今年是華人世界的猴年，猴子自然成為華人口中的聖物。事實上，不僅是華人重視猴子，科學界與猴子的關係也非常密切。因猴子與人類是近親，許多無法以人類進行的研究，就轉移至猴子身上，迄今所獲得的成果十分可觀。不過，儘管人類號稱是萬物之靈，這種為延長人類壽命或確保更好的健康品質，而拿猴子開刀的做法，頗難令動物保育人士認同。某些西方跨國生物醫藥公司為了開發新藥，利誘貧窮的第三世界國家為他們大量飼養猴子，以進行實驗，也面臨生態和道德上的質疑。

會聽，但不能理解

人類為何能理解整個句子，而它的近親猴子卻不能，這是許多科學家百思不解的地方。人類和猴子理解能力的差異，有學者表示，是因為所學字彙的數量不同，猴子約可學 300至400字，人類的高中畢業生可達6萬字，但哈佛大學心理學家Marc D. Hauser的研究發現，更關鍵的原因在於文法。

Hauser讓棉頭絹猴交替地聆聽男性和女性說話的聲音，當聲音用的是最簡單的型式，如「形容詞＋名詞」，絹猴會抬頭注視喇叭。一旦增加句型的複雜程度，如「如果…，然後…」，絹猴就不知人類所云了。

威斯康辛大學語言認知學者 Keith R. Kluender就指出，文法是人類語言的最顯著特質，也是與動物溝通模式最不同之處。Hauser也表示，許多動物有豐富的認知系統和思考世界的方式，以及複雜的社會關係，但牠們卻不能將上述特點傳達給同類。Researchers say they've come closer than ever to figuring out why humans can string sentences together and our hairy cousins can't.

One of the major barriers to a simian（似猴的） Shakespeare appears to be the inability of primates（靈長類）to comprehend anything other than the simplest rules of grammar, according to a new study.

Monkeys who listened to alternating male and female voices couldn't pick up on complex patterns designed to mimic those of human speech, researchers found. This lack of understanding could be a "fundamental bottleneck on animal thought," says study co-author Marc D. Hauser, a professor of psychology at Harvard University.

While monkey grammar skills may seem like a pretty arcane topic harkening（傾聽）back to diagrammed sentences on chalkboards, it's actually at the center of a major mystery: How did human speech evolve? How does the way humans talk to each other differ from the way animals communicate?

"Grammar may be the defining（顯著的）feature of human language, what makes our language different from other forms of animal communication," says Keith R. Kluender, a professor of psychology who studies speech perception at the University of Wisconsin. "It's a pretty big deal."

It's no secret that animals can communicate with each other in simple ways -- think of those midnight neighborhood symphonies of howling dogs or cats in heat. And humans have managed to teach sign language to apes（猿）and dolphins.

But Hauser says the top number of words they have learned is in the 300-to-400 range, which doesn't even compare to the 60,000-word vocabulary of a typical high school graduate.

Apes "have learned signs that refer to things in their world, like food and actions," Hauser says. "They could label things and could sign 'apple' or 'pond.' But what they couldn't say is, 'My apple is in the pond' or 'on the chair.' "

But is that because they truly can't handle that kind of grammar?

To explore that issue, Hauser and a British colleague developed a way to analyze grammar abilities in cotton-top tamarins（棉頭絹猴）, an endangered monkey found in South America.

The results of the study appear in the Jan. 16 issue of the journal Science.

Using male and female voices, the researchers let the monkeys listen to specific orders of several syllable-type sounds. In the most simple test, the monkeys looked at the loudspeaker whenever the voices broke the patterns.

The researchers increased the complexity of the patterns, using a system similar to that used by scientists who study the language development of human infants. But the monkeys couldn't keep up.

According to Hauser, this suggests the monkeys could possibly understand a simple pattern of grammar -- that an adjective typically precedes a noun, for example -- but be baffled（困擾）by a more complex pattern, like an "if-then" statement with words in between.

This limitation makes sense, he adds. "The paradox is that many animals have rich conceptual systems and ways of thinking about the world, and rich social relationships. What they lack is a system that can convey that to each other," he says.

