據(jù)臺灣“中央社”報(bào)道,，科學(xué)家對動物展開“指示測驗(yàn)”(pointing)時發(fā)現(xiàn)，對動物而言這是罕見的天賦,。即使人類近親黑猩猩等,，似乎也對通過“手指指向”霧里看花。不過研究顯示,，大象可能例外。
據(jù)報(bào)道,，英國圣安德魯大學(xué)(University of St Andrews)生物學(xué)家柏恩(RichardW. Byrne)和他的學(xué)生史梅特(Anna Smet)表示,，他們發(fā)現(xiàn)大象似乎看得懂指示。他們對11只大象做測驗(yàn),，結(jié)果發(fā)現(xiàn)大象具有的深度社交智能在某些地方可與人類匹敵,。
史梅特在遮擋物后放置2個水桶，再將水果放進(jìn)其中1個水桶,，但大象并未看見她將水果放進(jìn)哪個桶子,。
她接著把水桶從遮擋物后頭拿出來，站在桶子中間,，指向裝有水果的桶子,。管理員接下來帶大象走向水桶，史梅特便開始注意大象先把鼻子伸進(jìn)哪個水桶,。
經(jīng)過2個月后,，實(shí)驗(yàn)結(jié)果發(fā)現(xiàn)，大象選中裝有水果桶子的機(jī)率達(dá)67.5%,。
史梅特發(fā)現(xiàn),，不管是以手臂或手指出方向，大象能懂得她的指示。而當(dāng)她僅站在桶子中間,，無任何指示時,，大象會變成隨機(jī)選取水桶。
研究結(jié)果刊載于《當(dāng)代生物學(xué)》期刊(Current Biology),。（Bioon.com）
生物谷推薦的英文摘要
Current Biology DOI：10.1016/j.cub.2013.08.037
African Elephants Can Use Human Pointing Cues to Find Hidden Food
Anna F. Smet,， Richard W. Byrne
How animals gain information from attending to the behavior of others has been widely studied， driven partly by the importance of referential pointing in human cognitive development [1,，2,，3，4],， but species differences in reading human social cues remain unexplained. One explanation is that this capacity evolved during domestication [5,，6]， but it may be that only those animals able to interpret human-like social cues were successfully domesticated. Elephants are a critical taxon for this question： despite their longstanding use by humans,， they have never been domesticated [7]. Here we show that a group of 11 captive African elephants,， seven of them significantly as individuals， could interpret human pointing to find hidden food. We suggest that success was not due to prior training or extensive learning opportunities. Elephants successfully interpreted pointing when the experimenters proximity to the hiding place was varied and when the ostensive pointing gesture was visually subtle,， suggesting that they understood the experimenters communicative intent. The elephants native ability in interpreting social cues may have contributed to its long history of effective use by man.
