A neat idea. Two guys wanted to see how wild animals in a forest in Gabon, in Africa, would react to seeing themselves in a mirror. And they caught the attention of a young male panther.
I love that the panther went behind the mirror, then on top of it, trying to find the other panther (its reflection). My dog did something similar when she first saw other animals on my TV.
John Aravosis @aravosis | Facebook | Google+. Editor of AMERICAblog, joint JD/MSFS from Georgetown, worked in the US Senate, World Bank, Children's Defense Fund, and as a stringer for the Economist. A frequent TV pundit, he has been on The O'Reilly Factor, Hardball, World News Tonight, Nightline & Reliable Sources. Full bio and article archive.
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I’ve seen elephants do the same thing. On the news a number of years ago. Only they didn’t stand on top of the mirror. :)
Guest
I don’t know why, but this video reminds me of the old Lucille Ball-Harpo Marx skit on I Love Lucy.
Zorba
Well, that was me commenting. Don’t know why I popped us as “Guest.”
Naja pallida
You’re just being sneaky.
Zorba
LOL! I think it’s Disqus being sneaky. ;-)
http://AMERICAblog.com/ John Aravosis
Disqus alerted me they were having some issues today, so that may be why. You are always a welcome guest :)
Zorba
Thanks, John. Yeah, Disqus has issues sometimes, but I comment on a lot of other blogs that use different commenting systems, and they all have their various problems. None of them are perfect.
Personally, I think it’s the space aliens trying to mess with our minds. ;-)
perljammer
There has been quite a lot of scientific research into animal self-awareness. Gordon Gallup Jr. (psychologist) developed the “mirror test” as a means to determine whether an animal was capable of recognizing its mirror image as an image of itself (as opposed to recognizing it as an animal or as just a shape). The only animals that pass the mirror test are all of the great apes, the bottlenose dolphin, the orca, the elephant, and the European magpie. Some lower level of self-awareness has been observed in some of the lesser primates, pigs, corvids, and pigeons. Despite their keepers’ understandable feelings to the contrary, dogs and cats do not pass the mirror test.
Wow is that cool, thank you! Will likely post that with some recent pics from the zoo.
tballou
Leopards, not panthers
Naja pallida
The word panther technically describes all big cats of the genus Panthera… but it is generally used to describe different species in different localities. In Gabon, if you talked about a panther, they’d think you meant the leopard. Like if you talked about one in the US, people generally assume you mean the cougar. In much of South America, the jaguar. Just one of the many problems with using common names, instead of proper taxonomic names.
http://AMERICAblog.com/ John Aravosis
Ok that explains it.
http://AMERICAblog.com/ John Aravosis
I was translating from French, they use the term “panther.”
hauksdottir
My cat knew the reflection was her… perhaps because I was holding her up to the mirror, and she could look at me and at my reflection to make the mental leap.
Skrogg was quite smart. She knew the doorknob controlled the door and the lightswitch controlled the light and the faucet controlled the water. When it was raining outside, she’d keep looking at me as though there was a toggle for the rain somewhere and I just wasn’t using it.
I still miss her.
http://AMERICAblog.com/ John Aravosis
Now you know why your long-distance bill was so high :)
mirror
I’ve never had a house cat that could “see” a reflection of itself or another cat in the mirror as a live animal. The just haven’t reacted to the reflection as being anything at all.
rmthunter
Odd — mine always reacted pretty much the way these panthers did — I think the fact that there’s no scent throws them. Eventually, they decide it’s nothing to concern themselves with.
Oh, and John — my cat kept trying to catch the astronauts when we were watching the first moon walk — and would run behind the TV to see if she could get them from there.
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