中英對照讀新聞》Parrots Show Off Selfless Behavior 鸚鵡展現無私之舉

最新科學研究，首次發現非洲灰鸚鵡具有無私助「鳥」的天性。（法新社檔案照）

◎劉宜庭

A series of experiments demonstrated that African grey parrots had something like social intelligence in addition to their cleverness.

一系列的實驗表明，非洲灰鸚鵡除了聰明伶俐，還具有類似社會智能的天性。

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From the very first trial, which was described Thursday （Jan. 9） in the journal Current Biology, the parrots with tokens gave them away to its neighboring parrot, even though they got nothing in return. They’re the first non-mammals observed helping each other in this way. Dr. Brucks had trained the parrots to exchange metal tokens for walnuts.

根據週四（1月9日）的《當代生物學》期刊，打從第一次考驗開始，有代幣的鸚鵡就會送代幣給鄰近的鸚鵡，即使沒有獲得回報。這些鸚鵡是第一種被觀察到會以這種方式互助的非哺乳動物。布侖可絲博士曾訓練鸚鵡以金屬代幣換取核桃。

Dr. Brucks tried the experiment on eight African grey parrots. The researchers found that pairs with closer relationships before the experiment were more likely to help one another. And the parrots also helped others they weren’t as close with.

布侖可絲博士對8隻非洲灰鸚鵡進行實驗。研究人員發現，在實驗前關係較親密的鸚鵡更樂於互助。而鸚鵡也會幫助其他沒有那麼親近的同類。

When the researchers repeated the experiment with blue-headed macaws, another type of parrot, the birds only acted selfishly. The researchers think different social systems in the wild may help explain the different results.

當研究人員對另一種鸚鵡—藍頭金剛鸚鵡重複同樣的實驗時，藍頭金剛鸚鵡只表現出自私的一面。研究人員認為，野外鳥群社會制度的不同，可用來解釋實驗結果的差異。

新聞辭典

parrot：名詞，鸚鵡。例句：The team would now like to investigate how widespread cooperation is among the world’s 393 parrot species.（該團隊現在希望研究全球393種鸚鵡在互助行為的普遍性。）

African grey：鳥類名稱，非洲灰鸚鵡。例句：African greys live in huge, constantly shifting flocks.（非洲灰鸚鵡生活在變動性高的龐大鳥群之中。）

Macaw：鳥類名稱，金剛鸚鵡。例句：Blue-headed macaws live in smaller, unchanging groups.（藍頭金剛鸚鵡生活在不變動的較小群體當中。）

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