6. Parrots are not just mindless mimics. Owners can teach them human language, with the parrots understanding the meaning of specific words, suggests Jonathan Balcombe, a senior research scientist for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. Balcombe told Discovery News that language-trained parrots have communicated food favorites, as well as what tastes bad, to their owners.
鹦鹉学舌并不只是简单的无意识模仿。责任医疗医师委员会的一位高级研究科学家乔纳森·鲍尔科姆说主人可以教鹦鹉说话，而且鹦鹉可以理解这些具体单词的意思。鲍尔科姆告诉《探索新闻》经过训练的鹦鹉和主人对于食物有相通的好恶品味。

 

7. Orangutans act out incredibly detailedscenarios with their bodies. “Of course what orangutans do isn’t up to Marcel Marceau," says Anne Russon, a Glendon College professor of psychology. "But they can certainly fake their own bodily signals, the essence of pantomime, and that opens up a much richer world of communication than we have believed possible."
猩猩可以通过肢体语言展现不可思议的具体情景。格伦登大学的一名心理学教授安妮·拉森说“猩猩的肢体表达当然不仅仅是模仿马歇·马叟（法国喜剧表演艺术家）”，“而猩猩还可以伪造自己的肢体信号——肢体语言的最高境界，这帮我们开启了交流领域里的一个更深层次。”

 

8. Researchers have yet to fully decipher whale calls and songs, but this communication appears to be infused with detail. It's known that whales have separate vocalizations for mating, feeding and other activities. Body language is also important.
研究者们尚未完全破译鲸的叫声和歌声，而这种交流方式中还有更多细节。已知鲸会发出不同的声音，分别代表交配、觅食以及其他活动。肢体语言也很重要。

Luke Rendell, alecturer in the School of Biology at the University of St. Andrews, and colleagues studied humpback whales off the coast of New England. “Our study really shows how vital cultural transmission is in humpback populations -- not only do they learn their famous songs from each other, they also learn feeding techniques that allow them to buffer the effects of changing ecology,” Rendell told Discovery News.
圣安德鲁大学生物学院的老师卢克·伦德尔及其同事对新英格兰海岸的驼背鲸进行了研究，他告诉《探索新闻》，“我们的研究表明了文化交流在驼背鲸中是多么重要——他们不仅相互学习著名的歌曲，还相互传授捕食技巧以应对环境改变带来的影响。”

 

9. Kimberley Pollard, a researcher in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UCLA, and colleague Daniel Blumstein examined prairie dogs and other rodent species. The researchers found that prairie dogs all have unique voices.
加利福尼亚大学洛杉矶分校生态学和进化生物学系的研究专家金伯利·波拉德和他的同事丹尼尔·布卢姆斯坦对草原土拨鼠及其他啮齿科动物进行了实验。他们发现所有的土拨鼠都有自己独特的声音。

“Differences in rodent voices are much like differences in human voices,” explained Pollard. “Some animals’ voices are high-pitched, others are low. Some voices are clear, others are more scratchy. Individual animals also have different timbre and use different patterns of emphasis. Each call has an animal’s unique vocal stamp on it.”
“每个啮齿科动物都有自己独特的声音，就像每个人都有不同的音色一样”，波拉德说道。“有的动物的声音很高，有的很低，有的清透，有的浑厚。每个动物也都有不同的音色和不同的抑扬顿挫模式，每一句呼叫声都印有每个动物的独特印记。”

 

10. Bonobos often yell out what they think of their food, with the exclamations sounding similar to those of human sounds, such as “Yum!” and “Ewww.” Klaus Zuberbühler, a professor in the School of Psychology at the University of St. Andrews, and colleague Zanna Clay found this out after testing bonobos on various foods. Figs and raisins got a lot of “Yum!” comments from the bonobos. Bell peppers received “Ewwws.”
倭黑猩猩想要食物时经常会发出类似于人类的呼叫声，比如“耶”和“嗯”。圣安德鲁大学心理学院的克劳斯·祖波布勒教授和他的同事赞娜·克雷通过测试倭黑猩猩对各种食物的反应得出这一结论。倭黑猩猩看到无花果和葡萄干时发出最多的“耶”声，看到柿子椒时则发出“嗯”声。

The scientists now think there might be a basic, universal primate call structure. Talking to the animals a la Dr. Doolittle might therefore be part of our genetic makeup.
现在科学家们认为可能存在一种基本的、普遍的原始发声结构。杜利特尔博士说和动物说话也许是人类的部分基因使然。