What’s that Skip, you really CAN talk to humans?
IN the classic Australian TV series, Skippy the bush kangaroo could always let his human chums know exactly what he wanted.
And now it appears that kangaroos in the wild may have the same skill.
A study has found that they can communicate with humans despite never being domesticated.
Researchers say the findings challenge the notion that this behaviour is usually restricted to animals like dogs, horses or goats.
They studied kangaroos at three Australian locations and found they would gaze at a human when trying to get at food put in a closed box instead of trying to open it themselves.
This is typical behaviour for domesticated animals, the scientists say.
Dr Alan McElligott, who led the study at the University of Roehampton (now based in Hong Kong), said: ‘We were able to see that communication between animals can be learnt and that the behaviour of gazing at humans to access food is not related to domestication. Kangaroos showed a very similar pattern of behaviour we have seen in dogs, horses and even goats when put to the same test.
‘The potential for referential intentional communication towards humans by animals has been underestimated, which signals an exciting development.’
According to the study published in Biology Letters, ten out of 11 kangaroos tested actively looked at the person who put the food in a box and nine looked back and forth between box and human.
Dr McElligott also led a study that found goats can understand human cues.
Dr Alexandra Green of Sydney University said kangaroos were ‘adored by many worldwide but also considered as a pest’.
She added: ‘We hope that this research draws attention to the cognitive abilities of kangaroos and helps foster more positive attitudes towards them.’