(Newser)
– Not only domesticated animals can communicate with humans. A first study of this kind shows that kangaroos can do the same thing. Researchers at the University of Roehampton in England and the University of Sydney in Australia presented 11 kangaroos from a variety of Australian zoos with an “unsolvable problem” that took the form of a locked plastic container containing food. Although familiar to humans, these kangaroos are still considered untamed. Realizing that they could not reach the food without help, 10 of the kangaroos looked “actively” at study author Alan McElligott, who had handled the container, while nine kangaroos watched between the container and McElligott. New York Times. The latest move is “an increased form of communication” for each release.
“I previously thought that only pets are trying to ask for help with a problem,” said Alexandra Green, co-author of the study published Wednesday in Biology letters, says CNN. But some kangaroos “actually used their noses to push [McElligott] and some approached [him] and began to scratch at him for help. “Kangaroos have shown” a very similar behavior that we have seen in dogs, horses and even goats, “says McElligott, who notes that a group of wolves attacked the containers without any request for It is believed that the kangaroos learned to adapt social cues to cope with humans because they are a social species, but McElligott believes that “the potential for intentional referential communication to humans by animals has been underestimated” and hopes to do similar research with other wildlife. many stories about kangaroos.)