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母鸡竟能感知鸡仔的痛苦
You might think chickens are way down the pecking order in the animal kingdom when it comes to emotional intelligence.
也许在你看来，动物世界里按“情商”论资排辈的话，鸡类可能将名落孙山。
But it turns out that mother hens are such attentive, caring parents that they ‘feel’ their chicks’ pain.
但事实上，母鸡在抚养子女方面却是周到体贴，无微不至，它们甚至还能“感觉”到小鸡仔的痛苦。
In experiments, female chickens showed clear signs of anxiety and upset when their young were in distress.
在实验中发现，当幼鸡“郁闷”时，母鸡也会出现明显的焦躁不安的情绪波动。
It's the first time that scientists have shown hints of empathy - the ability to feel someone's pain or see their point of view - in a bird.
这也是科学家们在禽类中首次发现这种能够感知对方痛苦或者说是“察言观色”的移情暗示。
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The discovery doesn't just shed lights on bird brains, it has important implications for the welfare of chickens in battery farms and science laboratories.
这项发现不仅揭示了鸡类大脑的情况，同时也表明了提高它们在饲养场与科学实验室中生存条件的重要性。
Empathy was once thought to be a uniquely human trait.
移情作用曾经一度被认为是人类的专利。
However, recent studies suggest animals may also be able to feel another creature's suffering, or even see the world through another animal's eyes.
然而，最近却有研究发现，原来动物园也可以感知到其他神武的痛苦，甚至是能通过它们的视角看待世界。
The British researchers chose hens and chicks for the study because empathy is assumed to have evolved to help parents look after their young.
英国学者在这项实验中选择母鸡与小鸡，因为移情作用被假设为是“父母带孩子”中的重要因素。
Jo Edgar, a Phd student at Bristol University, who led the study, said: 'The extent to which animals are affected by the distress of others is of high relevance to the welfare of farm and laboratory animals.
研究者表示：“推广说来，动物所感知到的同类的痛苦实在饲养场和动物实验室动物生存条件的重要指标。”
'Our research has addressed the fundamental question of whether birds have the capacity to show empathic responses.
“我们的研究从根本上阐述了禽类是否存在移情作用这个问题。”
'We found that adult female birds possess at least one of the essential underpinning attributes of empathy - the ability to be affected by, and share, the emotional state of another.'
“我们发现成年的母鸡至少具有一种共性，那边是被其他鸡的情绪感染，或者分享这种情绪。”