McComb Karen, Baker Lucy, Moss Cynthia
School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9QG, UK.
Biol Lett. 2006 Mar 22;2(1):26-8. doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2005.0400.
An important area of biology involves investigating the origins in animals of traits that are thought of as uniquely human. One way that humans appear unique is in the importance they attach to the dead bodies of other humans, particularly those of their close kin, and the rituals that they have developed for burying them. In contrast, most animals appear to show only limited interest in the carcasses or associated remains of dead individuals of their own species. African elephants (Loxodonta africana) are unusual in that they not only give dramatic reactions to the dead bodies of other elephants, but are also reported to systematically investigate elephant bones and tusks that they encounter, and it has sometimes been suggested that they visit the bones of relatives. Here, we use systematic presentations of object arrays to demonstrate that African elephants show higher levels of interest in elephant skulls and ivory than in natural objects or the skulls of other large terrestrial mammals. However, they do not appear to specifically select the skulls of their own relatives for investigation so that visits to dead relatives probably result from a more general attraction to elephant remains.
生物学的一个重要领域涉及研究那些被认为是人类独有的特征在动物中的起源。人类表现出独特性的一个方面在于他们对其他人类尸体，尤其是近亲尸体的重视程度，以及他们为埋葬这些尸体所发展出的仪式。相比之下，大多数动物似乎对自己物种死亡个体的尸体或相关残骸表现出有限的兴趣。非洲象（Loxodonta africana）不同寻常之处在于，它们不仅对其他大象的尸体有剧烈反应，而且据报道会系统地调查它们遇到的象骨和象牙，有时有人认为它们会去探访亲属的骨头。在这里，我们通过系统展示物体阵列来证明，非洲象对象头骨和象牙的兴趣高于对自然物体或其他大型陆地哺乳动物头骨的兴趣。然而，它们似乎不会特意挑选自己亲属的头骨进行调查，所以去探访死去的亲属可能是由于对象残骸更普遍的吸引力。
