Primates are notoriously afraid of snakes. For example, we humans, let alone seeing a live snake, even when looking at a picture of a snake, we have to add several layers of mosaics. Wild monkeys and orangutans have evolved many coping mechanisms. They stand guard to detect danger in time, shout to notify their companions, and when they have to face a snake, they grin, dance, and bluff.
Scientists have long tried to figure out whether primates' fear of snakes is innate or acquired. There have been many interesting experiments, but the answer always seems to be somewhere in between.
You may have heard that breeders show giant pandas mating videos to learn how to reproduce. In fact, in the process of raising primates, watching videos is also a "compulsory course", and what they need to learn is how to treat snakes. fear.
Initially, researchers discovered during observations that monkeys who grew up in laboratories or zoos, unlike their wild brothers and sisters, did not overreact when seeing snakes, so they played wild videos to these monkeys. Monkey meets snake video. The fear shown by the monkeys in the
video obviously affected the monkeys watching the video. Their moods changed drastically, and they began to panic, panic, and scream. From then on, when they saw the snake again, they immediately It will show fear. We often say, "Once bitten by a snake, it will be afraid of well ropes for ten years." Monkeys have already reached this level just by watching videos of their companions being afraid of snakes.
In order to prove that the monkeys in the experiment were indeed affected by the "snake", the researchers showed a video to other monkeys who grew up in the zoo. The video started with a bunch of flowers, followed by a group of fearful monkeys. The results The monkey watching the video was calm throughout and did not behave strangely.
The two experiments of looking at snakes and looking at flowers just illustrate that for monkeys, "fear of snakes" is the result of the combined influence of innate and acquired factors. In the words of the researchers, monkeys are naturally afraid of snakes, but they also need acquired stimulation. What is
congenitally? The most popular one is that "rats are afraid of cats." A researcher once placed a few tufts of cat hair around laboratory mice that had never seen a cat. The mice immediately stopped moving. This is a typical manifestation of their fear. The monkey watching the video is afraid of snakes but not flowers, which may be due to the influence of innate factors.
What is the day after tomorrow? It needs to be learned. The learning ability of primates is very good in the entire animal kingdom. Young primates often need to stay with their mothers for a long time, during which they learn survival skills. The monkeys watching the video see that similar animals are afraid of snakes, which is a process of learning. In some primate rescue centers, it is an important lesson to teach monkeys who have been separated from their mothers since childhood to learn to be afraid of snakes.
In addition to this experiment, people have also found that the temporal lobe of primates is related to emotion and memory, and whether it is humans, apes or monkeys, emotional and mental problems will occur when the temporal lobe is damaged or destroyed. There have been cases After damage to the temporal lobe, monkeys lost the ability to show fear of predators including snakes, although their vision and smell were not affected.
In fact, learning fear is a skill necessary for survival. Being able to identify danger, make reasonable judgments and respond quickly is closely related to "survival" for any animal. Back to the fear of snakes, for primates that do not have the ability to catch snakes like honey badgers and raptors, it is better to remain fearful.
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