Elephants are smart, social animals.And now we know that they can organize themselves into teams to accomplish tasks.
A research team that included renowned primatologist Franz de Waal taught 12 Thai elephants—who already work with human trainers called mahouts—to get a bowl of food by pulling a rope _____1_____ an out-of-reach table.
Then the scientists threaded the rope so that it would take two elephants, pulling both ends at the same time, to move the table.If one _____2_____ an end without its helpmate doing so, no reward.
The pachyderms were _____3_____.Only if they pulled together could they get the food.The elephants tried the task when they were released _____4_____ or at staggered times.Even when the release was staggered, an elephant quickly learned that it had to wait for its partner to come and cooperate to get the food.This finding was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.Elephants are thus on par with apes for fast learning of _____5_____ with a partner.
When grouped, individuals also remembered which of the others was their task partner.Because an elephant never forgets…who helped it rope a meal.
【視聽版科學(xué)小組榮譽(yù)出品】
attached to yanked paired up simultaneously deliberate cooperation
大象搭配，干活不累 大象是聰明的群居動(dòng)物。我們還知道它們可以自己組成團(tuán)隊(duì)來完成任務(wù)。 由知名靈長(zhǎng)類動(dòng)物學(xué)家Franz de Waal等人組成的研究小組，找到十二頭已被馴象師訓(xùn)練過的泰國(guó)大象，讓它們學(xué)著拉一條系在遠(yuǎn)處桌子上的繩子來獲取一碗食物。之后科學(xué)家將繩子串起來，這樣就需要兩頭大象同時(shí)拉起繩子尾端來移動(dòng)桌子。如果其中之一猛拉繩子一端，而它的隊(duì)友并沒這么做，就不能得到食物。 兩頭大象為一組，只有一起拉繩子，它們才能得到食物。當(dāng)它們被同時(shí)或交錯(cuò)地釋放出來時(shí)，它們嘗試去完成任務(wù)。即使是交錯(cuò)釋放出來，它們也會(huì)立刻意識(shí)到需要等待搭檔的到來，通過合作才能得到食物。這一發(fā)現(xiàn)發(fā)表在《美國(guó)國(guó)家科學(xué)院院刊》上。所以，大象通過思考進(jìn)行合作的快速學(xué)習(xí)能力可以與猿類相媲美。當(dāng)它們?nèi)壕蹠r(shí)，它們依舊記得誰(shuí)是自己的任務(wù)伙伴。因?yàn)榇笙笥肋h(yuǎn)不會(huì)忘記誰(shuí)幫它獲得了一頓美餐。