If you need help herding some sheep or retrieving a stick, you can count on your canine companion. Because dogs always seem to be keen on lending a paw.

如果你需要放羊或者撿回個棍子，你可以讓狗狗去做這些事情。因為狗狗非常喜歡幫助你。

But only if their partner is a person. When it comes to cooperating with one another, dogs are truly lost…and instead it's wolves who've mastered the art of teamwork. That's according to a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

但是，前提條件是狗狗的合作對象是人，如果是和別的什么合作的話，狗狗會不知所措……而相反，狼卻有團隊合作的精神。這是發表在《美國科學院論文集》雜志上的一項研究指出的。

For thousands of years, humans have been breeding dogs that can do all sorts of neat tricks. And because pups aim to please, we've come to think that domestication has somehow boosted dogs' powers of cooperation.

數千年以來，人類一直飼養可以掌握各種技能的狗狗。因為，小狗狗的目的是取悅人類，所以，我們認為馴化狗狗可以提高狗狗的合作能力。

But researchers in Austria have been wondering whether that notion could be barking up the wrong tree. Because left to their own devices, dogs are bigger loners than wolves.

但是，奧地利的研究人員認為，這個觀點是不對的。因為根據他們的研究結果證明，狗狗比狼更孤獨。

"So wolves live in closely knit family packs, they cooperate in raising the young, they also cooperate in hunting and in defending their territories. So they really have a strong dependence on cooperation in many aspects of their lives."

“狼生活在緊密的家庭關系中，它們共同養育小狼崽、共同捕獲獵物、共同守護家園。所以，狼在生活的各個方面，對合作能力有很強的依賴性。”

"In contrast, to this free ranging dogs actually forage mostly by themselves solitarily. It's only mothers that raise their young. And they do form packs but they tend to be somewhat more fluid, if you want."

“然而，對于自由放養的狗狗來講，實際上，它們會各自找各自的食物。只有狗媽媽會撫養小狗狗。狗狗們也會形成團體，但實際上狗狗有獨立性。”

That's Sarah Marshall-Pescini of the Wolf Science Center at the University of Vienna. She and her colleagues decided to test dogs' and wolves' relative powers of cooperation.

莎拉·馬紹爾-佩希尼在維也納大學狼科學研究中心工作。她和同事們決定測試一下狗和狼的合作能力。

In the setup, a pair of animals…either two dogs or two wolves…is presented with a contraption that will allow the participants to access a tray of food…but only if both members of the team simultaneously pull on the two ends of a rope.

在實驗中，將兩只狗分為一組、將兩只狼分為一組，并且為它們提供了一個巧妙的裝置，這些狗和狼可以通過裝置吃到一盤食物……但是需要團隊中的成員同時拉繩子。

A dozen wolves and 14 dogs took the challenge. And the results? The wolves ran circles around their doggie descendants. In some 400 attempts, the wolf teams scored a snack 100 times.

12只狼和14只狗狗參加了這個實驗測試。最后的結果是，狼輕而易舉的就勝過了狗狗。在大約400次測試中，狼組成功獲得了100次食物。

Which may not sound all that impressive…until you compare it with the doggie duos, who, in nearly 500 trials, succeeded only twice.

這個結果聽起來可能不那么出色，但是如果和狗狗那組進行比較的話就相當出色了--在將近500次的試驗中，狗狗們僅僅成功了2次。

Now, it's not that dogs are less avid learners. Or that they turned tail and avoided the apparatus. Marshall-Pescini says the pooches were curious about the device.

這并不是說狗狗不愛學習。也不是因為它們搖了搖尾巴，避開了儀器。莎拉·馬紹爾-佩希尼稱，雜種狗對于這種裝置有很強的好奇心。

"What seemed to be happening was they didn't want to get into conflict with each other. So they wouldn't both go and try things on it but rather took it in turns. And this really hindered their capacity to cooperate."

“似乎雙方并不想發生沖突。所以，它們不會一起去嘗試，而是會輪流嘗試。這就阻礙了它們的合作能力的培養。”

If you need help herding some sheep or retrieving a stick, you can count on your canine companion. Because dogs always seem to be keen on lending a paw.

