Six Things You Won’t Believe AnimalsDo Just like Us （I）

Kristi Harrison

作為人類是件高大上的事兒——我們的雙手如此靈巧，沒有什么創(chuàng)造不了；我們的大腦如此發(fā)達(dá)，腦袋都快要裝不下……然而，當(dāng)你高歌著“我是人類我傲嬌”時(shí)，動物們顯然并不這么想。也許，你還并不了解它們的本事有多大。當(dāng)你給家里的娃娃做了個(gè)小床，當(dāng)你唱完周杰倫想換一首蔡健雅，當(dāng)你思索小孩是叫Tom還是Jerry時(shí)，動物們可能也在做著相同的事呢。

1. Parrots Name Their Babies鸚鵡會給寶寶起名

What to name a baby is one of the first things that expecting parents obsess about, for names are part of what makes their babies unique and help to forge their individual identity.1. obsess about: 擔(dān)心，憂慮；forge:鍛造。And more than that, individual names also make humans special. After all,outside of sappy Disney movies involving comically deformed elephants, what other animal parent takes the time to give each of its newborn members its own permanent moniker?2

Except the talking animals depicted in Disney movies aren’t so far off the mark,3. depict: 描繪；off the mark: 沒譜，不準(zhǔn)確。at least when it comes to a few select species.

2. 畢竟，除了傻乎乎的迪士尼電影里滑稽的大象外，還有什么動物會花時(shí)間給新出生的寶寶起個(gè)名字呢？sappy:傻兮兮的；comically: 滑稽地；deformed: 變形的；moniker: 名字，綽號。

Wait, what?

Dolphins, crows, primates4. primate: 靈長類動物。and parrots have all been observed using unique calls when they want the attention of specific members of their groups.This means that, at least among these species, individual animals actually have the equivalent5. equivalent: 同等物。of their own names. Most perplexing of all seems to be parrots, because according to pirate-movie logic,6. perplexing: 令人困惑的；pirate:海盜。it should scientifically turn out that every single parrot ever has the same name.

What the scientists found was that it was not the parrot newborns who got to choose their signature7. signature: 特有的，標(biāo)志性的。calls. Instead, it was the proud parrot parents who gave each chick8. chick: 雛鳥。its name. Much like a human, the adult parrot will choose a name for its young soon after it’s born. Each parrot, though, may tweak its own signature call as it grows older, elongating a whistle here or shortening a chirp there, essentially giving itself a nickname.9. 但是每只鸚鵡在長大后會對自己特有的名字稍作調(diào)整，在這兒拉長一個(gè)哨聲，或者在那兒縮短一個(gè)叫聲，從而給自己起個(gè)綽號。tweak: 對……稍作改進(jìn)；elongate: 拉長，延長；chirp:啁啾。

2. Whales Have Pop Songs鯨魚也有流行歌曲

Obviously, humans aren’t the only animals that sing.Birds do it, killer whales10. killer whale: 虎鯨，又稱殺人鯨。do it, and if you happen to work in construction and are really lucky, you might just see a frog do it.

What makes humans unique is pop culture. One guy can make a song, put it on an album or the Internet and have thousands of people singing along to it, all over the world. There’s no way another animal does that, right?

Well, we know of at least one.

Wait, what?

Whale songs become “hits”11. hit: 紅極一時(shí)的歌曲。that can spread halfway around the globe. All the males in a humpback whale12. humpback whale: 座頭鯨。population usually sing just one song at any given time. But once they get bored of that song, an innovator in the group will start singing a new one. Once a new song catches on, every hip male in the community will start singing it, too.13. catch on: 流行起來；hip: 新潮的，時(shí)髦的。But that’s just a bunch of whales in a group imitating each other.14. a bunch of: 一群；imitate: 模仿。That’s not like the mass media15. mass media: 大眾媒體。pop culture humans have, right?

Except scientists have found out that a song doesn’t stay limited to just one population. A catchy enough tune will actually spread all over the Pacific, from Australia to French Polynesia,16. catchy: （曲調(diào)）朗朗上口的，悅耳易記的；French Polynesia: 法屬波利尼西亞，位于太平洋東南部。thousands of miles, over a couple of years.

3. Chimps Play with Dolls黑猩猩會和布偶玩耍

Girls will lead entire fantasy17. fantasy: 幻想，想象。lives with their dolls, giving them names, taking care of them when they’re pretend-sick, giving them pretend-weddings and even pretend-scolding them when they pretend-make poor life decisions. Having such an active imagination is surely not just one of the most childlike traits you can probably think of, but also one of the most human.After all, it’s not like other animal species are out there having little slumber parties18. slumber party: 睡衣晚會（兒童們的聚會，當(dāng)晚都在一個(gè)孩子家里過夜）。with their dolls while we’re not looking,right?

Except, yeah, there’s one species that’s totally doing exactly that.

Wait, what?

Researchers found that young female chimps would take sticks,bark, small logs and vines, and not only cradle them as if they were baby chimps themselves, but also use their imagination for the whole doll-owning experience.19. 研究人員發(fā)現(xiàn)，幼年的雌猩猩會找來小棍、樹皮、小木頭和樹藤，它們不僅會把這些東西當(dāng)作小猩猩抱在懷里，而且還會通過想象來體驗(yàn)整個(gè)和“布偶”玩耍的過程。bark: 樹皮；log:（從樹上砍下的）原木；vine:藤蔓；cradle: 輕輕地抱著。

When playing with their doll-sticks, the young females would cuddle with them, put them to bed and rest with them in their nests like a little girl sleeping with her plush toy for security.20. doll-stick: 被當(dāng)作布娃娃的小棍；cuddle: 擁抱；plush toy:毛絨玩具。A few times, the little dolls even got the equivalent of their own Barbie dream houses, as the chimp girls would build separate nests just for them to pretend-live in. And during the day, the chimp girls would also walk around with their sticks tucked between their stomachs and their thighs, mimicking the way that mother chimpanzees carry their babies.21. tuck: 把……塞進(jìn)，藏入；thigh: 大腿；mimic: 模仿；chimpanzee: 黑猩猩，上文中的chimp為非正式用法。

All this behavior, which was witnessed over a hundred times during 14 years, was not just limited to girl chimps. One young male chimp was seen using a stick to play “airplane,” resting on his back and holding the stick up with his hands and feet, the way that many parents play with their young children. In another instance, a male chimp was seen with his own stick dolly after he saw his mom was pregnant22. pregnant: 懷孕的。, pretending to care for it.