Elephants 大象

Anyone who has interacted with an elephant knows these animals are very smart. But just how smart are they? Researchers have performed numerous studies on the subject. One found that elephants can understand the difference between languages and whether a man, woman, or child is speaking.

任何接触过大象的人都知道它们十分聪明。但它们有多聪明呢？研究人员对它们进行了很多项研究。其中一项研究表明大象可以分辨出人类语言的不同，以及分辨出说话者是男人、女人还是孩子。

How do they know? In Africa, only certain tribes hunt down elephants. Scientists played recordings¹ of a group that does hunt them down and one that doesn’t. When the elephants heard the recordings of the elephant-hunting group, they became fearful and moved away from where the sound was coming from. When they heard the language of the group that doesn’t hunt them down, they didn’t move or change their disposition². Then, researchers played recordings of the language that scared them, but included women, children, and men. The elephants only became fearful when the voice came from men—they do the hunting.

研究人员又是怎么知道的呢？在非洲，某些部落会猎杀大象。研究人员播放了一组猎杀大象部落的语言和一组非猎杀大象部落的语言录音。当大象听到猎杀大象部落的语言之后，它们十分恐惧并开始远离声音的源头。而当它们听到的语言是非猎杀大象部落发出的，它们并没有逃走。然后，研究人员又播放了会让大象恐惧的语言，但是这次说话的人包括了女人、孩子和男人。大象听到男人的声音才开始表现出恐惧，因为只有男人会捕猎大象。

Dolphins 海豚

One way that scientists measure intelligence is something called the mirror-self recognition test. The idea behind this test is to determine whether an animal can recognize themselves in front of a mirror. To figure that out, scientists place a colored marking on the animal’s body. Then they place them in front of a mirror. Most often, if the animals recognize themselves, they will show signs of trying to remove the marking from their bodies, like scratching or rubbing it off.

科学家测试智商的方法之一是镜像自我认知测试。这个测试的目的是看动物是否能认出镜中的自己。首先科学家在被测试的动物身上放置一个有颜色的标记，然后把它们带到镜子前。通常，如果动物认出了镜中的自己，它们会表现出想弄掉标记的迹象，比如挠掉或者蹭掉身上的标记。

Many animals don’t pass this test. When they see their reflection in the mirror they think it’s another animal of their kind, and either run away and try to fight or scare the stranger.

很多种动物都没能通过这项测试，它们看见镜中的自己时以为是另外一只同类，所以它们要么逃走要么发出威胁要么试着和镜中的“敌人”打斗。

When researchers placed markings on dolphins, the aquatic³ critters investigated the smudges in their reflections. In other words, they knew the marking belonged to them, and not some other animal; they knew the dolphin in the mirror was them.

当研究者将标记放置在海豚身上时，这些海洋里的机灵鬼看了镜子以后发现了自己身上的标记。换句话说，它们清楚标记是在自己身上，而不是在别的动物身上。它们也很清楚镜子里的海豚就是自己。