These bears mimic each other's faces as well as people do
IN SOCIAL INTERACTIONS, our faces can become like mirrors, reflecting subtle expressions back at our conversation partner. It might be for validation, or sympathy, but whatever the purpose, facial mimicry is a key part of humanity’s complex social world. We aren’t alone among animals in the use of facial communication, but our degree of finesse and precision had only been seen in our relatives, gorillas. Now, researchers have recently uncovered this social superpower in another species, one very different from hypersocial apes—the sun bear.
Sun bears (Helarctos malayanus) are the world’s smallest bears, Rottweiler-sized animals found in Southeast Asian rainforests. Unlike primates, which tend to show the most frequent and sophisticated use of facial expressions, sun bears don’t form large, hierarchical groups in which complex facial expressions would seem to play an important role in communication. They’re not exactly antisocial, but sun bears mostly opt to go their own ways, says Marina Davila-Ross, a comparative psychologist at the University of Portsmouth and senior author on the study, which published today in the journal Scientific Reports.
IN SOCIAL INTERACTIONS, our faces can become like mirrors, reflecting subtle expressions back at our conversation partner. It might be for validation, or sympathy, but whatever the purpose, facial mimicry is a key part of humanity’s complex social world. We aren’t alone among animals in the use of facial communication, but our degree of finesse and precision had only been seen in our relatives, gorillas. Now, researchers have recently uncovered this social superpower in another species, one very different from hypersocial apes—the sun bear.
Sun bears (Helarctos malayanus) are the world’s smallest bears, Rottweiler-sized animals found in Southeast Asian rainforests. Unlike primates, which tend to show the most frequent and sophisticated use of facial expressions, sun bears don’t form large, hierarchical groups in which complex facial expressions would seem to play an important role in communication. They’re not exactly antisocial, but sun bears mostly opt to go their own ways, says Marina Davila-Ross, a comparative psychologist at the University of Portsmouth and senior author on the study, which published today in the journal Scientific Reports.