When I was researching elephants, I found out that elephants are animals that can recognize themselves in mirrors. Since there are no mirrors in the natural world, I wondered if they would never see their own reflection in their lives, but I also wondered if they even needed to recognize themselves in the first place. What is the purpose of the concept of one’s own reflection, and what does it mean to recognize oneself? It’s a mystery to me.
Visual self-awareness
The mirror test, which asks whether you can recognize yourself in the mirror, can help you assess your visual self-recognition. You are asked to put a mark on yourself while you sleep, and the test is based on whether you can find the mark on your body in the mirror.
Among the great apes, chimpanzees, bonobos, and orangutans have been confirmed to have self-recognition, while gorillas are gray. Others include Asian elephants, dolphins, killer whales, the only bird species known to be magpies, and the only fish species known to be gray cleaner wrasses. Surprisingly, dogs, cats, pandas, and hamsters are gray. Where did the ability to recognize images in a mirror come from, when there are no mirrors in nature?
Olfactory self-recognition
In tests to see whether they could distinguish their own smell from that of others based on urine, feces, body odor, etc., dogs, hyenas, and horses were shown to be able to distinguish between them. To be precise, this seems to be a distinction between the memory of their own smell and the smell of others, but for territorial creatures, distinguishing between themselves and others, or between their own group and other groups, may be a specialty.
Body-Based Self-Awareness
In a test in which an elephant is asked to pull a mat tied to its body, but is unable to move if the elephant is standing on it, and is asked whether the elephant can recognize that its body is an obstacle, it has been confirmed that the success rate is over 90%. It seems that elephants have a high ability to recognize things. I wonder what the results would be for other creatures.
temporal self-awareness
There is also another viewpoint called temporal self-awareness, which is whether you can recognize your past, present, and future self. Perhaps it involves playing a video of the past and checking the reaction. There is also something called temporal continuity, which is the awareness that one’s existence exists continuously, but this also seems to be a special kind of awareness.
Self-awareness is amazing
Self-awareness using sight, smell, and the body, and self-awareness that includes time distance, seems to be highly difficult, so self-awareness may be something special. For many living things, self-awareness may not be necessary, and for plants that prioritize the survival of their species or that genetically increase the number of organisms that are the same as themselves, the concept of self may not be necessary. Self-awareness is a mysterious thing. Self-awareness is an amazing cognition. The perception of living things on Earth is amazing.
