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Case Reports
. 2006 Nov 7;103(45):17053-7.
doi: 10.1073/pnas.0608062103. Epub 2006 Oct 30.

Self-recognition in an Asian elephant

Joshua M Plotnik  1 , Frans B M de Waal, Diana Reiss
Affiliations
Case Reports

Self-recognition in an Asian elephant

Joshua M Plotnik et al. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. .

Abstract

Considered an indicator of self-awareness, mirror self-recognition (MSR) has long seemed limited to humans and apes. In both phylogeny and human ontogeny, MSR is thought to correlate with higher forms of empathy and altruistic behavior. Apart from humans and apes, dolphins and elephants are also known for such capacities. After the recent discovery of MSR in dolphins (Tursiops truncatus), elephants thus were the next logical candidate species. We exposed three Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) to a large mirror to investigate their responses. Animals that possess MSR typically progress through four stages of behavior when facing a mirror: (i) social responses, (ii) physical inspection (e.g., looking behind the mirror), (iii) repetitive mirror-testing behavior, and (iv) realization of seeing themselves. Visible marks and invisible sham-marks were applied to the elephants' heads to test whether they would pass the litmus "mark test" for MSR in which an individual spontaneously uses a mirror to touch an otherwise imperceptible mark on its own body. Here, we report a successful MSR elephant study and report striking parallels in the progression of responses to mirrors among apes, dolphins, and elephants. These parallels suggest convergent cognitive evolution most likely related to complex sociality and cooperation.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
Elephant yard with open mirror. A drawing of a typical open-mirror session (drawing by F. Plotnik from a still taken from the rooftop camera). One elephant stands at the mirror, while another stands off to the side. The elephant yard in which the mirror was installed is not visible to the public.
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.
Mark and mark-touching. (A) Happy with a visual X-shaped mark on her head, (B) Happy at the mirror touching the mark with the tip of her trunk. This still image was captured from a video camera embedded in the mirror. The locations of the mark and the sham-mark were counterbalanced on the left and right side of the elephant's head on consecutive mark days. Also see Movies 1–3.
Fig. 3.
Fig. 3.
Rate of head touching by Happy across four conditions. For mark tests and open-mirror tests, the black bars show the rate per minute of self-touching by Happy while at the mirror or within 90 seconds of having stepped away from the mirror. Gray bars show the rate of touching before mirror exposure or >90 seconds after having left the mirror location. For comparison, the self-touching rate during covered mirror and baseline is provided (“no mirror”), which is the combined data for the mirror-closed (T2) and mirror-absent (T1) conditions.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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