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Listen to part of a lecture in an animal behavior class.
聽一段動物行為課。
As you know, researchers have long been interested in discovering exactly how intelligent animals are.
正如你們所知，研究人員一直很感興趣，想知道動物到底有多聰明。
Today we are going to talk about a particular cognitive ability some animals seem to have—the ability to recognize themselves in a mirror.
今天我們將談談一種特殊的認知能力——在鏡子中認出自己，似乎某些動物也具有這種能力。
Oh. I've heard about that. Chimpanzees have it.
我聽說過。黑猩猩可以。
Right. Chimpanzees and other primates, chimps, gorillas, orangutans, and of course, humans.
對。黑猩猩和其它靈長類動物，像黑猩猩、大猩猩和猩猩，當然了，還有人類。
But it's also been found in elephants and bottlenose dolphins, a bit of a surprise.
但大象和寬吻海豚也具備這種能力，這可是有點出乎意料。
It's very rare. Most animals don't have it.
這很罕見。大多數(shù)動物都沒有這種能力。
And it's called mirror self-recognition, or MSR.
這稱為鏡像自我認知，或MSR。
Well, how does it work? I mean, how do researchers know if elephants or chimps recognize themselves?
這是怎么操作的？我是說，研究人員是怎么知道大象或黑猩猩認出了自己的？
Researchers give them a mirror mark test.
研究人員給它們做了鏡像標記測試。
In the mirror mark test, researchers put a mark on the animal where the animal is unable to see it or smell it or feel it, like on the side of their head, without looking in the mirror.
在鏡像標記測試中，研究人員在給動物做了標記，但動物看不見、聞不出且感覺不到這個標記所在，像是在它們腦袋的一邊，除非看鏡子。
Now, typically, when animals first see themselves in the mirror, they think they are seeing another animal.
一般來說，當動物第一次在鏡子里看到自己，會以為它們看到的是別的動物。
Often they will look for this animal behind the mirror.
通常它們會尋找鏡子后的動物。
They may even exhibit aggressive behavior.
它們甚至還可能會表現(xiàn)出攻擊性行為。
But some animals, after this period of exploration, exhibit behaviors that show they know they are looking at themselves.
但某些動物在探索階段過后，其行為表示它們知道它們看見的是自己。
For instance, elephants will touch the mark on their heads with their trunks.
舉個例子吧，大象會用鼻子觸碰腦袋上的標記。
Now, it's been assumed that primates and some other mammals stood alone at the top of the hierarchy of cognitive evolution.
大家都認為靈長類動物和其它一些哺乳動物居于認知進化層次的頂端。
But recently, birds have been found to possess some of the same cognitive abilities!
但在最近，人們發(fā)現(xiàn)鳥類也具備某些相同的認知能力。
In particular, researchers have discovered these abilities in corvids, birds of the Corvidae family.
特別是研究人員發(fā)現(xiàn)了鴉科鳥類具有這些能力。
