一个国际科研小组日前报告说，他们发现人类的“近亲”黑猩猩也会有意识地开展合作共同受益。这或许预示着合作这种本领在人类和黑猩猩分化之前就已存在。
这项研究由德国马克斯·普朗克进化人类学研究所和英国沃里克商学院研究人员共同完成。他们在新一期《生物学快报》（Biology Letters）上报告说，对黑猩猩进行测试后发现，与其他动物只会在捕猎或保卫地盘时开展简单协作不同，黑猩猩能认识到共同合作可能带来的益处，会经过思考、使用工具等有目的地进行合作。
在实验中，研究人员将两只黑猩猩置于一个放有8颗葡萄的透明塑料箱旁，并分别给它们一只小耙子和一根小杠子。要想吃到葡萄，需要两只黑猩猩密切配合，最终使葡萄通过箱底的洞落到地上。研究人员先后用12对黑猩猩进行了测试，几乎每对黑猩猩都能很快通过合作拿到葡萄。
研究人员说，其他动物只能进行偶然、随意的简单协作，而黑猩猩之间的合作显然是经过事先思考、计划并统一协调的，与人类间的合作更为接近，这预示着合作这种技能可能有着更早的进化根源。（生物谷Bioon.com)
doi:10.1098/rsbl.2013.0009
Chimpanzees' (Pan troglodytes) strategic helping in a collaborative task
Alicia P. Melis and Michael Tomasello
Many animal species cooperate, but the underlying proximate mechanisms are often unclear. We presented chimpanzees with a mutualistic collaborative food-retrieval task requiring complementary roles, and tested subjects' ability to help their partner perform her role. For each role, subjects required a different tool, and the tools were not interchangeable. We gave one individual in each dyad both tools, and measured subjects' willingness to transfer a tool to their partner as well as which tool (correct versus incorrect) they transferred. Most subjects helped their partner and transferred the tool the partner needed. Thus, chimpanzees not only coordinate different roles, but they also know which particular action the partner needs to perform. These results add to previous findings suggesting that many of chimpanzees' limitations in collaboration are, perhaps, more motivational than cognitive.
