Dieser Beitrag ist auch verfügbar auf:
Deutsch
The mirror test proved the intelligence of dolphins
To find out whether dolphins have their own consciousness, researchers did the mirror test. To do this, they stuck a mirror film in front of the window of a dolphin tank and provided the dolphins with color dots. The reaction of the animals: They posed in front of the mirror, observed themselves and their actions and tried to see their color points.
In a second experiment, the scientists installed a camera with a monitor directly in front of the window of the pool. The monitor showed every movement of the animals, as a mirror, so to speak. Again the dolphins posed, held a fish in their mouths and waved with it. This is very similar to the behavior of humans. We also often wave when we recognize ourselves in a monitor in the shopping center, for example.
How do we prove that animals recognize themselves in the mirror?
In order to find out whether the test group had really recognized itself in the mirror or reacted in the same way at the sight of other dolphins, the animals were shown video sequences of other dolphins. The result: The dolphins, which reacted vividly to their own reflections, moved their heads and opened their mouths, were bored by the images of their foreign conspecifics.
They only watched briefly and then swam away. The dolphins have thus passed the mirror test and shown that they have self-awareness. The animals are aware of who they are, what social position they have and they can recognize other bottlenose dolphins . For a long time, animal researchers believed that only primates possess the ability to know themselves.
However, the experiment made it clear that mammalian groups whose brain development was very different from that of the great apes also have their own consciousness. In addition to chimpanzees or orangutans, magpies, elephants and pigs, among others, passed the mirror test. By the way: Toddlers only recognize themselves in the mirror from about 18 months.
