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A Tiny Fish Just Passed a Classic Self-Awareness Test With a Mirror
Cleaner wrasse giving a puffer fish a makeover (hansgertbroeder/iStock)
NATURE
Even cats and dogs can't do it.
MIKE MCRAE 31 AUG 2018
The small, tropical fish known as a cleaner wrasse has just joined the ranks of various mammals and birds that have passed a classic test for determining self-awareness.
An international team of researchers have found the finger-sized wrasse are capable of recognising their reflection, suggesting some part of their brain must be aware of its own existence. Exactly what does that mean, though?
The mirror self-recognition test (MSR) test dates back to a study conducted on young chimpanzees in the early 1970s by the psychologist Gordon Gallup.
Never having seen a mirror before, the group of adolescent apes initially treated their reflections as a threat. After a small amount of time, their behaviour changed to reflect an awareness that the image was of their own body, as they used their reflections to groom and study themselves.
More:
https://www.sciencealert.com/cleaner-wrasse-passes-mirror-self-recognition-test-self-awareness