VOA常速英语:新研究：马来熊可模仿小伙伴表情

The sun bear is indigenous to Southeast Asia, and considered a vulnerable species by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. The bears have a reputation for being loners and very shy, but it turns out they are very communicative with each other. Marina Davila-Ross from the University of Portsmouth says it is the way they communicate that makes them special. We examine the facial expressions of sun bear. We found that they mimic each other quite rapidly. When one sun bear is showing a facial expression during play, the other one is showing exactly the same facial expression. And such precise mimicking has only been found before in gorillas, and we know that humans are showing these behaviors.

Having found this behavior in the sun bear, Davila-Ross and her colleagues want to look at more species to see if this kind of special facial mimicry is not that special after all. We believe that this is something that is more of a common ability that we can find across different mammalian species, and it’s really important for research to examine more animals that are not primates and and dogs for these complex behaviors. But the researchers are quick to point out that, just because these animals are capable of facial mimicry does not necessarily mean they are using it like humans use it, to share feelings for instance.
And we can’t say anything like we’ve known bears have emotional contagion or even empathy, but we can say that one of the key behaviors associated with it which is facial mimicry is there. So what are the bears communicating the researchers are not completely sure, but think the bears may be telling each other when their play time gets too rough.
Kevin Enix VOA news.