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Young World
Mirror, mirror, on the wall
PHOTO: AFP
SELF AWARENESS: Elephants too have it.
Elephants can recognise themselves in mirrors, according to a new study. Humans, great apes, and dolphins are the only other animals known to possess this form of self-awareness. All of these animals also lead socially complex lives and display empathy, concern and understanding of another's feelings, researchers report. "There seems to be some correlation between an ability to recognise oneself in a mirror and higher forms of social complexity," said Joshua Plotnik, a graduate student in psychology at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. To assess the elephants' self-awareness, Plotnik and his colleagues tested three adult female Asian elephants in front of a mirror. All three pachyderms sized up their mirror images by inspecting behind the mirror, rubbing their trunks the length of the mirror, or probing their mouths with their trunks to see if their reflections did the same. One elephant named Happy also passed the so-called mark test, repeatedly touching her trunk to a white X painted on her forehead that was only visible in the mirror. The researchers say this is firm evidence of mirror self-recognition.
COMPLIED BY ROHINI RAMAKRISHNAN
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