盤點(diǎn)：世界上最聰明的動(dòng)物們

能在代數(shù)上考滿分或者寫出優(yōu)秀論文的動(dòng)物在動(dòng)物王國(guó)里并不存在，但是這不意味著它們智商低。動(dòng)物王國(guó)中有些動(dòng)物有著非常棒的認(rèn)知能力和聰明的大腦。來(lái)看看世界上最聰明的動(dòng)物都有哪些。

Chimpanzees 黑猩猩

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Chimpanzees are our closest living relatives. We share almost 99 percent of our DNA with them. It turns out that they share some of our brain power as well. In a study published in 2007, researchers gave adult chimps, adolescent chimps, and college students the same cognitive test. The exam involved remembering where a list of numbers—from one to nine—were located on a touch screen monitor.

黑猩猩是人類的近親，與人類共享了將近99%的DNA。不僅如此，黑猩猩還共享了人類的一部分智力。2007年，研究人員開(kāi)展了一項(xiàng)研究，他們分別對(duì)成年黑猩猩、未成年黑猩猩以及人類大學(xué)生進(jìn)行了相同的認(rèn)知能力測(cè)試。該測(cè)試的內(nèi)容是記住一個(gè)觸摸顯示屏上數(shù)字1至9的位置。

Chimps and humans alike saw the numbers in their locations for less than a second. Then they were asked to remember where those numbers had been and show the researchers. The adult primates and humans performed about the same. But the adolescent chimps left them both in the dust. They remembered each number’s location with far better accuracy. Researchers think that these youngsters were using a type of photographic memory, which allows an individual to recall images with extremely high accuracy even if they only glanced at them for a split second.

黑猩猩和人類一樣，要在不到一秒的時(shí)間內(nèi)記住數(shù)字的位置，然后研究人員會(huì)讓他們回憶并指出數(shù)字的位置。成年黑猩猩和人類大學(xué)生發(fā)揮的差不多，然而未成年黑猩猩的準(zhǔn)確度令前兩組望塵莫及。研究人員認(rèn)為這些年輕的黑猩猩使用的是一種圖形記憶方法，即使它們只瞥了一眼圖形，也能用極高的準(zhǔn)確度回憶起來(lái)。

Goats 山羊

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Scientists have thought for a long time that goats are far smarter than their unassuming demeanor leads many of us to believe. Finally, a group of researchers in Australia decided to put these barn animals to the test. To do so, they set up a contraption that held fruit at the end. To access the tasty treat, the goats had to use their teeth to drag a rope down, which activated a lever they had to lift up with their mouths. If they could figure all that out, the fruit was theirs.

科學(xué)家長(zhǎng)期以來(lái)都認(rèn)為，看似低調(diào)的山羊?qū)嶋H上比我們想象的還要聰明。有一群澳大利亞的研究人員終于決定對(duì)山羊進(jìn)行測(cè)試。測(cè)試用到了一個(gè)精巧的裝置，里面放著水果。為了吃到美味的水果，山羊必須要用牙拽下繩子，繩子會(huì)激活一個(gè)杠桿，然后山羊需要用嘴將杠桿抬起。如果它們能搞定這些的話，里面的水果就是它們的了。

Nine out of 12 goats mastered the task after around four tries. When the researchers had all the goats try again 10 months later, the majority still remembered how to work the system.

經(jīng)過(guò)4輪嘗試之后，12只山羊里有9只完成了這項(xiàng)任務(wù)。研究人員在10個(gè)月后又對(duì)它們進(jìn)行了相同的測(cè)試，發(fā)現(xiàn)其中大多數(shù)山羊還記得如何吃到裝置中的水果。

Elephants 大象

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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.

任何接觸過(guò)大象的人都知道它們十分聰明。但它們有多聰明呢?研究人員對(duì)它們進(jìn)行了很多項(xiàng)研究。其中一項(xiàng)研究表明大象可以分辨出人類語(yǔ)言的不同，以及分辨出說(shuō)話者是男人、女人還是孩子。

How do they know? In Africa, only certain tribes hunt down elephants. Scientists played recordings 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 disposition. 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.

研究人員又是怎么知道的呢?在非洲，某些部落會(huì)獵殺大象。研究人員播放了一組獵殺大象部落的語(yǔ)言和一組非獵殺大象部落的語(yǔ)言錄音。當(dāng)大象聽(tīng)到獵殺大象部落的語(yǔ)言之后，它們十分恐懼并開(kāi)始遠(yuǎn)離聲音的源頭。而當(dāng)它們聽(tīng)到的語(yǔ)言是非獵殺大象部落發(fā)出的，它們并沒(méi)有逃走。然后，研究人員又播放了會(huì)讓大象恐懼的語(yǔ)言，但是這次說(shuō)話的人包括了女人、孩子和男人。大象聽(tīng)到男人的聲音才開(kāi)始表現(xiàn)出恐懼，因?yàn)橹挥心腥藭?huì)捕獵大象。

Dolphins 海豚

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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.

