Oct. 30, 2006 — When presented with a jumbo-sized mirror, elephants recognized their reflections and even took the opportunity to investigate the inside of their mouths and ears, according to a paper published in the current Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Such self-awareness is rare. Scientists previously believed only humans, apes and dolphins possessed self-recognition skills.
All of these animals are highly intelligent and seem to feel empathy, a quality that likely is linked to self-awareness.
"What they have in common is complex sociality that includes high levels of cooperation, altruism and large brains," coauthor Frans de Waal told Discovery News. De Waal is a psychology professor at Emory University in Atlanta and director of Living Links at the university's Yerkes Primate Center.
He added, "In literature about human children, there is speculation as to how increased self-awareness makes it possible to set the self apart from others, which in turn permits the self to take the other’s perspective — a prerequisite for complex forms of empathy."
For the study, de Waal and colleagues Diana Reiss and Joshua Plotnik introduced three adult female Asian elephants — Happy, Patty and Maxine — to a large mirror placed in their exhibit at the Bronx Zoo in New York City.
According to the paper, animals typically have a social response toward the reflection they see in the mirror. They then try to inspect the mirror, for instance by looking behind it. Most animals, such as parrots, dogs and cats, show these behaviors.
The three elephants, however, had different reactions to their reflections. Each elephant played a sort of peek-a-boo by swaying their heads, trunks and bodies in and out of mirror view. They even brought food in front of the mirror and watched themselves eat.
