Man's Underground Best Friend: Domestic Ferrets, Unlike the Wild Forms, Show Evidence of Dog-Like Social-Cognitive Skills
Man's Underground Best Friend: Domestic Ferrets, Unlike the Wild Forms, Show Evidence of Dog-Like Social-Cognitive Skills
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DOI：
10.1371/journal.pone.0043267
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发表时间：
2012-08-15
期刊：
影响因子：
3.7
通讯作者：
Topal, Jozsef
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Hernadi, Anna;Kis, Anna;Topal, Jozsef
最近的研究表明，与狼或黑猩猩相比，狗拥有令人惊讶的复杂的人类社交技能。然而，驯化对社会认知技能的产生的影响仍然存在很大争议。调查这一点的一种方法是比较密切相关的家养和野生物种的社会化个体。在本研究中，我们测试了国内雪貂（Mustela furo），并将其性能进行了比较，一组野生Mustela杂种和家犬（犬）。我们发现，与野生Mustela杂交种相比，国内雪貂和狗容忍眼睛接触的时间更长，当面对他们的主人与实验者，他们表现出偏好的双向选择任务对他们的主人。此外，与野生杂交种不同，家养雪貂能够跟随人类的方向性手势（持续触摸;瞬间指向），并且可以达到狗的成功率。我们的研究提供了第一个证据，证明家养雪貂在某种意义上比野生雪貂更像狗。这些发现支持了一个假设，即家养物种可能共享基本的社会认知技能，使它们能够与人类进行有效的社会互动。
Recent research has shown that dogs' possess surprisingly sophisticated human-like social communication skills compared to wolves or chimpanzees. The effects of domestication on the emergence of socio-cognitive skills, however, are still highly debated. One way to investigate this is to compare socialized individuals from closely related domestic and wild species. In the present study we tested domestic ferrets (Mustela furo) and compared their performance to a group of wild Mustela hybrids and to domestic dogs (Canis familiaris). We found that, in contrast to wild Mustela hybrids, both domestic ferrets and dogs tolerated eye-contact for a longer time when facing their owners versus the experimenter and they showed a preference in a two-way choice task towards their owners. Furthermore, domestic ferrets, unlike the wild hybrids, were able to follow human directional gestures (sustained touching; momentary pointing) and could reach the success rate of dogs. Our study provides the first evidence that domestic ferrets, in a certain sense, are more dog-like than their wild counterparts. These findings support the hypothesis that domestic species may share basic socio-cognitive skills that enable them to engage in effectively orchestrated social interactions with humans.