科學(xué)家測(cè)試智商的方法之一是鏡像自我認(rèn)知測(cè)試。這個(gè)測(cè)試的目的是看動(dòng)物是否能認(rèn)出鏡中的自己。首先科學(xué)家在被測(cè)試的動(dòng)物身上放置一個(gè)有顏色的標(biāo)記，然后把它們帶到鏡子前。通常，如果動(dòng)物認(rèn)出了鏡中的自己，它們會(huì)表現(xiàn)出想弄掉標(biāo)記的跡象，比如撓掉或者蹭掉身上的標(biāo)記。

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.

很多種動(dòng)物都沒(méi)能通過(guò)這項(xiàng)測(cè)試，它們看見(jiàn)鏡中的自己時(shí)以為是另外一只同類，所以它們要么逃走要么發(fā)出威脅要么試著和鏡中的“敵人”打斗。

When researchers placed markings on dolphins, the aquatic 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.

當(dāng)研究者將標(biāo)記放置在海豚身上時(shí)，這些海洋里的機(jī)靈鬼看了鏡子以后發(fā)現(xiàn)了自己身上的標(biāo)記。換句話說(shuō)，它們清楚標(biāo)記是在自己身上，而不是在別的動(dòng)物身上。它們也很清楚鏡子里的海豚就是自己。

Crows 烏鴉

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It’s hard to imagine that a crow could be as smart as you, or perhaps even smarter. But scientists have done a series of studies that prove that they might be just as good, or better, at solving problems. In one study, researchers gave crows and humans the same puzzle: A toy floats on top of water inside a tall glass, too narrow for a bird to get its beak down or for a small child to place their hands into. Children younger than eight years old are completely stumped, and generally can’t figure out a way to get the toy. But crows aren’t confused at all. They simply drop pebbles into the narrow glass. Eventually the stones displace enough water at the bottom of the glass that the toy rises to the top, and the birds can quickly snatch it.

你一定想象不到烏鴉可能和你一樣聰明，或許比你還要聰明。科學(xué)家為此做了一系列的研究來(lái)證明，在解決難題這一方面，烏鴉可能不比人類差。在其中的一項(xiàng)研究中，研究人員給了烏鴉組和人類組相同的題目。在一個(gè)裝著水的高玻璃瓶里漂浮著一個(gè)小玩具，瓶口很窄，烏鴉的嘴無(wú)法伸進(jìn)去，人類小孩也無(wú)法把手伸進(jìn)去。人類8歲以下的孩子完全懵了，根本不知道怎么拿出玩具。但是烏鴉完全不在話下。它們簡(jiǎn)單地將小卵石叼進(jìn)玻璃瓶，最終玻璃瓶底聚集的卵石將水面抬高，小玩具漂浮到瓶口，然后烏鴉一下就把玩具叼了出來(lái)。

Bees 蜜蜂

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Bees are known mostly for their sting. But they are also highly intelligent little creatures. Researchers taught bees to identify which of two horizontal lines was above the other. When they got the answer right, they received a sugar-syrup reward. The thing is, the researchers only taught them how to identify whether lines that were horizontal were above or below. So, when the researchers showed the buzzers vertical lines, the bees simply flew away. They knew there was no way to get that tasty treat!

說(shuō)起蜜蜂，第一反應(yīng)多是它們屁股上的刺會(huì)蜇人。但蜜蜂也是一群有著相當(dāng)高智商的小家伙們。研究人員教會(huì)蜜蜂分辨兩條水平線中哪一條更高。當(dāng)蜜蜂選對(duì)了，會(huì)得到糖漿作為獎(jiǎng)賞。結(jié)果，蜜蜂只學(xué)了分辨水平線，當(dāng)研究人員讓它們分辨垂直線的時(shí)候，它們完全不予理睬。因?yàn)樗鼈冎?，除了水平線都沒(méi)糖吃。

Octopuses 章魚

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Octopuses are in a league of their own. Most invertebrates don’t have the level of intelligence that scientists say these weirdly shaped sea creatures do. In one cool study, researchers tested whether the creatures would be able to distinguish between two different people. They had two individuals interact with an octopus, with one acting extremely friendly and another being cold and standoffish. After a short while, when the two people would enter their living area, the octopus would ignore the impersonal one in favor of the more friendly guest.

章魚可謂別具一格?？茖W(xué)家認(rèn)為，這些海底的異形擁有大多數(shù)無(wú)脊椎動(dòng)物無(wú)法企及的智商。在一項(xiàng)構(gòu)思巧妙的研究中，研究人員針對(duì)章魚是否可以分辨兩個(gè)不同的人進(jìn)行了測(cè)試。他們讓兩個(gè)人和章魚互動(dòng)，一個(gè)人表現(xiàn)得極為友善，而另外一個(gè)人表現(xiàn)得很冷漠還有些不友好。經(jīng)過(guò)一小段時(shí)間，當(dāng)這兩個(gè)人進(jìn)入章魚的居處的時(shí)候，它會(huì)忽視掉討厭的那個(gè)人，而選擇友善的那一個(gè)人。