VOA常速英语2019--新研究：马来熊可模仿小伙伴表情（在线收听）

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.

马来熊是东南亚的本土生物，世界自然保护联盟它列为渐危物种。马来熊以喜欢独处、性格腼腆而闻名，但现在我们发现它们其实很乐于与彼此交流。马里纳来自朴茨茅斯大学，她表示，马来熊彼此交流的方式十分特别。我们观测了马来熊的面部表情，并发现它们会迅速地模仿彼此。只要在玩儿的时候有一只马来熊做出面部表情，另一只就会做出一模一样的表情。这样精准的模仿此前只在大猩猩身上发现过，此外就是我们都知道人类会有这样的行为。

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.

在发现马来熊有这样的行为之后，马里纳和几位同事想观测一下更多的物种，看看这种特殊的面部模仿行为是否真的是如此罕见。我们认为这种能力在不同的哺乳动物中都十分常见，很重要的一点是：我们的研究要检测灵长类动物和够累是否存在这样的复杂行为。不过，研究人员也很快指出一点，那就是：这些动物能进行表情模仿并不意味着它们能像人类一样来使用面部表情，比如通过面部表情来表达情绪。

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.

我们不能下定论说熊类有情绪感染能力或者同理心，不过可以确定的是它们与此有关的一种主要行为是存在的。所以，马来熊表达的内容，科学家不是十分确定，但马来熊可能是在给彼此的嬉戏时间加一点乐趣。