VOA慢速英语2019 "做鬼脸"对马来熊来说是种乐趣（在线收听）

Making Faces is Fun for Sun Bears

Sun bears are the smallest of the world’s eight bear species. They usually live alone and are happy to spend most of their time by themselves when not looking for a mate. They spend their days in search of fruit, nuts, birds and insects in Southeast Asia’s tropical forests.

马来熊是世界八种熊类中体型最小的。它们一般独自生活，在非交配季节，它们喜欢独自度过大多数时间。它们会花费数天在东南亚的热带雨林中寻觅水果、坚果、鸟类和昆虫。

Although sun bears mostly live alone, scientists recently discovered they have developed a surprising social skill. They mimic, or copy, other bears’ facial expressions as a form of communication.

尽管马来熊大多数时间都独自生活，但是科学家最近发现，它们演化出了一种惊人的社交技巧。它们会模仿或者说复制其他熊的面部表情，以此作为一种交流方式。

Researchers studied 22 sun bears during natural social play at the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Center in Malaysia. The bears live in outdoor forest cages big enough to let the animals decide whether to play together or stay away from each other most of the day.

研究人员研究了马来西亚婆罗洲马来熊保护中心22只马来熊的自发社交活动。这些马来熊生活在足够大的户外森林围场中，这使它们可以决定是一起玩耍还是一天中大部分时间都避开彼此。

The bears mimicked not only the kind of expression, but also exact muscular movements the other bear made –such as raising or wrinkling their noses.

马来熊不仅会模仿表情，还能准确地模仿另一只熊的肌肉动作，比如拱鼻子或皱鼻子。

The ability to mimic facial expressions is found in humans, gorillas, orangutans, some monkeys and even domesticated dogs. But until now, only humans and gorillas showed the ability to exactly copy complex faces.

目前已知只有人类、大猩猩、红猩猩、一些猴子和驯养的狗可以模仿面部表情。但是到目前为止，只有人类和大猩猩展现了准确复制复杂表情的能力。

The study found that sun bears, however, are just as good at facial mimicry as humans and gorillas. This surprised researchers; not only are sun bears usually solitary, they also are not closely related to humans.

研究发现，马来熊的面部模仿能力可以与人类和大猩猩媲美。这令研究人员感到惊讶，不仅是因为马来熊习惯独居，还因为马来熊与人类的联系并不紧密。

Derry Taylor is a doctoral student in psychology at the University of Portsmouth in England. He is one of the writers of the study, which was published in Scientific Reports.

德里·泰勒是英国朴茨茅斯大学心理学的博士研究生。他也是这项研究的主要作者之一，该研究发表在《科学报告》期刊上。

Taylor said, “It seems that some forms of communication are much more widely shared amongst mammalian species than we previously thought.”

泰勒说，“看起来哺乳动物之间共享的某些交流形式，似乎比我们之前认为的要广泛得多。”

Sun bears have a black coat and a white or golden color on their mid-section. They live in trees and eat both plants and animals. They can grow to be up to 1.4 meters in height and 65 kilograms in weight.

马来熊有着黑色的皮毛，胸部有一块白色或金色的斑点。它们是树栖动物，既吃肉也吃素。它们身高可达1.4米，体重可达65公斤。

Although they live alone in the wild, the bears in the study often played gently with each other. Sometimes they played with faster actions and behaviors such as hitting and biting.

虽然马来熊独自生活在野外，但是研究中观察的马来熊会温柔地彼此接触。有时它们会有一些激烈的动作和行为，比如拍打和啃咬。

It remains uncertain what messages the bears were sending to one another. But the facial copying might be a signal that they are ready to move from gentle to rougher play, Taylor suggested.

至于马来熊在互相传递什么信息，目前仍不能确定。但是泰勒认为，复制面部表情可能是一种信号，表明他们愿意从温和地接触转向较为激烈的行为。

Words in This Story

mimic – v. to copy (someone or someone's behavior or speech)

wrinkle v. to cause (something) to develop wrinkles

domesticate – v. to breed or train (an animal) to need and accept the care of human beings

solitary – adj. tending to live or spend time alone

mammal – n. a type of animal that feeds milk to its young and that usually has hair or fur covering most of its skin