对镜搔首弄姿  大象智商超出想象

U.S. scientists have found that elephants, along with people, great apes* and dolphins*, are part of an elite* group of species* that are able to recognize their own image in the mirror.

Scientists had expected that elephants, living in social groups, should be able to recognize themselves in a mirror but several old tests using small mirrors that the elephants couldn’t reach had been unconvincing*.

In a Bronx Zoo study, scientists used a mirror that elephants could “touch, and try to look behind,” said Joshua Plotnik, a scientist at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center at Emory University in Atlanta and lead author of a report on the tests published online on Monday.

While the mirror was in the elephant yard*, all three elephants tested the mirrored images by making body movements and using the mirror to watch themselves, such as moving their trunks to look inside their mouths, a part of the body they usually can’t see.

The elephants didn’t react socially to their own image or mistake it for another elephant, as many animals do when they see their reflection.

“The living habits of the elephant, and, of course, its huge brain, made the elephant an candidate* species for testing in front of a mirror,” said Plotnik, who worked on the study.(SD-Agencies)

U.S. scientists have found that elephants, along with people, great apes* and dolphins*, are part of an elite* group of species* that are able to recognize their own image in the mirror.

Scientists had expected that elephants, living in social groups, should be able to recognize themselves in a mirror but several old tests using small mirrors that the elephants couldn’t reach had been unconvincing*.

In a Bronx Zoo study, scientists used a mirror that elephants could “touch, and try to look behind,” said Joshua Plotnik, a scientist at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center at Emory University in Atlanta and lead author of a report on the tests published online on Monday.

While the mirror was in the elephant yard*, all three elephants tested the mirrored images by making body movements and using the mirror to watch themselves, such as moving their trunks to look inside their mouths, a part of the body they usually can’t see.

The elephants didn’t react socially to their own image or mistake it for another elephant, as many animals do when they see their reflection.

“The living habits of the elephant, and, of course, its huge brain, made the elephant an candidate* species for testing in front of a mirror,” said Plotnik, who worked on the study.(SD-Agencies)