Getting social: Kangaroos communicate with people
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA >> When they’re hungry, they’ll let you know by coming up to you and looking beseechingly at you and the container of food.
If that doesn’t work, they’ll sniff and paw at your leg.
No, we’re not talking about dogs. We’re talking about kangaroos.
Researchers at the University of Roehampton in Britain and the University of Sydney in Australia say that such behavior led them to a startling discovery: Kangaroos can communicate with humans in way dogs, horses and goats do despite never having been domesticated.
Kangaroos are the first wild animal to exhibit a behavior that is more commonly seen in domesticated species, communicating requests for help from a human, the researchers said.
The study suggests a higher level of intelligence in the Australian marsupials than had been assumed.
The researchers said they hoped the results would persuade people — especially Australians — to treat kangaroos with more care
There were nearly 50 million kangaroos across Australia in 2017, double the human population.
“There’s a part of the population that thinks they’re pests and dumb and want to shoot them,” said Alan McElligott. “I think if the broader public has a greater understanding of the cognitive abilities of an animal, it’s easier to sell the idea that we should treat them with the best possible care.”
The researchers trained and tested 11 kangaroos from Australian zoos over eight days last year to get food out of a box. Then they locked the box, making it impossible for them to gain access to the food without help.
Initially, the kangaroos sniffed and scratched at the box.
But once they realized they couldn’t open it, they turned their attention to McElligott, who was in the enclosure with them.
“The kangaroos looked up at me and they did this sort of gaze alternation — looking at the box, back at me, back at the box, back at me,” McElligott said.
Ten of the 11 kangaroos actively looked at McElligott, and nine alternated between looking at him and the box containing the food.
“They were really trying to intentionally communicate their desire to get him to help get the food out of the box,” said Alexandra Green, an animal behavior and welfare researcher at the University of Sydney, who is the paper’s co-author.
Green says she believes that the kangaroo’s behavior is a modification of how they communicate with one another in the wild.
“They’re a social species and would use these cues among each other,” she said. “In a captive setting, where there’s humans present, they’re probably able to adapt this ability to communicate with humans.”