First Evidence to Show Elephants Recognize Themselves In The Mirror

[Barrett808]

Elephants have joined a small, elite group of species--including humans, great apes and dolphins--that have the ability to recognize themselves in the mirror, according to a new finding by researchers at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University, and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in New York. This newly found presence of mirror self-recognition in elephants, previously predicted due to their well-known social complexity, 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, including primates such as humans.

This collaborative study by Yerkes researchers Joshua Plotnik and Frans de Waal, PhD, director of Yerkes' Living Links Center, and WCS researcher Diana Reiss, PhD, published in the early online edition of the current issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, was conducted as part of a wide array of cognitive and behavioral evolution research topics at Yerkes' Living Links Center.

"We see highly complex behaviors such as self awareness and self-other distinction in intelligent animals with well established social systems," said 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."

In the study, researchers exposed three female elephants housed at the Bronx Zoo in New York to a jumbo-sized mirror measuring eight feet high by eight feet wide inside the elephants' yard. During the exposure, the elephants tested their mirrored images by making repetitive body movements and using the mirror to inspect themselves, such as by moving their trunks to inspect the insides of their mouths, a part of the body they usually cannot see. Further, the animals did not react socially to their images, as many animals do, and did not seem to mistake their reflection for that of another elephant.

"Elephants have been tested in front of mirrors before, but previous studies used relatively small mirrors kept out of the elephants' reach," said 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."

(more)

http://www.whsc.emory.edu/press_releases2.cfm?announcement_id_seq=8080

[Phredicles]

1. I imagine they'll be pissed off once they find out who's been

using them as their symbol...

[PerceptionManagement]

8. Yes, thinking self-aware and social...the elephants would be ashamed.

[1monster]

18. When they make a keyboard that elephants can use, I'm sure the first

use they make of it will be to file suit against the GOP for using their image without their permission...

[BushOut06]

2. I thought this was going to have something to do with GOPhers

nm

[RaleighNCDUer]

7. Naw. GOP type elephants cannot bear to look at their reflections.

They avoid sunlight, too.

[happydreams]

15. LOL. Good one

[Matilda]

30. They don't have reflections.

[raccoon]

34. But do crucifixes repel them? nt

[krkaufman]

31. Agreed. It sounded like an Onion headline. n/t

[hippiechick]

3. I'm sorry ... I was expecting this to be a joke-post

Really. :rofl:

[BattyDem]

4. Me too!

:rofl:

[woo me with science]

5. Empathy and altruism.

Sigh.

[Beetwasher]

6. So Cool

I really think the definition of a "personhood" goes beyond merely homo sapien.

[SoCalDem]

9. Well then.. they must be killed.. all of them

:sarcasm:

[Gregorian]

13. Damn, we think alike.

The researchers are the last ones to find this stuff out.

I saw a show the other night about the intelligence and power of elephants. And how they only protect the body of a dead human the way they protect their own dead.

The world was an incredible place.

I saw 500 crows once, and I'll never be the same. It was incredible. Why can't everyone else see this stuff and value it? I'm really suffering over the destruction. But that's all another story...

[SoCalDem]

14. Have you seen the documentary about elephants

where two old elephants are reunited and "talk" to each other?
The keepers did not know they knew each other (One had "mothered" the young one when they were in a circus somewhere), and had been separated for decades?

I needed a box of kleenex:cry:

[Gregorian]

21. That's too much.

Hey have you heard, they actually recognize themselves in a fricking mirror.

I think somewhere all of those good things are in a really nice place. Where that feeling of recognition and togetherness they felt is not disrupted.


By the way, I saw your cat picture, and couldn't believe how much it was like my cat. Lookie!

[SoCalDem]

23. Looks like my Marvin

:)
here's his "gallery"

http://socaldem.smugmug.com/gallery/1151446

Our other kitties are at the site too..(and tons of other weirdities)

main link:
http://socaldem.smugmug.com/

[kath]

22. Whoa, I'd like to see that - do you remember the name of the documentary -

Nature, National Geographic, or...?

[SoCalDem]

24. I think it was on PBS or Discovery.

It was about "retired" elephants..

some zoo took a bunch of them in, and they were worried about introducing the "new" one, so they separated her from the others, but she could see and hear them.. One of the others kept coming over to where she was, and they did research and found out their history..

[SoCalDem]

25. oops posted to the wrong one

[kath]

29. Wow.

Thanks for finding that.

[SoCalDem]

28. Found the story on a blog

Monday, May 30, 2005
Elephant Reunion

I am a sucker for a good animal story. This one brought tears to my eyes at work. What a wimp!

Particularly this part:

National Geographic was at the sanctuary to film the arrival of Shirley, a 52-year-old Asian elephant that had been living alone in a Monroe, La., zoo for 22 years.

The TV crew had left for the day when Jenny, a 30-year-old gimpy with arthritis, wandered into the barn from a day outdoors. Seeing Shirley in a barn stall, Jenny began wailing with such passion that Blais grabbed his own video recorder.

