The surprising truth about bird brains, monkey minds, and more

关于鸟类大脑，猴子思维以及更多的惊人真相

Scrub jays can trick you, researchers say. Monkeys kick themselves for mistakes in judgment¹. And at least one parrot figured out something close to the mathematical concept of zero.

研究者发现，灌木丛里的鸟儿也能把你骗到。猴子会因为自己判断失误而自我惩罚。至少已经有一只鹦鹉能够理解一些与“0”相近的数学概念。

Animals can be remarkably² devoted-as the stories on these pages prove. What's less obvious is how smart they are. In study after study over the past decade, they've shown abilities previously³ thought to exist only in humans.

动物可以非常忠诚--正如这些网页上的故事所证实的那样。但是它们的聪明伶俐就不是那么显而易见的了。过去十年间，一项又一项研究表明，动物表现出过去认为只有人类才具有的能力。

Take the scrub jays. A few years ago, Cambridge University professor Nicky Clayton, PhD, found that these birds can be surprisingly devious⁴, remembering not only what foods they've hidden but where, how long ago, and whether anyone else might have noticed. "If another bird was watching, they'd wait until that bird was gone and then move the food," Clayton says.

这里以灌木丛鸟作为例子。几年以前，哥伦比亚大学教授，Nicky Clayton发现这些鸟儿惊人的狡猾，它们不仅能记住自己藏了什么食物，而且记得何时，多久以前，是否会被其它动物发现。"如果被其它鸟儿看着，它们会耐心等待，直到那鸟儿飞走它们才会搬动食物。" Clayton 说。

Even more interesting, not all jays protected their food that way-only those that had previously raided other birds' stores. "It takes a thief to know a thief," says Clayton. Another recent experiment hints that monkeys experience regret when they make the wrong choice and miss out on a treat: Researchers say brain scans suggest the animals were having "coulda, woulda, shoulda" thoughts.

更为有趣的是，不是所有的鸟都用这种方法保护它们的食物--只有那些曾经偷吃其它鸟的食物的鸟才会这样。"最了解小偷的人就是小偷。"Clayton说。另一个最新的实验则启示我们，猴子在因为自己错误的选择而错失食物后会感到后悔：研究者声称，脑扫描表明猴子们有“本可以，本来会，本应该”的想法。