For us humans, the mirror it is an indispensable item in everyday life, after all, we are all the time looking at our reflection in something. Whether it's time to get ready or comb our hair hair, we look at them all the time, and even when we drive the mirror is there. But, will the animals recognize their own reflection in the mirror?
Animals and self-reflection recognition
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In human rationality, self-awareness is a decisive factor, as it allows us to understand what differentiates us from other people and beings, making us realize that we are unique beings.
Starting from this same thought, the understanding to know if animals are provided with this same gift goes further. Finding out if an animal has the same ability can be of far greater significance.
self-aware animals
In 2006, in the United States, a study was carried out to understand whether animals have the ability to recognize their own reflection. First, three Asian elephants were tested in the experiment. Thus, it was possible to observe that yes, these animals have the ability to recognize their own reflection.
To prove it, the researchers who carried out the experiment marked the elephants with different symbols, to instigate each animal to identify which was its body among the reflections.
The result was encouraging, as the animals recognized their reflexes correctly and fully consciously. In this way, the elephants showed that they understood that the symbols each one had were what identified them.
The researchers said that to do this, elephants need to study their own anatomy. One of the animals brought its trunk to the reflection of its mouth in the mirror, and at another moment it even pulled its ear with its trunk. All movements were done slowly, as if the animal was analyzing its own reactions.
The monkeys
The apes are a species of monkey without a tail, and they were also used for the same experiment. The result of this test was quite interesting, as the researchers noted that only adult monkeys interacted with their reflexes.
In this way, it appeared that the younger monkeys had not fully developed their self-awareness, while the very old, older ones seemed to have lost it.
In addition to monkeys and elephants, apparently dolphins and orcas also have this ability. But the question that remains is: what are the limits of this capacity? Can she go beyond that? So far we have no answer to such questions, so we can only wait for the next discoveries from new studies.
