I control therefore I am: chimps self-aware, says study

[Judi Lynn]

I control therefore I am: chimps self-aware, says study
by Laurent Banguet and Marlowe Hood Laurent Banguet And Marlowe Hood – Tue May 3, 9:10 pm ET

PARIS (AFP) – Chimpanzees are self-aware and can anticipate the impact of their actions on the environment around them, an ability once thought to be uniquely human, according to a study released Wednesday.

The findings, reported in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, challenge assumptions about the boundary between human and non-human, and shed light on the evolutionary origins of consciousness, the researchers said.

Earlier research had demonstrated the capacity of several species of primates, as well as dolphins, to recognize themselves in a mirror, suggesting a fairly sophisticated sense of self.

The most common experiment consisted of marking an animal with paint in a place -- such as the face -- that it could only perceive while looking at its reflection.

More:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110504/sc_afp/scienceneurosciencecognitionchimpanzees_20110504011048

[Warpy]

1. Oh, shoot, so does my cat

and she's got a brain the size of a walnut.

It's fun to introduce kittens to a mirror but it generally doesn't take them long to recognize themselves in it.

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. The conures do all the time

hell one of them likes to hang around the mirror, the other don't.

Those of us who have been around animals and try to actually develop somewhat of a relationship know that this boundary exists only in the imagination of people who really cannot see what is in front of them... DAMN ARISTOTLE by the way.

[provis99]

3. big deal; parrots do this too.

I could have saved them thousands in research dollars if they just asked me about Buck, the Wal Mart parrot.

[JDPriestly]

4. So are the squirrels in my yard.

We have avocado trees. The squirrels bring walnuts into my yard and plant them everywhere, in my pots, in the earth, everywhere. Now that is what we think of as instinct.

But here is the strange part, the squirrels love the avocados. So do we. And when I see a squirrel with an avocado, it knows I am unhappy. (I have been known to demonstrate my anger at a squirrel with my mighty garden hose.) So, if a squirrel is in one of my trees gnawing on a nut of some kind, it will turn toward me and show me that it is merely gnawing on a nut.

If the squirrel is gnawing on an avocado, it gets on a high branch where I would have trouble reaching it and kind of looks away from me as if I won't notice.

The squirrel has often watched me pick up the avocados that it has knocked down. And occasionally, it leaves an avocado right on the path that it has watched me take to go into my house -- quite prominently placed.

Interestingly, the squirrel's behavior changed after I changed my attitude toward it. When I first realized that the squirrels were eating so many of our avocados, I was really angry. Then I realized that the squirrels were actually helping me -- by causing the avocados high up in the tree to fall down so that I could collect them. So, I decided to treat them as my employees due a share of the avocados in exchange for bringing down the avocados.

Of course, I have to cut out parts of the avocados where there teeth or claws have caused damage, but the avocados are big enough that there is plenty of fruit for us. My squirrels do control their behavior. Yes. It is instinctive, but I firmly believe that they are aware of a themselves and of some sort of relationship with me.

But this is not the first time that I have had a sense that an animal that was not my pet -- not dependent on me for food and shelter and positive feedback -- was self-aware.

[Nihil]

5. Lovely post!

Thanks for that - a moment of peaceful joy amongst all of the anger & sadness
to be read today.

:toast: