Elephants Join Cognitive Elite

New experiments have revealed that elephants can recognize
themselves in a mirror, an important indicator of self-recognition
that places them in an elite group that includes humans, dolphins and
great apes. Mirror self-recognition is thought to relate to
empathetic tendencies and the ability to distinguish oneself from
others, a characteristic that evolved independently in several
branches of animals.

In the study, researchers from Emory University and the Wildlife
Conservation Society exposed three female elephants housed at the
Bronx Zoo, New York to a, er, jumbo-sized mirror measuring eight feet
square inside the elephants' enclosure. The elephants quickly began
testing their mirrored images by making repetitive body movements and
using the mirror to inspect themselves, such as the insides of their
mouths, a part of the body they usually can't see. Tellingly, the
animals did not react socially to their images, as many other animals
do, and did not seem to mistake their reflection for that of another
elephant.

Mirror self-recognition has long been suspected in elephants because
of the creature's well-known social complexity but past experiments
were inconclusive. "Elephants have been tested in front of mirrors
before, but previous studies used relatively small mirrors kept out
of the elephants' reach," said researcher Joshua Plotnik. "This study
is the first to test the animals in front of a huge mirror they could
touch, rub against and try to look behind."

"We see highly complex behaviors such as self awareness and self-
other distinction in intelligent animals with well established social
systems," continued Plotnik. "The social complexity of the elephant,
its well-known altruistic behavior and, of course, its huge brain,
made the elephant a logical candidate species for testing in front of
a mirror."

Interestingly, one elephant also passed a standard test known as the
mark test. Each elephant was marked with visible paint on its
forehead (a place it could not see without a mirror) and also
received a sham mark of colorless face paint. The sham mark
controlled for tactile and odor cues to ensure touching the visible
mark was due to seeing its reflection and not to the feel or smell of
the paint. This test produced the same results as when great apes and
human children are presented with the mark test.

The researchers speculate that humans, great apes, dolphins and
elephants possess well developed forms of empathy and altruism;
necessary prerequisites for passing the mirror self-recognition
test. "The elephant now joins a cognitive elite among animals
commensurate with its well-known complex social life and high level
of intelligence," said researcher Frans de Waal. "Although elephants
are far more distantly related to us than the great apes, they seem
to have evolved similar social and cognitive capacities making
complex social systems and intelligence part of this picture. These
parallels between humans and elephants suggest a convergent cognitive
evolution possibly related to complex sociality and cooperation."


Source: Emory University Health Sciences Center

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