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). I...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:7775973 2023-05-15T15:50:17+02:00 Kangaroos display gazing and gaze alternations during an unsolvable problem task McElligott, Alan G. O'Keeffe, Kristine H. Green, Alexandra C. 2020-12 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7775973/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33321066 https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2020.0607 en eng The Royal Society http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7775973/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33321066 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2020.0607 © 2020 The Author(s) https://royalsociety.org/-/media/journals/author/Licence-to-Publish-20062019-final.pdfhttps://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved. Biol Lett Animal Behaviour Text 2020 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2020.0607 2021-12-05T01:35:07Z 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. Text Canis lupus PubMed Central (PMC) Biology Letters 16 12 20200607 |
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Animal Behaviour |
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Animal Behaviour McElligott, Alan G. O'Keeffe, Kristine H. Green, Alexandra C. Kangaroos display gazing and gaze alternations during an unsolvable problem task |
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Animal Behaviour |
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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. |
format |
Text |
author |
McElligott, Alan G. O'Keeffe, Kristine H. Green, Alexandra C. |
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://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7775973/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33321066 https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2020.0607 |
genre |
Canis lupus |
genre_facet |
Canis lupus |
op_source |
Biol Lett |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7775973/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33321066 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2020.0607 |
op_rights |
© 2020 The Author(s) https://royalsociety.org/-/media/journals/author/Licence-to-Publish-20062019-final.pdfhttps://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved. |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2020.0607 |
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Biology Letters |
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16 |
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12 |
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20200607 |
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1766385255770488832 |