Magpies are no bird-brains, mirror test shows

Yahoo News ^ | 8/19/2008 | Ben Hirschler

[Red in Blue PA]

LONDON (Reuters) - Magpies can recognize themselves in a mirror, highlighting the mental skills of some birds and confounding the notion that self-awareness is the exclusive preserve of humans and a few higher mammals.

It had been thought only chimpanzees, dolphins and elephants shared the human ability to recognize their own bodies in a mirror.

But German scientists reported on Tuesday that magpies -- a species with a brain structure very different from mammals -- could also identify themselves.

"It shows that the line leading to humans is not as special as many thought," lead researcher Helmut Prior of the Institute of Psychology at Goethe University in Frankfurt told Reuters.

[Red in Blue PA]

It is just like man's vanity and impertinence to call an animal dumb because it is dumb to his dull perceptions. ~Mark Twain

[ari-freedom]

convergence strikes again!

[NavVet]

This test is bogus. I’ve seen dogs initally bark at a reflection, but after a brief investigation of said mirror, they never react to it again.

[Rudder]

Chickens can do this also.

[wireman]

Heckle and Jeckle seemed pretty smart to me!

[Nipfan]

That makes them smart, not dumb. Why should they bark at themself?

I’ve also read articles about Magpies rolling thick skinned nuts onto the road, waiting for a car to drive over them and then retrieving it to eat the flesh.

[astyanax]

When they pass the "window test" (i.e. don't fly into them) I may be a bit less skeptical... (not that I've ever walked into a closed screen door, mind you!)

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

H&J battle arab terrorist
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=RzTwTmNUUAA

[weegee]

Wonder to what actions they extend this concept of “self-awareness”? Guilt/shame over past behavior? Animals know when they’ve done something wrong (in some cicumstances).

Animal self-awareness to be “proud” about being a...?

Self-awareness to not just be operating on “instinct”?

psychobabble.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/self-awareness

[NavVet]

I agree, I was just pointing out that other animals recognize their reflection as well as magpies. Seagulls and Ravens will drop shellfish and crabs onto asphalt to crack open the shells.

And I’ve heard tales of Democrats able to open a jar, given enough time, to get at peanut butter inside.

I did see a show where an octopus figured out how to open a jar with a crab inside.

[wireman]

Excellent!

[Scythian]

A great book for kids too, Crows are very smart too by the way (and very much like a magpie)

[Lizavetta]

[MissCalico]

The key to the article is the test they use for self-awareness...

"Prior and his colleagues tested their magpies by marking the birds' bodies with a red or yellow dot that could only be seen in a mirror. They found the birds regularly scratched the mark on their body, proving they recognized the image in the mirror as themselves and not another animal. To ensure they were actually seeing and reacting to the mark, and not just investigating what had been done to them, a "sham" black mark was used as a control that was invisible on the birds' dark feathers."

The only other animals to pass this test were chimpanzees, dolphins and elephants. From watching my dogs, cats and parakeets over the years I've observed some kind of recognition that the images in the mirror or the TV are not *real*, probably because they can't smell them and they're two dimensional, but not self-recognition. The parakeet will talk to a mirror in it's cage and the male cardinal will attack it's own image thinking it's a rival.