Natural History

Posted in animal behavior | 11 Comments

11 Responses

1. on April 14, 2013 at 12:26 am chervilmeadow34

   I wish it were so, but I believe they think they see an other cat. I could be mistaken on that.

   
   
2. on April 14, 2013 at 6:45 am Kali

   They would have to make a kind of mark test, that would show if the cat recognized itself or thinks to see another cat.

   
   
3. on April 14, 2013 at 9:57 am peg4x4

   I think it sees another cat.
   Note the bottle-brush tail and the display of claws.
   My 2 cats see a cat outside and turn on each other.. They’re not smart that way,but they tried their best to fix me after my surgeries and when I was hit by an SUV,so they’ve earned their place in my house.

   
   
4. on April 14, 2013 at 10:26 am Adam

   That’s probably more redirected aggression, e;g they wanna fight the other cat but can’t because the window is closed.You see this a lot with dogs who will turn on each other or the handler when restrained in some way near an animal they want to engage with.

   Re self aware, a lot of animals work more by scent than vision. Wouldn’t it be better to test self awareness like that than by vision?

   Adam

   
   
5. on April 15, 2013 at 7:44 pm Jen Robinson

   Even if it does recognize itself in the mirror, so what? If that’s self awareness, it’s a trivial form.

   
   
   • on April 16, 2013 at 7:53 am bearcoatpei

     I’m not that convinced that complex self awareness as we see it and dwell on is that big an evolutionary advantage for most animals. Even for mammals right at the top of the food chain. Not that they don’t have complex emotions, relationships etc… But our level of self awareness is as much of a cruel trick we torture ourselves with as it is an advantage.

     
     
6. on April 16, 2013 at 7:43 am bearcoatpei

   I’m pretty sure that cats do not know it’s a reflection when they see themselves in a mirror. That one definitely sees it as another cat as it’s in the first stages of fight or flight mode.

   I’m not as convinced that some dogs don’t make the connection. My first dog used to look mildly surprised for a split second then doggy smile at her reflection if she caught herself in a window outside. She used to look in the bedroom’s mirrored wardrobe quite often and I swear she was checking herself out rather than thinking it was another dog. She’d look at either side of her face, then straight on with a big smile like she was thinking “looking good!” The Tibetan Mastiff saw himself as a puppy and the first thing he did was look behind the mirror (he did the same with the TV too). After that he’s not been that interested in either at home. Once when we were out he spotted himself and was fascinated, then he saw my reflection, slowly turned round to look at me, then looked back at both mine and his reflections. The most interesting thing with both dogs is they would look at my reflection in the eye, knowing I was standing behind them, so something was going on in their heads. All my other dogs couldn’t give a stuff about reflections. I don’t think it was any measure of their intelligence or self awareness as the two above dogs couldn’t have been more different in psyche with one a herding x gundog and the other a primitive LGD.

   I’m not that convinced that recognizing their own reflection is that relevant as far as a dog’s sense of self awareness goes. Their eyesight is not as attuned to fine detail as ours is and they rely on their senses of smell and hearing more than we do. Also they are used to trusting humans – sticking a dot on their head might be no different to them than wearing a collar or being told to sit stay. So how can a human accurately measure another species sense of self when all the test are attuned to our sense? Most dogs see their reflection at some point and realize it’s not relevant to anything then mostly ignore it.

   
   
   • on April 16, 2013 at 8:38 pm massugu

     Seems to depend on the dog. My first Saint, Toby, could definitely recognize 2-dimensional images like those on TV, although she generally preferred to watch the fish tank than the dreck on TV.

     
     
     • on April 17, 2013 at 9:43 am bearcoatpei

       Two of my shar-pei who didn’t care about mirrors loved watching the telly when wildlife and pets were on. I have a photo somewhere of my horsecoat watching Crufts. I read somewhere that dogs can see the images on LCD TVs much better than on the old CRT type, but I’ve had dogs that watch both. Sometimes they will react to noise, but often they will recognize animals with narration over the top of any telltale sound. When I used to have an aquarium, I was with Toby and preferred watching it to TV as well, but it was only the cat that used to watch the fish rather than the aforementioned dog who used to smile at herself in the mirror.

       
       
7. on April 17, 2013 at 1:12 am Pai

   Cats are narcissists, so of course they’re self-aware. ;)

   
   
8. on May 9, 2013 at 12:17 pm betelgeuse

   On the whole I don’t think cats are particularly self-aware, on the other hand, one of my current cats makes me wonder sometimes. He’s a problem solver, and he’s smart. He’s also utterly unafraid of pretty much anything (and immediately assumes that if you are a human you want to be pestered). He ignores mirror-cat, where my other cat I think, obviously sees a strange cat in the mirror. So, I’m not really sure if he’s self-aware in the human sense, but he does know what he wants and can manipulate people to get it. (Like if he wants to play with us, he will gently scratch our legs until we get up, and then run into the other room and lay down by his cat dancer.)

   I have known and/or owned lots of cats, and he is the only one that has made me wonder.

   
   

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