Kangaroos display gazing and gaze alternations during an unsolvable problem task
Domestication is generally assumed to have resulted in enhanced communication abilities between non-primate mammals and humans, although the number of species studied is very limited (e.g. cats, Felis catus dogs, Canis familiaris wolves, Canis lupus goats, Capra hircus horses, Equus caballus ). In s...
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crroyalsociety:10.1098/rsbl.2020.0607 2024-06-02T08:05:01+00:00 Kangaroos display gazing and gaze alternations during an unsolvable problem task McElligott, Alan G. O'Keeffe, Kristine H. Green, Alexandra C. Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour 2020 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2020.0607 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsbl.2020.0607 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rsbl.2020.0607 en eng The Royal Society https://royalsociety.org/-/media/journals/author/Licence-to-Publish-20062019-final.pdf https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ Biology Letters volume 16, issue 12, page 20200607 ISSN 1744-9561 1744-957X journal-article 2020 crroyalsociety https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2020.0607 2024-05-07T14:16:22Z Domestication is generally assumed to have resulted in enhanced communication abilities between non-primate mammals and humans, although the number of species studied is very limited (e.g. cats, Felis catus dogs, Canis familiaris wolves, Canis lupus goats, Capra hircus horses, Equus caballus ). In species without hands for pointing, gazing at humans when dealing with inaccessible food during an unsolvable task, and in particular gaze alternations between a human and the unsolvable task (considered forms of showing), are often interpreted as attempts at referential intentional communication. We report that kangaroos, marsupial mammals that have never been domesticated, actively gazed at an experimenter during an unsolvable problem task (10/11 kangaroos tested), thus challenging the notion that this behaviour results from domestication. Nine of the 10 kangaroos additionally showed gaze alternations between the unsolvable task and experimenter. We propose that the potential occurrence of these behaviours displayed towards humans has been underestimated, owing to a narrow focus on domestic animals, as well as a more general eutherian research bias. Article in Journal/Newspaper Canis lupus The Royal Society Biology Letters 16 12 20200607 |
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The Royal Society |
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crroyalsociety |
language |
English |
description |
Domestication is generally assumed to have resulted in enhanced communication abilities between non-primate mammals and humans, although the number of species studied is very limited (e.g. cats, Felis catus dogs, Canis familiaris wolves, Canis lupus goats, Capra hircus horses, Equus caballus ). In species without hands for pointing, gazing at humans when dealing with inaccessible food during an unsolvable task, and in particular gaze alternations between a human and the unsolvable task (considered forms of showing), are often interpreted as attempts at referential intentional communication. We report that kangaroos, marsupial mammals that have never been domesticated, actively gazed at an experimenter during an unsolvable problem task (10/11 kangaroos tested), thus challenging the notion that this behaviour results from domestication. Nine of the 10 kangaroos additionally showed gaze alternations between the unsolvable task and experimenter. We propose that the potential occurrence of these behaviours displayed towards humans has been underestimated, owing to a narrow focus on domestic animals, as well as a more general eutherian research bias. |
author2 |
Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
McElligott, Alan G. O'Keeffe, Kristine H. Green, Alexandra C. |
spellingShingle |
McElligott, Alan G. O'Keeffe, Kristine H. Green, Alexandra C. Kangaroos display gazing and gaze alternations during an unsolvable problem task |
author_facet |
McElligott, Alan G. O'Keeffe, Kristine H. Green, Alexandra C. |
author_sort |
McElligott, Alan G. |
title |
Kangaroos display gazing and gaze alternations during an unsolvable problem task |
title_short |
Kangaroos display gazing and gaze alternations during an unsolvable problem task |
title_full |
Kangaroos display gazing and gaze alternations during an unsolvable problem task |
title_fullStr |
Kangaroos display gazing and gaze alternations during an unsolvable problem task |
title_full_unstemmed |
Kangaroos display gazing and gaze alternations during an unsolvable problem task |
title_sort |
kangaroos display gazing and gaze alternations during an unsolvable problem task |
publisher |
The Royal Society |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2020.0607 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsbl.2020.0607 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rsbl.2020.0607 |
genre |
Canis lupus |
genre_facet |
Canis lupus |
op_source |
Biology Letters volume 16, issue 12, page 20200607 ISSN 1744-9561 1744-957X |
op_rights |
https://royalsociety.org/-/media/journals/author/Licence-to-Publish-20062019-final.pdf https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2020.0607 |
container_title |
Biology Letters |
container_volume |
16 |
container_issue |
12 |
container_start_page |
20200607 |
_version_ |
1800749757955571712 |