Humans can recognize their own face in the mirror, and so can apes, monkeys, dolphins, elephants, and some birds. Now a fish species has passed the mirror test for the first time, which may suggest that the animals are smarter than we give them credit for.
It might not seem like a big deal, but the ability to recognize that the face in the mirror is your own makes us part of a pretty exclusive club in the animal kingdom. Humans obviously can do it (from about 15 months of age), and so can apes, monkeys, dolphins, elephants, and some birds. Now a fish species has passed the mirror test for the first time, which may suggest that the animals are smarter than we give them credit for. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute, the University of Konstanz and Osaka City University conducted the experiment with a species called the cleaner wrasse. The team put a colored mark on each fish in a place that can only be seen in reflection, then held up a mirror. The idea was to check whether the fish could tell they were looking at themselves and would try to clean the mark off. Since these fish are naturally in the habit of cleaning parasites off other fish, they’re fairly well-adapted to spotting marks like these. Sure enough, after seeing their reflection the fish rubbed themselves on hard surfaces, trying to clean the marks away. That suggests that the creature understood that the reflected image was itself and not a neighboring fish – an ability that was long thought to be beyond their capabilities.
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