Comments on: Elephants recognise themselves in mirror

By: Derek James

Derek James — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 14:59:00 +0000

There’s good reason to be very skeptical of these results…namely because as you point out only one subject in one trial actually elicited the target behavior. In the paper the authors point out that Happy did not repeat the behavior in future trials. This could just be a fluke, so I’d take it with a huge grain of salt.
In chimpanzees, the mark test has been demonstrated repeatedly and reliably.

By: shecky

shecky — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 00:45:12 +0000

The magpie inclusion is quite interesting — among birds, “corvids” are known to be among the most intelligent, so I suspect the experience with magpies could be replicated with others in the corvid family. However, most of us have experienced many other songbirds repeatedly attack their own reflections in mirrors or windows, indicating no such self-awareness. It would be fascinating to know if there is some sort of cerebral demarcation between bird families that do and don’t have self-awareness.

By: Vickie

Vickie — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 00:22:04 +0000

I appreciated your final comment as well as the article. My background is in human behavioral health but I have been observing animal and bird behavior for many years, as well. We sometimes fail to take into consideration the culture of the species when we administer “concrete” tests to prove or disprove ability in an animal or a bird. Animals and birds are far more sophisticated in their culture, communication and awareness than current methods of testing.

By: abb3w

abb3w — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 23:15:02 +0000

Hm. How would one make a smell-mirror?
Paging Doctor Farnsworth….

By: Mo

Mo — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 18:49:59 +0000

Dogs tend to fail? Were there dogs which passed?
My dog barked at her mirror image, after a while she looked away and ignored it.
Things like that always give me a happy shiver, thank you.