"Jenny knew right away who Shirley was and was wailing and screaming," Buckley said. "Shirley wasn't quite sure how to take the attention; then all of a sudden we saw her eyes got big, like there was a jolt of recognition as she remembered who Jenny was."

Buckley knew that in 1976, the two elephants had briefly been owned by the same circus. It turned out Shirley, an adult, had been housed with younger elephants while recovering from a broken leg. Jenny, then 7, was in that group and immediately solicited mothering from Shirley. They were together only a few weeks before each was leased to a different circus.

As the reunited elephants bellowed 23 years later, keepers put them in adjoining stalls. They tenderly entwined their trunks between the bars. The next day, released into the outdoors, they were inseparable. When they weren't using their trunks to caress each other, they were raising them to trumpet their joy.

[Crunchy Frog]

27. I watched that.

Had me crying too.

[Alameda]

10. elephants are cool!

This is really nice to read. Maybe it will help humans gain more empathy for the others in the creation.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

32. The Portland Zoo has summer concerts

on a meadow that is right near the elephant enclosure. Sometimes I could see the elephants swaying in rhythm to the music. :-)

[Haole Girl]

11. Interesting. n/t

[MindPilot]

12. Wow!! And science drives another nail in the coffin of religious dogma.

Anyone who's been around animals knows from experience they have many of the same cognitive processes going on as we humans do.

[Auntie Bush]

17. And they grieve for their dead...just as we do.

They are such smart animals and I hate the thought that they may become extinct in the near future. It also sickens me to think that anyone could kill those majestic animals for their tusks. Sometimes humans make me sick! :puke:

[BreweryYardRat]

19. A lot of people are petty, short-sighted, greedy, and idiotic.

Problem is, you can't go around killing them off. Mainly because killing all such people in the world would be genocide on an exponentially larger scale than the Holocaust.

[ContraBass Black]

20. What has that to do with religious dogma?

[MindPilot]

35. I'm surprised I have to spell it out for you, but....

Most of the major religions teach that humans have a soul and therefore eternal life--or eternal torment depending on whether or not god likes you--but animals do not. That's why humans are better than other life forms and are therefore commanded by god to rule over the earth, use it and destroy it for their own selfish gain.

Over the past few decades, science has shown many times over that idea is wrong.

[Solon]

37. The only religion I can think of that thinks that is Christianity...

Hindus believe in Reincarnation, and therefore that animal you try to dominate may be a deceased relative. In some cases, certain animals are considered sacred to the extent that its a terrible crime or sin to hurt any in the species, rats and cows for example. Buddhism generally considers all life sacred, whether its a worm or a human. In Islam, on the Day of Judgment, how you treated animals in life is also a factor in how you enter paradise, for said animals, if abused, will testify against you on that day. In Judaism, I believe its similar to Christianity, though I believe a provision is put in, where, for an animal to be Kosher to eat, they must be humanely slaughtered, similar to a provision in Islam.

As far as more minor religions, well, it varies, greatly, most Animistic(Shamanistic) religions worship nature, or, at the very least, revere it as an aspect of the Divine. Santeria and others may sacrifice some animals, mostly what we consider food(mostly Chickens), in religious rituals, but this can be considered similar to a Kosher butcher shop as an example. They kill the animals quickly, and later consume them ritually. In Taoism, of course, all life is again sacred, and an aspect of the divine. Many other indigenous religions carry similar beliefs, some even go so far as to say that animals are more divine than humans can ever be.

More recent, neo-pagan and pagan reconstructionist religions hold beliefs that are more similar to Animist or Indigenous religions. Most people in all these religions believe that most animals, even plants, have, if not souls, then spirits that live on beyond death. Some don't really have the same definition of soul as Christians do, hell, in some, even the soul doesn't have to be eternal, it may merge with the Divine in its innumerable forms, or it may simply perish, depends on the religion in question.

Even among many Christians, such a belief as you stated isn't universal, mainly because, to many, no heaven is truly heaven without their pets. Though many take a longer view, as in, Heaven is a reflection of life on Earth, without the suffering or death that plagues the planet, hence, all life is reborn in Heaven.

Actually, this brings up an interesting paradigm, what if Elephants, animals renowned for long memories and even remembering the departed, have a religion of there own, or several religions? I wonder what form their "devil" takes on?

[daleo]

16. "When Elephants Weep"

A fascinating book about animal intelligence and emotions. Highly recommended - not just about elephants.

[Crunchy Frog]

26. They'll all be extinct soon.

That way, we humans won't have to suffer anymore from this effrontery to our self esteem.

[earth mom]

33. What a great story!

I also saw the story on t.v. about Shirley and Jenny.... :cry:

Elephants are wonderful! How the evil GOP become associated with them I have no idea. A snake or a alligator would be more like it. :(

[hunter]

36. Not snake or alligator... how about tapeworm?

Unlike the GOP, snakes and alligators are not parasites.