Cognitive Elite

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."