major stress hormone.A tragedy that separated families and petsThe earthquake on March 11, 2011, was one of the strongest ever recorded. It also resulted in a major nuclear accident. At the time of the paper’s publication, some 340,000 people were still displaced. That long displacement meant lots of pets were left behind accidentally. Some dogs were roaming or chained up, left alone for long periods. Others existed in a semi-feral state in the exclusion zone around the nuclear reactor. Dogs need family companionship to maintain normal stress responses, and these dogs had suddenly lost that support.
研究人员如何测试这些狗2011年，麻布大学团队收容了福岛县救援中心的流浪和被遗弃的狗。每只狗接受了学生两到三个月的训练和照顾。研究人员分析了这17只狗，并与未经历灾难的神奈川县的8只被遗弃的狗进行了比较。学生们在狗到达后的一个月和三个月使用标准问卷评估了每只狗的行为。团队还每天早上检测狗的尿液皮质醇水平，持续两周，之后改为每周一次。
How the researchers tested the dogsIn 2011, the Azabu University team took in stray and abandoned dogs from rescue centers in Fukushima Prefecture. Each dog received two to three months of training and care from students. Researchers analyzed 17 of these dogs, comparing them with eight abandoned dogs from Kanagawa Prefecture that had not gone through the disaster. Students scored each dog’s behavior one and three months after arrival using a standard questionnaire. The team also checked the dogs’ urine for cortisol each morning for two weeks, and then weekly.
结果显示福岛狗的皮质醇水平是神奈川狗的5到10倍。最高值出现在它们到达的那天。即使经过10周的治疗后，水平仍然较高。
What the figures showedFukushima dogs had five to 10 times the amount of cortisol as Kanagawa dogs. It was highest the day they arrived. It remained higher even after 10 weeks of treatment.
在第一个月，福岛的狗对陌生人表现出较少的攻击性，可训练性较低，对照顾者的依恋程度也较低。它们的依恋得分在三个月后仍然保持较低。攻击性降低听起来像是好消息，但这可能仅仅意味着狗的压力并未以攻击性的形式表现出来。搬到新地方并不是全部原因1997年，迈克尔·亨尼西及其同事在一个县级动物收容所测量了狗的皮质醇水平。
In the first month, the Fukushima dogs were less aggressive to strangers, less trainable, and less attached to their caretakers. Their attachment scores remained lower at three months. Lower aggression sounds like good news, but it may simply mean the dogs’ stress did not show up as aggression. Why moving to a new place is not the entire storyIn 1997, Michael Hennessy and colleagues measured cortisol in dogs at a county animal shelter.
他们的研究发表在《生理学与行为》期刊上，发现刚到收容所的一到三天内的狗，皮质醇水平高于在那儿待了超过九天的狗。第一天的水平甚至高于在自己家中被采样的宠物狗。收容所带来的压力往往会随着天数的增加而减轻。但福岛的狗在较长时间内仍保持高水平的皮质醇。基于此，作者认为新环境不太可能解释这些结果，灾难经历才是可能的原因。
Their study, published in Physiology & Behavior, found that dogs in their first one to three days had higher cortisol than dogs that had been there more than nine days. First-day levels were higher than those of pet dogs sampled in their own homes. Shelter stress tends to ease as the days pass. The Fukushima dogs remained at high levels for much longer. Because of this, the authors said a new environment was unlikely to explain the results and that the disaster experience was the probable cause.
研究未告诉我们的事情这是一项规模较小的研究，仅涉及17只福岛狗和8只对照狗。福岛狗的平均年龄也更大，约5.7岁，而对照狗平均只有2.9岁。研究团队曾测试年龄的影响，但未发现显著影响，同时也表示很难完全排除其他因素的干扰。皮质醇是压力的指标，而非诊断工具，因此无法告诉我们每只狗的确切感受。作者得出结论：灾难后，人类和伴侣动物显然都需要长期照护。对爱狗人士而言，道理很简单：被救的狗可能需要更多时间和耐心才能安定下来。
What the study doesn’t tell usThis was a small study, involving only 17 Fukushima dogs and eight comparison dogs. The Fukushima dogs were also older on average, about 5.7 years compared to 2.9 years. The team tested for an age effect and found none, but said it was hard to get rid of all the other factors. Cortisol is a stress indicator, not a diagnosis, so it cannot tell us exactly how any one dog felt. The authors concluded that both people and companion animals apparently need long-term care after disasters. For dog lovers, the lesson is simple: a rescued dog may need extra time and patience to settle in.