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Aggressed-Upon Monkeys Take Revenge on Aggressor's Cronies 猴子的报复

Don’t mess with a monkey. Because if you do, he’s might take revenge—on your family and friends. That’s according to a study of Japanese macaques, which shows that monkeys keep track of each’s others’ associates and make use of that intel when it comes time for payback. The findings are in the Royal Society journal Open Science.

别惹猴子。因为如果你这样做，它会报复——你的家人和朋友。这是根据对日本猕猴的一项研究，研究表明猴子会和自己的伙伴保持联系，它们会在“回报”的时候利用这个社交网络。该研究结果发表在英国皇家协会《开放科学》杂志上。

Researchers were interested in the question of how primates¹ suss out social relationships, knowledge that can come in handy for maneuvering² within a complex society. To assess how the macaques obtain and make use of such social know-how³, the researchers decided⁴ to focus on episodes of aggression⁵—a common feature of simian⁶ interactions.

研究人员感兴趣的是这些灵长类动物是如何发现这种社会关系，同时如何在复杂的关系中利用这种关系。为了评估猕猴是如何利用这些社会知识，研究人员决定将集中研究它们的侵略行为——这是猴子互动的共同特征。

They went through more than 500 hours of video recordings⁷ showing the exchanges that took place in a group of 57 macaques living in the Rome Zoo—monkeys whose genealogical relationships are well known. And they parsed⁸ some 15,000 episodes of aggression, noting the relationships among the individuals involved.

他们用摄像记录了500多个小时的视频，视频显示了生活在罗马动物园的57只猕猴之间的交流——并且已经事先知道这些猴子之间的系谱关系。研究人员分析了15000次的侵略行为，并指出了哪些行为涉及的是个体的关系。

First, they confirmed that monkeys that find themselves at the receiving end of aggression tend to turn around and take it out on a third party. And that retaliation⁹ is often directed at a relative of the original aggressor.

首先，研究人员证实，发现自己在侵略行为终端的猴子，会反过来报复第三方，报复通常针对的是一个相对原始的侵略者。

But how do the monkeys determine who’s kin¹⁰? Well, one way would be that they’ve been around long enough to have watched each other grow up. But that doesn’t seem to be the case. When researchers looked specifically at conflicts involving older monkeys, it didn’t seem that relatives were singled out for revenge.

但是，猴子是如何决定谁是亲戚的呢?其中的一种方式是它们在周围花费了很长的时间观察彼此的成长。但是似乎事实并不是如此。当研究人员观察较年长的猴子之间发的冲突，他们发现，似乎亲戚没有被报复了。

What does seem to be true is that victims will target their attacker’s associates—the other monkeys he hangs around with. If they’re not his relatives, they’re probably his cronies. So, close enough.

难道受害者会把报复之手伸向袭击者的伙伴——和它一起玩耍的猴子。即使这些猴子不是袭击者的亲属，但是它们可能是它的亲信。所以，关系足够密切，都会被报复。

Interestingly, there’s a benefit to hitting family members when you’re meting¹¹ out justice. Macaques that sought out the kin of the monkeys they wanted to settle a score with were less likely to be picked on again in the future. Whereas wailing¹² on the friends appeared to offer only present satisfaction, but no such future protection.

有趣的是，当你在伸张正义，攻击袭击者的家庭成员时，还有一个好处。寻找亲人的猕猴会报复以后不会成为报复对象的亲人。但是哭泣的朋友似乎只能得到现有的满意感，但是不能得到未来的保护。

Which suggests if you’re gonna beat on someone for payback, it should at least be a monkey’s uncle.

这意味着如果你要报复某只猴子的时候,它至少应该是一只猴子的叔叔。