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图片来源：Shannon Wild 侏獴的报恩：你护我平安，我为你梳毛 如果我请你吃了顿午饭，下次吃饭你也很有可能为我买单：我们人类经常相互回报……即使是数天、数周，甚至数月后。其他灵长类动物也会这样，比如，猴子如果更慷慨大方地分享食物，就会享受同伴更多的梳毛服务……也更有可能在未来的争斗中得到后援。 如今一项最新研究表明，一种非灵长类动物侏獴（dwarf mongoose）也会有相互合作、延迟进行的互惠行为……拿放哨换梳毛。具体是这样的： “当一只侏獴在放哨时，它是在为群体的其它侏獴护卫站岗。”布里斯托大学（University of Bristol）的行为生态学家朱莉·克恩（Julie Kern）说，“所以它们会选择一个较高的位置坐下，比如树上、白蚁丘上，然后留意是否有捕食者来攻击自己的群体。一旦它们发现了捕食者，就会发出呼叫警报，<<唧唧唧>>，来警告其他侏獴。” 在站岗时，它们也会用更轻的监视叫声<<呜呜呜>>，提醒其他成员自己正在放哨。因而其他在找虫子吃的侏獴都能“保持淡定，继续觅食”（keep calm and carry on）。 克恩的团队在野外发现，负责站岗放哨的侏獴回到洞穴后，会享受……[查看全文] Mongooses Gift Grooming for Guard Duty If I buy you lunch today, chances are you'll pick up the tab next time. We humans reciprocate a lot… days, weeks or even months later. And other primates do it too. Monkeys that are more generous with food, for example, enjoy more grooming from their peers… and they're more likely to get backup later on in a fight. Now a new study suggests a nonprimate, the dwarf mongoose, also makes cooperative, time-delayed barters… trading grooming for guard duty. Here's how it works. 'When an individual is on sentinel, they are basically on guard duty for the rest of the group.' Julie Kern, a behavioral ecologist University of Bristol. 'So they will choose an elevated position like a tree or a termite mound from which to sit and then they watch out to predators that are coming in to target the group. They'll give alarm calls if they spot these, <<alarm calls>> to warn the rest of the group.' But throughout the watch, they also remind everyone they're on lookout, with softer surveillance calls <<surveillance calls>>. So any mongooses hunting for bugs can keep calm and carry on. What Kern and her colleagues observed in the wild was that mongooses who took those lookout shifts also enjoyed…[read more] |
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