Only an elite group of animals have passed the much - debated “ mirror test ” , where an individual recognizes themself in a reflection : chimps , bonobos , orangutan , bottlenose mahimahi , orcas , Eurasiatic magpies , Asian elephants , and apparently some human too . However , as shown by the bird that was photographedstaring at its own reflectionfor days last calendar month , the mirror exam is n’t foolproof .
A new study by the University of Cambridge has employed another challenge to try out the existential awareness of Asian elephant through a “ body awareness ” test . Although a child unseasoned than two years former can not go by a similar test , Asian elephants can complete the task like a walkway in the park – further grounds of the intelligence information of these gentle giants . The squad ’s enquiry was put out yesterday inScientific Reports .
The trial simply postulate a reefer attached to a rubber mat by a rope . All the elephant has to do is pass the stick to their human similitude . However , they quickly realize that if they stand on the mat , they are ineffective to pass the stick . So to complete the passing task , they have the self - cognisance to ill-use off the flatness while still holding onto the joystick . you could check out the video below .
During this experimentation , the elephants worked out they needed to step off the mat an norm of 42 out of 48 times .
“ This is a deceptively simple test , but its implication are quite profound , ” Dr Josh Plotnik , a visiting research worker at the University of Cambridge and founder of preservation charityThink Elephants International , enjoin in astatement . “This implies that elephants may be able of recognizing themselves as freestanding from object or their environment . This means that they may have a level of self - understanding , coupled with their passing of the mirror tryout , which is quite rare in the creature kingdom . ”
“ In a similar trial , this is something that young children are ineffective to infer until they are about two class old . ”
Previous study gave two - class - sometime kids a streetcar attached to a matt with a piece of bowed stringed instrument and asked them to try and promote it . In an indistinguishable fashion to this elephant test , the child could not push the trolley if they were standing on the mat . However , humans younger than two were unable to realize this .
While challenging , there are limit to this bailiwick . " We can not rule out the possibility that they may have removed their weight or reposition their organic structure off the mat in gild to win better position for motivate the stick , " write the authors . " Unlike in the studies with human children , we were unable to perform a control condition in which a heavy weight was put on the mat or else of the field ’s body , nor were we able to do a ascendance in which the stick was weighted by a laborious object independent of the mat . "
Still , Dr Plotnik argue that such cogitation are crucial for world to appreciate this specie , as well as more accurately understand their conduct for conservation purposes .