如果你需要放羊或者撿回個棍子，你可以讓狗狗去做這些事情。因為狗狗非常喜歡幫助你。

But only if their partner is a person. When it comes to cooperating with one another, dogs are truly lost…and instead it's wolves who've mastered the art of teamwork. That's according to a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

但是，前提條件是狗狗的合作對象是人，如果是和別的什么合作的話，狗狗會不知所措……而相反，狼卻有團隊合作的精神。這是發表在《美國科學院論文集》雜志上的一項研究指出的。

For thousands of years, humans have been breeding dogs that can do all sorts of neat tricks. And because pups aim to please, we've come to think that domestication has somehow boosted dogs' powers of cooperation.

數千年以來，人類一直飼養可以掌握各種技能的狗狗。因為，小狗狗的目的是取悅人類，所以，我們認為馴化狗狗可以提高狗狗的合作能力。

But researchers in Austria have been wondering whether that notion could be barking up the wrong tree. Because left to their own devices, dogs are bigger loners than wolves.

但是，奧地利的研究人員認為，這個觀點是不對的。因為根據他們的研究結果證明，狗狗比狼更孤獨。

"So wolves live in closely knit family packs, they cooperate in raising the young, they also cooperate in hunting and in defending their territories. So they really have a strong dependence on cooperation in many aspects of their lives."

“狼生活在緊密的家庭關系中，它們共同養育小狼崽、共同捕獲獵物、共同守護家園。所以，狼在生活的各個方面，對合作能力有很強的依賴性。”

"In contrast, to this free ranging dogs actually forage mostly by themselves solitarily. It's only mothers that raise their young. And they do form packs but they tend to be somewhat more fluid, if you want."

“然而，對于自由放養的狗狗來講，實際上，它們會各自找各自的食物。只有狗媽媽會撫養小狗狗。狗狗們也會形成團體，但實際上狗狗有獨立性。”

That's Sarah Marshall-Pescini of the Wolf Science Center at the University of Vienna. She and her colleagues decided to test dogs' and wolves' relative powers of cooperation.

莎拉·馬紹爾-佩希尼在維也納大學狼科學研究中心工作。她和同事們決定測試一下狗和狼的合作能力。

In the setup, a pair of animals…either two dogs or two wolves…is presented with a contraption that will allow the participants to access a tray of food…but only if both members of the team simultaneously pull on the two ends of a rope.

在實驗中，將兩只狗分為一組、將兩只狼分為一組，并且為它們提供了一個巧妙的裝置，這些狗和狼可以通過裝置吃到一盤食物……但是需要團隊中的成員同時拉繩子。

A dozen wolves and 14 dogs took the challenge. And the results? The wolves ran circles around their doggie descendants. In some 400 attempts, the wolf teams scored a snack 100 times.

12只狼和14只狗狗參加了這個實驗測試。最后的結果是，狼輕而易舉的就勝過了狗狗。在大約400次測試中，狼組成功獲得了100次食物。

Which may not sound all that impressive…until you compare it with the doggie duos, who, in nearly 500 trials, succeeded only twice.

這個結果聽起來可能不那么出色，但是如果和狗狗那組進行比較的話就相當出色了--在將近500次的試驗中，狗狗們僅僅成功了2次。

Now, it's not that dogs are less avid learners. Or that they turned tail and avoided the apparatus. Marshall-Pescini says the pooches were curious about the device.

這并不是說狗狗不愛學習。也不是因為它們搖了搖尾巴，避開了儀器。莎拉·馬紹爾-佩希尼稱，雜種狗對于這種裝置有很強的好奇心。

"What seemed to be happening was they didn't want to get into conflict with each other. So they wouldn't both go and try things on it but rather took it in turns. And this really hindered their capacity to cooperate."

“似乎雙方并不想發生沖突。所以，它們不會一起去嘗試，而是會輪流嘗試。這就阻礙了它們的合作能力的培養。”