Kangaroos display gazing and gaze alternations during an unsolvable problem task

Domestication is generally assumed to have resulted in enhanced communication abilities between non-primate mammals and humans, although the number of species studied is very limited (e.g. cats, Felis catus; dogs, Canis familiaris; wolves, Canis lupus; goats, Capra hircus; horses, Equus caballus). In species without hands for pointing, gazing at humans when dealing with inaccessible food during an unsolvable task, and in particular gaze alternations between a human and the unsolvable task (considered forms of showing), are often interpreted as attempts at referential intentional communication. We report that kangaroos, marsupial mammals that have never been domesticated, actively gazed at an experimenter during an unsolvable problem task (10/11 kangaroos tested), thus challenging the notion that this behavior results from domestication. Nine of the ten kangaroos additionally showed gaze alternations between the unsolvable task and experimenter. We propose that the potential occurrence o...

一般认为，驯化可提升非人灵长类哺乳动物与人类的沟通能力，但目前已开展研究的物种数量极为有限（如家猫Felis catus、家犬Canis familiaris、灰狼Canis lupus、山羊Capra hircus以及马Equus caballus）。对于不具备用于指示动作的手部结构的物种而言，在无法解决的任务中面对无法获取的食物时凝视人类，尤其是在人类与无法解决的任务之间出现的凝视交替（被视为“展示”行为的一类形式），常被解读为指向指涉性意向沟通的尝试。本研究发现，从未经历驯化的有袋类哺乳动物——袋鼠，在无法解决的问题任务中会主动凝视实验人员（受试的11只袋鼠中有10只出现该行为），这一结果对“此类行为源于驯化”的观点构成了挑战。此外，10只受试袋鼠中有9只表现出了在无法解决的任务与实验人员之间的凝视交替行为。我们提出，这类行为潜在的发生……