How Kangaroos 'Talk' to Humans

袋鼠是如何与人类“交谈”的

Anyone with a pet knows that a dog or cat will communicate with their person whether they want a toy, to eat, or some attention. But a new study finds this behavior isn’t limited to domestic animals. Kangaroos also can communicate with humans, particularly when they want something.

任何有宠物的人都知道，狗或猫会与他们的人交流，无论他们想要一个玩具，吃东西，或一些关注。但一项新的研究发现，这种行为并不仅限于家养动物。袋鼠也能和人类交流，特别是当它们想要什么东西的时候。

A kangaroo gazes at a box with food inside it and a person.Dr. Alexandra GreenResearchers from the University of Roehampton and the University of Sydney worked with kangaroos in Australia that had never been domesticated¹. They found that kangaroos gazed at a human when trying to get food which had been put in a closed box. The animals communicated with humans using gazes instead of trying to open the box themselves.

来自罗汉普顿大学和悉尼大学的研究人员对澳大利亚从未被驯化过的袋鼠进行了研究。他们发现袋鼠在试图拿到放在一个封闭盒子里的食物时，会盯着人看。这些动物用眼神与人类交流，而不是试图自己打开盒子。

The behavior, which is usually exhibited by domestic animals, was unexpected, researchers said.

研究人员表示，这种通常由家养动物表现出来的行为是出人意料的。

“I was very surprised, particularly on the first day of the field work when we were still developing the training protocols² and one kangaroo actually demonstrated the gazing behaviour towards me. I think I actually gasped³ in disbelief as so many people doubted this would be possible,” lead author Alan McElligott of the University of Roehampton (now based at City University of Hong Kong), tells Treehugger.

“我非常惊讶，尤其是在实地工作的第一天，我们还在研究训练方案，一只袋鼠竟然对着我凝视。我想，当这么多的人怀疑这是否可能时，我简直不敢相信，”罗汉普顿大学(现就职于香港城市大学)的首席作者艾伦·麦克艾力哥特告诉Treehugger网站。

“For wildlife carers though, this behaviour may not come as a surprise. However, it is important to test the cognitive⁴ abilities of kangaroos under an accepted scientific setup so that we can compare results objectively and potentially further this work in other similar species.”

对于野生动物保护者来说，这种行为并不奇怪。然而，在公认的科学框架下测试袋鼠的认知能力很重要，这样我们才能客观地比较结果，并有可能在其他类似物种上进一步开展这项工作。”

Getting Help with an Unsolvable Task

为无法解决的任务寻求帮助

For the study, the researchers secured a clear plastic box to a wooden board and placed a food reward inside that was very attractive to the kangaroos, like a piece of sweet potato or carrot or a few dried corn kernels⁵. A kangaroo entered the enclosure while the experimenter stood near the box and another researcher recorded the interaction.

在这项研究中，研究人员将一个透明的塑料盒子固定在一块木板上，并在盒子里放上对袋鼠非常有吸引力的食物奖励，比如一块甘薯、胡萝卜或几粒干玉米粒。一只袋鼠进入了围栏，而实验者站在盒子旁边，另一位研究人员记录了互动。

This type of experiment is known as an unsolvable task because the animals need help to get what they want. Ten of 11 kangaroos actively⁶ looked at the person who had put the food in the box and nine of the 11 gazed back and forth⁷ between the box and the person.

这种类型的实验被认为是一个无法解决的任务，因为动物需要帮助来得到它们想要的东西。11只袋鼠中有10只积极地注视着把食物放进盒子的人，有9只在盒子和人之间来回张望。

“Through this study, we were able to see that communication between animals can be learnt and that the behaviour of gazing at humans to access food is not related to domestication⁸. Indeed, kangaroos showed a very similar pattern of behaviour we have seen in dogs, horses and even goats when put to the same test,” McElligott says.

“通过这项研究，我们发现动物之间的交流是可以学习的，而注视人类获取食物的行为与驯化无关。”事实上，在同样的测试中，袋鼠表现出的行为模式与我们在狗、马甚至山羊身上看到的非常相似，”McElligott说。

"Our research shows that the potential for referential intentional⁹ communication towards humans by animals has been underestimated, which signals an exciting development in this area. Kangaroos are the first marsupials to be studied in this manner and the positive results should lead to more cognitive research beyond the usual domestic species."“我们的研究表明，动物与人类进行意向性交流的潜力被低估了，这标志着这一领域令人兴奋的发展。”袋鼠是第一个以这种方式研究的有袋动物，积极的结果应该会导致更多的认知研究，而不是通常的家养物种。”

For the study, researchers tested kangaroos located in three locations: Australian Reptile¹⁰ Park, Wildlife Sydney Zoo, and Kangaroo Protection Co-Operative. The kangaroos were chosen based on how willing they were to approach the experimenters. None of them had been used in any previous cognitive research.

在这项研究中，研究人员测试了三个地点的袋鼠:澳大利亚爬行动物公园、悉尼野生动物园和袋鼠保护合作社。袋鼠的选择是基于它们接近实验者的意愿。它们都没有在之前的认知研究中使用过。

“It was previously¹¹ thought that ‘asking’ for help in the form of human-directed gazing and gaze alternations was a trait reserved for domesticated species, which have evolved in close proximity¹² to humans,” McElligott says.

McElligott说:“以前人们认为，以人类引导的凝视和凝视交替的形式来‘请求’帮助是家养物种的一种特征，它们已经进化到接近人类。”

“However, the results challenge this notion, suggesting that wild animals (in this case kangaroos) can learn to communicate with humans through having direct contact with them. We also hope that this research highlights the advanced cognitive abilities of kangaroos and fosters more positive attitudes towards them.”

然而，研究结果挑战了这一观点，表明野生动物(在这个例子中是袋鼠)可以通过与人类的直接接触来学习与人类交流。我们也希望这项研究能突出袋鼠的高级认知能力，培养人们对袋鼠更积极的态度。”