Archives - Consciousness: Page 10
Author: Thrty2Mars (Mon Nov 06, 2006 1:09 pm)
Title: Self-Awareness
Researchers at the Bronx Zoo in New York reported evidence of self awareness of one of the elephants being studied there. The elephant, known as Happy, exhibited behavior consistent with self awareness when an 8x8 mirror was placed in front of him. However, two other elephants at the zoo did not replicate similar behavior during the experiment.
The lead researcher, who proved that bottlenose dolphins are capable of self awareness in 2001, had one 'X' painted on Happy's head and another 'X' painted in a dye that is only visible under black light, but emits an identical odor. Happy touched at the mark on his head several times when placed in front of the mirror. Also, he did not display any behavioral actions that an elephant would normally show when viewing another elephant. This is further proof that Happy was aware that the reflection was not another elephant at all, but an image of himself. Scientists all agree, more experiments need to be conducted to conclusively prove that elephants and dolphins are indeed capable of self-awareness, but these findings are a good indicator. All science revolves around replication of findings and coming to the same conclusion. Because the other two elephants at the Bronx Zoo did not react by touching the 'X', it is unclear whether they were self-aware. It is possible that they simply had no desire to touch the 'X', although they knew it was there. We won't know until additional experiments are conducted on the subject. Some have postulated that not only mammals are capable of self awareness. We could see evidence of several bird species such as crows and parrots that exhibit the same behavior in future studies.