Chimpanzees
黑猩猩
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能在代数上考满分或者写出优秀论文的动物在动物王国里并不存在，但是这不意味着它们智商低。 动物王国中有些动物有着非常棒的认知能力和聪明的大脑。来看看这几种世界上最聪明的动物。 Chimpanzees 黑猩猩 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. 黑猩猩是人类的近亲，与人类共享了将近99%的DNA。不仅如此，黑猩猩还共享了人类的一部分智力。2007年，研究人员开展了一项研究，他们分别对成年黑猩猩、未成年黑猩猩以及人类大学生进行了相同的认知能力测试。该测试的内容是记住一个触摸显示屏上数字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. 黑猩猩和人类一样，要在不到一秒的时间内记住数字的位置，然后研究人员会让他们回忆并指出数字的位置。成年黑猩猩和人类大学生发挥的差不多，然而未成年黑猩猩的准确度令前两组望尘莫及。研究人员认为这些年轻的黑猩猩使用的是一种图形记忆方法，即使它们只瞥了一眼图形，也能用极高的准确度回忆起来。 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 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. 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。 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. 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 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. 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。 Bees 蜜蜂 Bees are known mostly for their sting. But they are also highly intelligent little creatures. 说起蜜蜂，第一反应多是它们屁股上的刺会蜇人。但蜜蜂也是一群有着相当高智商的小家伙们。 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! 研究人员教会蜜蜂分辨两条水平线中哪一条更高。当蜜蜂选对了，会得到糖浆作为奖赏。结果，蜜蜂只学了分辨水平线，当研究人员让它们分辨垂直线的时候，它们完全不予理睬。因为它们知道，除了水平线都没糖吃。 |
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