Welcome to
BBC Xtra English.
Today Doug and Liliane talk about
yawning and dogs.
Yawning is known to be
contagious between humans, but scientists have now found that pets can
catch human yawns too.
Researchers from the University of London have shown that dogs are highly sensitive to humans yawns, and when they see a human yawning they will often yawn back.
In their tests 21 out of 29 dogs yawned in response to a human yawn.
This was surprising because although many different kinds of animals yawn, contagious yawning had previously only observed in humans and chimpanzees.
Dogs have long been known to be skilled at reading human social cues and commands, but scientists now think this research suggests dogs might have a rudimentary capacity for empathy with humans.
Dogs are also thought to yawn at one another as a way of calming down a dangerous or tense situation.
But whatever this research says about communication between humans and dogs, scientists still don't agree on why yawning is contagious amongst humans.
Why do you think people yawn?
لماذا يتثاءب الإنسان برأيك؟ أكتبوا لنا بالإنجليزية
yawning
التثاؤب
contagious
معدي
catch
التقاط العدوى
highly sensitive
شديدة الحساسية
chimpanzees
الشمبانزي
social cues
إشارات التواصل الاجتماعي
commands
أوامر
rudimentary capacity
قدرة طبيعية
empathy
تعاطف
calming down
تهدئة
tense
متوتر
قد نضطر لاختصار مساهماتكم، ونعتذر عن عدم تمكننا من نشر كل ما يصلنا من آراء.
تعليقاتكم يمكن ان تنشر في اي من وسائل الاعلام التابعة للبي بي سي في مختلف انحاء العالم.