Tortoises Have Amazing Long-Term Memory and Greatly Underestimated Intelligence

乌龟具有惊人的长期记忆和极高的被低估的智商

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A friendship of a decade: Dr. Tamar Gutnick pets her favorite tortoise, George, a 100-year-old Aldabra tortoise housed in Vienna Zoo. Credit: OIST

十年的友谊：塔玛·古特尼克博士（Tamar Gutnick）宠爱她最喜欢的乌龟乔治，乔治是现存于维也纳动物园的100岁的亚达伯拉龟。图片来源：OIST

Described as “living rocks,” giant land tortoises are lumbering beasts with a reputation for being sluggish in both speed and brainpower. But new research carried out by scientists from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) suggests we have greatly underestimated the intelligence of these creatures, who can not only be trained but also have amazing powers of long-term recall.

被描述为“活石头”的巨型陆龟是笨拙的动物，以其速度迟缓和智力低下而闻名。但是，冲绳科学技术研究所（OIST）的科学家所进行的新研究表明，我们大大低估了这些生物的智能，它们不仅可以被训练，而且具有惊人的长期记忆力。

“When first discovered, giant land tortoises were viewed as stupid because explorers could simply collect and store them on ships as a supply of fresh meat,” said Dr. Tamar Gutnick, first author of the study and a postdoctoral scholar in the OIST Physics and Biology Unit.

该研究的第一作者和OIST物理和生物单位的博士后TamarGutnick博士说， “当第一次被发现时，巨大的陆地乌龟被认为是愚蠢的，因为探险家可以直接地捕获并将它们储存在船上，作为一种新鲜的肉。”

But Gutnick pointed out that there had been contradictory reports that hinted at their intellect. Darwin himself noted that Galapagos tortoises traveled long distances between where they ate, drank, slept or mud-bathed, requiring a good memory. Explorers also documented that they could be trained to stay in one place on the ships.

但是古特尼克指出，有矛盾的报道暗示了他们的才智。达尔文本人指出，加拉帕戈斯龟在它们进食、饮水、睡觉或洗泥的地方之间要走很长一段的路，需要有良好的记忆力。探险家还记录说，他们可以接受训练停留在船上的一个地方。

 “We also observed firsthand that tortoises recognized their keepers, so we knew they were capable of learning,” added Gutnick. “This research shows the rest of the world just how smart they are.”

古特尼克补充说：“我们还亲自观察到乌龟认出了它们的饲养者，因此我们知道它们有学习的能力。” “这项研究向世界其他地区展示了它们的聪明程度。”

Teaching an old tortoise new tricks

The study, recently published in the journal Animal Cognition, is the culmination of almost a decade’s worth of work, starting when Gutnick was a master’s student at The Hebrew University and worked with Aldabra tortoises housed at Vienna Zoo.

教老龟新花样

这项研究最近发表在《动物认知》杂志上，是将近十年的研究工作的结晶，始于古特尼克是希伯来大学的硕士生的时候，她与位于维也纳动物园的亚达伯拉象龟一起工作。

“When I met the tortoises, I immediately fell in love with them,” said Gutnick. “It was clear to me that they all had very distinct — and often cheeky — personalities.”

古特尼克说：“当我遇到乌龟时，我立即爱上了它们。” “对我来说很明显，它们都有非常鲜明的个性，而且常常很厚脸皮。”

In this latest research, Dr. Tamar Gutnick and Dr. Michael Kuba — who originally worked at Vienna Zoo and is now a staff scientist at OIST — trained Aldabra and Galapagos tortoises from Vienna Zoo and Zürich Zoo to perform three tasks of increasing difficulty. The researchers used a form of conditioning called positive reinforcement training, where they rewarded the tortoises for a correct action by treating them with their favorite food, such as carrot, red beet or dandelions.