Kluender agrees with the finding that the monkeys can't process complex language patterns, but he says he's not sure that the researchers truly replicated human grammar in their study.

Both Kluender and Hauser do agree that it's very unlikely that scientists will stumble across advanced grammar skills in any non-human animal species.

"But it's hard to argue that it can't possibly exist," Kluender says.

劍橋大學停止實驗

英國劍橋大學近來中止一項興建猴子實驗中心的計劃，讓動物保育團體雀躍不已。劍橋大學前校長 Tony Minson表示，動物保育團體絕對會宣稱，中止興建猴子實驗中心是一項勝利，但依校方觀點，中止計劃是因為興建費用太過昂貴，無法順利經營。

贊成中止興建猴子實驗中心的反活體實驗者認為，等實驗中心興建完成後，將有數量龐大的猴子被切除腦部，然後被丟棄，宛如一座費用龐大的屠宰場。支持使用動物做科學性實驗的研究者則認為，就算這項興建計劃無法在劍橋大學實現，在未來，也終將興建在世界的某一處。 Cambridge University shelved plans to build a centre for scientific experiments on monkeys that was vigorously opposed by animal rights activists.

Cambridge, one of Britain's most famous universities, scrubbed（取消）the project after it decided it would be too expensive to run -- not least because of the cost of security to protect it from militant activists.

"Animal rights groups will, of course, claim this as a victory, but in our view they have won no arguments whatsoever," said Cambridge University pro-vice chancellor Tony Minson.

"We still believe this work to be of significant national importance and we are already exploring with the medical research funding agencies other ways of continuing this work," said Minson.

Anti-vivisectionists（反活體解剖人士）welcomed the decision not to build the centre, for which cost estimates had soared from 24 million pounds (34.7 million euros, 43.8 million dollars) to more than 32 million pounds.

"It's difficult to know how many animals would have been consumed," said Andrew Tyler of Animal Aid. "It would have been a factory to mutilate（切開）the brains of monkeys and then dispose of them."

Researchers who support the use of animals in scientific tests were adamant that the centre -- which would have been one of the largest of its kind in Europe -- will eventually be built somewhere.

"We will try to make sure it goes on in Cambridge, but if not, it will go on elsewhere in the world eventually, and it will be patients who benefit," said Colin Blakemore, chief executive of the Medical Research Council.

大腦活動決定性伴侶

許多人會開玩笑的說，男人在面對性的時候，往往不會思考太多，但近來一項研究發現，猴子在選擇雌性時，腦部扮演著十分重要的角色。

美國威斯康辛大學麥迪遜分校的斯諾登教授，從核磁共振圖表中發現，巴西絨猴在選擇雌性時，腦部運動十分活躍，顯示在擇偶時有相當多的想法。他們發現，猴子在聞到雌性氣味時，腦部負責決策的神經中樞有相當高水準的活動。

斯諾登的研究小組以 4隻絨猴做實驗，提供牠們接近或正在排卵期間的雌性腺體分泌物，同時也讓猴子聞那些卵巢已被移除，或是無法生育的雌性腺體分泌物，研究發現，猴子在聞到有生育能力猴子的分泌物樣本時，腦部中認知和推理的區塊，有明顯的反應。　　研究者宣稱，這項研究是人類首次得知靈長類在情緒上的反應，為研究者打開一個新的視野。Some people may joke that men don't think with their heads when it comes to sex, but a study in monkeys suggests the brain plays a significant role in the decision to mate, researchers reported on Wednesday.

Brain scans of tiny marmoset monkeys show a lot of thought goes into choosing mates, the team at the University of Wisconsin-Madison said.

They used functional magnetic resonance imaging（核磁共振）, or fMRI, to look at the brain functions of the Brazilian monkeys. Writing in the Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging, they said the brains became busy when the monkeys smelled sexy scents.

"We were surprised to observe high levels of neural activity in areas of the brain important for decision-making, as well as in purely sexual arousal areas, in response to olfactory（嗅覺的）cues," psychology professor Charles Snowdon said in a statement.

