騾子比驢馬更聰明

It’s been accepted as fact for donkey’s years – but it seems mules aren’t stubborn after all.

But in fact, experts say the animals are more adaptable and intelligent than horses and dogs。

An animal behaviour expert decided to test the stubbornness of mules by setting up a problem-solving task involving a fence being placed in a pen with food on the other side。

However, it was discovered that most horses and donkeys simply stopped in front of the obstacle and pause for some time。

Mules were also more flexible in their unlearning than dogs

The results showed that mules - the offspring of a female horse and male donkey - consistently spotted the gap almost immediately and bypassed the barrier。

The fence was moved several times but the test found that mules as a group would always solve the problem faster than donkeys, horses, and dogs。

Dr Britta Osthaus carried out out the test on 12 of each group to get a clear indication of which species is better at problem solving。

Britta, 46, a senior lecturer in Applied Social Sciences at Canterbury University, Kent, said: 'First I tested dogs on this task and was surprised how badly they performed。

'Then I thought that horses, mules and donkeys are prey animals, unlike dogs, and whether their thinking might be more efficient in this situation。

'We don't know much about the actual thinking abilities of horses, mules and donkeys and I was curious。

'I tested it on 12 of each。

'Mules were faster in their initial learning than both donkeys and horses and they were also more flexible in their unlearning than dogs and horses。

'Donkeys also outshone both dogs and horses in their flexibility, completely the opposite to what we expect from stubborn donkeys.'

騾子又呆又笨，一直是公認(rèn)的事實(shí)，但其實(shí)騾子似乎一點(diǎn)都不遲鈍。據(jù)英國(guó)《每日郵報(bào)》報(bào)道，專家稱騾子比馬和狗更聰明，靈活性更強(qiáng)。

動(dòng)物行為專家設(shè)置了一項(xiàng)問(wèn)題解決型任務(wù)，以測(cè)試騾子的反應(yīng)能力。在圈中放置圍欄，圍欄對(duì)面放食物。圍欄的一側(cè)有一個(gè)巨大的缺口，可以很容易繞過(guò)圍欄。

但是，實(shí)驗(yàn)顯示馬和驢在圍欄面前停止不前;而騾子——母馬和公驢的后代——總能立即發(fā)現(xiàn)缺口繞過(guò)圍欄。雖然將圍欄移動(dòng)多次，但實(shí)驗(yàn)顯示騾子總能比驢、馬和狗更快地解決問(wèn)題。

坎特伯雷肯特大學(xué)應(yīng)用社會(huì)學(xué)博士布麗塔·奧斯陶斯對(duì)每組動(dòng)物分別選取12只進(jìn)行試驗(yàn)，以弄清哪種動(dòng)物更擅長(zhǎng)解決問(wèn)題。她說(shuō)：“首先我測(cè)試的是狗，很驚訝地發(fā)現(xiàn)狗的表現(xiàn)很差。之后，我想，馬、騾子和驢是被捕食動(dòng)物，和狗不一樣，在這種情況下它們的思維會(huì)不會(huì)更快。”

布麗塔·奧斯陶斯說(shuō)：“騾子在最初學(xué)習(xí)方面比驢和馬更快，不過(guò)忘性也比狗和馬更大。驢的靈活性也比狗和馬更好，完全與笨驢形象相反。”