Trending Science: World’s smallest bears can mimic faces like humans

Sun bears the smallest of eight bear species live a solitary life in the forests of south-east Asia. They have no evolutionary link to humans either. It’s these two pieces of information that make the findings published in the journal ‘Scientific Reports’ that much more surprising.

Research shows that sun bears can now join humans and gorillas as the only mammals able to express their emotions. “It seems that some forms of communication are much more widely shared amongst mammalian species than we previously thought” lead author Derry Taylor a comparative psychology PhD student at the University of Portsmouth in England told ‘Reuters’.

Sun bear see, sun bear do

For over 2 years, researchers observed the behaviour and interactions of 22 sun bears at a rehabilitation centre in Malaysia. Hours of film footage showed that they used facial expressions to communicate, much in the same way humans and apes use facial expressions. During these spontaneous social play sessions, the bears copied one another’s expressions most when they were playing gently. They exactly mimicked facial expressions they saw other bears make during social play. The bears very accurately copied not only the type of expression but also specific muscular movements such as raising their noses and wrinkling the bridge of their muzzles.

What messages were the bears conveying to one another? The mimicking could be to help two bears signal that they’re ready to play more roughly, or to strengthen social bonds.

Quoted in ‘Newsweek’ Taylor said: “Humans show complex patterns of facial mimicry—routinely mimicking not only the facial expressions of others but precisely mimicking subtle muscular movements also. It is widely believed that we only find complex communication in species with complex social systems.”

Do more animals possess subtle forms of communication?

He continued: “Our recent finding of complex facial mimicry in sun bears tells us that there is a little more to this story. Sun bear facial mimicry outstrips facial mimicry shown by more social species with regard to precision, yet sun bears live largely solitary lives in the wild. This raises the possibility that sophisticated facial communication might be a trait widely shared among mammals.”

“We found that exact facial mimicry was much more common in gentle play compared to rough play, and we know that gentle play often builds up into rough play,” he added. “In other species, when play behavior is not accompanied by play signaling, play often escalates into aggression.”

Taylor explained how the study could contribute to a broader understanding of animal communication. “One possibility raised by the study is that sophisticated forms of communication might be more widely shared among mammalian species than previously thought, which indicates the widely held belief that complex communication is only present in species with complex social systems is not quite the whole story.

“Alternatively, it could be that there are deeper complexities in the communication systems of more social species that are yet to be discovered.”