"Lighting up far more brightly than we expected were areas associated with decision-making and memory, emotional processing and reward, and cognitive control."

Like people, common marmosets live in family groups and do not mate freely with one another. They must make careful choices.

Snowdon's team studied four male marmosets, offering them gland secretion（分泌物）samples from females at or close to ovulation（排卵）. They also let the monkeys smell samples from females whose ovaries（卵巢）had been removed, and who therefore were not fertile and, presumably, not sexy.

The researchers were surprised to see how much more of the animals' brain lit up when they smelled the samples from fertile females -- including areas of complex, cognitive reasoning.

"This is the first time anyone has imaged an awake nonhuman primate in response to emotionally arousing stimuli. It is also the first link between external sexual odors and the internal sexual arousal system," Snowdon said. "This opens up a whole new field of research possibilities."

He said the marmoset data corresponded surprisingly closely to human fMRI studies.

保育人士反尼國出售

尼泊爾倡導動物權利的運動人士，日前抗議尼泊爾政府、尼泊爾自然史協會與美國的實驗室簽約，為他們大量飼養猴子，以供研究。抗議人士說，美國每年需要 1萬4千隻猴子進行各種生物和醫藥研究，而尼泊爾政府每提供1隻猴子，就可賺取300美元，但大肆養猴子不僅無益於尼國社會，也妨礙生物多樣化，更違反猴子的生存權利。抗議人士甚至指控美國，購買猴子是為了進行生物恐怖實驗。

運動人士已接獲至少 300封請願，並透過網路動員各保育組織，要求尼泊爾政府停止為美國實驗室飼養猴子。根據媒體報導，部分西方國家的實驗室，正前往法令不週全國家，如中國、越南、印尼及尼泊爾，搜刮叢林裡的珍稀野獸。Animal rights activists are protesting against an agreement between the Nepalese government and local nongovernmental organization (NGO), the Natural History Society of Nepal (NHSN), to breed thousands of rhesus monkeys, allegedly for supply to US laboratories.

According to the letter of intent, the government will deliver 150 monkeys to the US as soon as NHSN establishes basic infrastructure to breed them. Along with monkeys, the government has already permitted another NGO to begin the commercial breeding of snakes.

Activists say the US annually requires over 14,000 monkeys for research. They have demanded an immediate halt to the breeding and capture of animals for export.

"This is not a conservation effort that will benefit the local community or bio-diversity. This kind of breeding is purely for bio-medical research where our monkeys undergo enormous suffering as they are observed for physical and psychological responses to untested drugs," protests Prahlad Yonzon, the president of Resources Himalaya, an NGO working to promote wildlife conservation.

A slew of protests are pouring in from across the world. "We have received more than 300 petitions which we will hand over to the Nepalese prime minister and the minister for Forests and Soil Conservation," says Lucia de Vries, a Kathmandu-based Belgian journalist who is mobilizing animal rights groups in Nepal and abroad.

De Vries believes money is the only motivation. "The government can earn up to US $300 per monkey for sale to American labs. We should not allow Nepalese monkeys to die a slow and painful death there just for the sake of enriching a few," she says.

Another key ally in the Save-the-Monkeys-Campaign is the International Primate Protection League (IPPL), which has posted an appeal on its site (www.ippl.org) to protest the plans to exploit Nepal's primates. It has also requested the Nepalese government to prevent monkey-breeding labs from being set up.

Animal rights activists express concern that Nepal's decision will open the floodgates to export Nepalese monkeys and other animals to countries like Japan and Germany, for medical research.

The decision comes at a time when research institutions are increasingly finding alternatives to the use of non-human primates in research, which is why a growing number of countries have banned such research.

De Vries, who is also involved with the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals/Nepal, alleges that the US is looking for lab monkeys to conduct bio-terrorism experiments.

Reportedly, the West is scouring jungles in countries with weak legislation and a willingness to sacrifice their precious wildlife, such as China, Vietnam, Indonesia and, lately, Nepal.