◎魏國金

Pet owners have always known that dogs wag their tails when they are happy. But, now researchers say that it’s not the wag only, but its direction that matters--and those which wag to the left may be more friendly.

寵物飼主向來知道，當狗快樂時會搖尾巴。不過，現在研究人員說，不僅搖尾巴，搖的方向也很重要—而那些向左搖尾的狗或許更友善。

Using a robot, an international team, led by the University of Victoria in Canada, has found that the way canines use their tails is more subtle than people thought, and friendly dogs wag them to the left, the ’Laterality’ journal reported.

利用一個機器狗，加拿大維多利亞大學領軍的一個國際團隊，發現狗使用尾巴的方式要比人們所想的還要微妙，而友善的狗將尾巴搖向左側，「側性」期刊指出。

In their study, involving 500 dogs, the researchers looked in particular at whether the animals were hesitant or not as they walked up to the robot, as stopping or pausing can be a sign of lack of confidence, doubt or fear.

In the study, 56 per cent of the animals approached the model without hesitation when the tail was wagged to the left, but only 21 per cent had such a direct approach when it went to the right.

在他們涉及500隻狗的研究中，研究人員特別觀察在這種動物走向機器狗時是否會猶豫，而止步或暫停可能是缺乏信心、懷疑或害怕的信號。在該研究中，當機器狗的尾巴向左搖時，56％的狗狗會毫不遲疑地走向它，而當機器狗的尾巴向右搖時，如此直接趨近者僅有21％。

Animal psychologist Roger Mugford said it proved that dogs were even more sophisticated communicators than animals more closely related to man such as monkeys.

動物心理學家羅傑．莫格弗說，這證明比起猴子等人類近親的動物，狗狗甚至是更複雜的溝通者。

He added："If you are going to present a signal to a dog, it is sensible to put it on your left-hand side because that is where dogs tend to look."

他補充說︰「如果你想對一隻狗出示一個信號，將牠放在你的左手邊是合理的，因為這是狗狗傾向去看的位置。」

"It is another example of the similarity between dogs and humans. They are a lot more human than we give them credit for."

「這是狗與人類似的另一個範例。牠們遠比我們所認定的更有人性。」

新聞辭典

tell tail 與 tell-tale音相近，後者指洩密者，亦可作形容詞，例句︰It was clear from the tell-tale look in her eyes that she loved him.（她的眼神明顯流露出她愛著他。）

wag︰搖擺、饒舌。例句︰Let my tongue wag.（讓我痛快說個夠。）也有（時勢）推移之意。例句︰How wags the world with you?（你近況如何？）

give sb. credit for︰認為某人有（優點、能力）。例句︰She’s more humorous than I gave her credit for.（她比我原先想的還幽默。）

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