Monday, Oct. 30, 2006Is My Trunk Too Big?
JOCHEN LUEBKE / AFP / GETTY
A six week old African elephant
Most animals can't recognize themselves in a mirror; if they notice anything at all, they generally think it's another member of their species and might try to interact with it socially. Humans are different, of course; we know it's us in the looking glass, not another person. So do the great apes—chimps, gorillas and orangutans—and bottlenose dolphins.
And so, report animal behavior experts in the current Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, do elephants. Scientists at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center at Emory University exposed elephants at New York's Bronx Zoo to 8'x8' mirrors—bigger than in previous experiments—and the pachyderms responded with behavior of self-awareness, including touching marks painted on their foreheads that would otherwise be invisible, and examining their own mouths. It makes sense, say the scientists, that elephants would share this high level of self-awareness with other creatures that have complex social organization and a capacity for empathy—qualities elephants clearly have as well.
—M.L.
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