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Aggressed-Upon Monkeys Take Revenge on Aggressor's Cronies

Don’t mess with a monkey. Because if you do, he’s might take revenge—on your family and friends. That’s according to a study of Japanese macaques, which shows that monkeys keep track of each’s others’ associates and make use of that intel when it comes time for payback. The findings are in the Royal Society journal Open Science.

不要惹猴子。因为如果你惹了，他可能会报复你的家人和朋友。这是根据日本猕猴的一项研究得出的结论，这表明猴子能跟踪每个别人的伙伴，并利用那些信息寻求回报。研究结果刊登在皇家学会开放科学杂志上。

Researchers were interested in the question of how primates¹ suss out social relationships, knowledge that can come in handy for maneuvering² within a complex society. To assess how the macaques obtain and make use of such social know-how³, the researchers decided⁴ to focus on episodes of aggression⁵—a common feature of simian⁶ interactions.

研究人员对动物如何获得社会关系的问题很感兴趣，，操纵一个复杂的社会，知识就可以派上用场，为了评估猕猴如何获取和利用社会知识，研究人员决定关注猴的攻击性——一种相互作用的群体性共同特征。

They went through more than 500 hours of video recordings⁷ showing the exchanges that took place in a group of 57 macaques living in the Rome Zoo—monkeys whose genealogical relationships are well known. And they parsed⁸ some 15,000 episodes of aggression, noting the relationships among the individuals involved.

他们进行了至少500个多小时的录像，展示了在罗马动物园猴子生活的交流情况，这些猴子的系谱关系是众所周知的。他们分析了大约15000集的攻击性事件，记录到了个体之间的关系。

First, they confirmed that monkeys that find themselves at the receiving end of aggression tend to turn around and take it out on a third party. And that retaliation⁹ is often directed at a relative of the original aggressor.

首先，他们证实，猴子发现自己在被攻击端往往会转身，并采取成为中立方。而报复往往是针对一个相对原始的侵略者。

But how do the monkeys determine who’s kin¹⁰? Well, one way would be that they’ve been around long enough to have watched each other grow up. But that doesn’t seem to be the case. When researchers looked specifically at conflicts involving older monkeys, it didn’t seem that relatives were singled out for revenge.

但猴子如何确定是谁的亲属?好吧，一种方法是他们已经在足够长的时间里看着彼此长大，但情况似乎并非如此。当研究人员特别关注年龄较大的猴子发生冲突时，似乎没有猴子会选择亲戚来报复。

What does seem to be true is that victims will target their attacker’s associates—the other monkeys he hangs around with. If they’re not his relatives, they’re probably his cronies. So, close enough.

似乎真实的是，受攻击者会将目标锁定在攻击者的同伙——其他一起生活的猴子身上。如果他们没有自己的同伙，他们可能是他的亲信。所以，这种关系足够亲近了。

Interestingly, there’s a benefit to hitting family members when you’re meting¹¹ out justice. Macaques that sought out the kin of the monkeys they wanted to settle a score with were less likely to be picked on again in the future. Whereas wailing¹² on the friends appeared to offer only present satisfaction, but no such future protection.Which suggests if you’re gonna beat on someone for payback, it should at least be a monkey’s uncle.

有趣的是，当你申张正义时打击家庭成员往往是有利的。猕猴找到想攻击的的猴子亲信往往不太可能在未来再次被挑选上，反而抱怨同伙似乎只提供了满足感，但并未得到未来的保护，这表明如果你是为了得到回报而攻击猴子时，至少应该选择攻击这只猴子的叔叔。