在这项最新的研究中，Tamar Gutnick博士和Michael Kuba博士（最初在维也纳动物园工作，现在是OIST的一名科学家）对来自维也纳动物园和苏黎世动物园的Aldabra和Galapagos陆龟进行了培训，以完成难度不断增加的三项任务。研究人员使用了一种叫做“正强化训练”的调节方式，在这种训练中，他们用胡萝卜、红甜菜或蒲公英等他们最喜欢的食物来奖励乌龟正确的动作。

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Purple or green? Jumbo, a Galapagos tortoise from Zürich Zoo successfully bites the correctly colored target. Credit: OIST

紫色还是绿色？ 来自苏黎世动物园的加拉帕戈斯巨龟Jumbo成功咬住了正确颜色的目标。 图片来源：OIST

For the first task, the scientists trained the tortoises to bite a colored ball on the end of a stick. Once mastered, the researchers then taught them to move towards and bite the colored ball, which was held around one to two meters away. For the final task, the scientists assigned each tortoise a unique color and trained the tortoises to choose the correctly colored ball, from two offered targets.

对于第一项任务，科学家们训练乌龟在棍子的末端咬一个彩色的球。一旦掌握，研究人员就会教他们走向并咬住一到两米远的彩色球。在最后的任务中，科学家给每只乌龟分配了一种独特的颜色，并训练乌龟从两个提供的目标中选择正确颜色的球。

When the researchers tested the tortoises three months later, the tortoises immediately performed the first two tasks. Although they were unable to recall their correct individual colors for the third task, five out of six tortoises relearned which color ball to bite quicker than in the initial training, suggesting some residual memory.

当研究人员在三个月后对乌龟进行测试时，乌龟立即完成了前两项任务。虽然它们无法在第三项任务中回忆起各自的正确颜色，但六只乌龟中有五只重新学习咬哪种颜色的球，比最初的训练更快，这表明它们有一些残留的记忆。

The researchers also revisited three of the Aldabra tortoises they had trained nine years earlier which were still housed at Vienna Zoo. Remarkably, all three recalled the first two tasks, showing an incredible long-term recall ability befitting their long lifespan.

研究人员还回访了他们九年前训练过的三只阿尔达布拉龟，它们仍然被安置在维也纳动物园。值得注意的是，这三只乌龟都想起了前两项任务，显示出一种难以置信的长期回忆能力，这种能力与它们的长寿相适合。

Who taught us? Another tortoise!

The long-term memory of the tortoises was not the only surprise in store for the researchers, as they also discovered that tortoises trained in groups learned faster than tortoises trained separately.

谁教我们的？ 另一只乌龟！

乌龟的长期记忆并不是研究人员唯一的惊喜，因为他们还发现，分组训练的乌龟要比单独训练的乌龟学习得更快。

“This was a very unexpected result,” said Gutnick. “Giant land tortoises are not known for being particularly social animals but the increase in learning speed was unmistakable.”

The scientists speculate that giant land tortoises may gain important information in the wild, such as feeding and drinking locations, by watching other tortoises.

古特尼克说：“这是一个非常意外的结果。” “巨型陆龟并不是特别以社交动物著称，但学习速度的提高是显而易见的。”

科学家推测，巨型陆龟可能会通过观察其他陆龟在野外获取重要信息，例如觅食和饮水场所。

The only task where there was no clear benefit to learning in a group was the third task, as the researchers assigned each tortoise its own individual color. Therefore, the tortoises could not learn any useful information about which ball to bite by watching each other.

对小组学习没有明显好处的唯一任务是第三项任务，因为研究人员为每只乌龟都分配了自己的颜色。因此，乌龟无法通过互相观看来学习任何有关咬哪个球的有用信息。

This result is the first documented evidence for social learning in Aldabra and Galapagos tortoises, highlighting how little scientists currently know about cognition in reptiles — a group often neglected by scientists due to a lack of availability.

该结果是阿尔达伯拉和加拉帕戈斯陆龟中进行社会学习的第一个有据可查的证据，突显了目前科学家对爬行动物的认知知之甚少，该群体由于难以接触到而经常被科学家忽略。

“The problem is, you can’t keep a giant tortoise in a lab,” said Gutnick. “Thanks to zoos, we are able to gain access to these incredible creatures and explore reptile cognition further.”

古特尼克说：“问题是，你不能在实验室里饲养一只巨型乌龟。” “感谢动物园，我们能够接触到这些令人难以置信的生物，并进一步探索爬行动物的认知。”