A team of German neuroscientists and psychologists from the Universities of Bonn and Bochum found evidence that roosters can recognize themselves in the mirror. The study was published in the scientific journal magazine PLOS One.
Very few animal species are capable of self-recognition. Among them are magpies, some monkeys, elephants and dolphins. Many fauna species mistake their mirror image as representative of the same species.
The experiments involved placing a rooster in a small arena divided in half by wire fencing. For some tests, another rooster was placed on the other side of the grid, for others it was left empty. For some tests, a mirror was attached to the web, preventing the rooster from seeing if there was a second rooster on the other side. In some cases, they also added threat by projecting the silhouette of a hawk onto the ceiling, as roosters tend to warn their mates of danger by crowing.
Observations of the behavior of roosters showed that birds crow much more often when they see the shadow of a predator, when they know that other roosters are nearby. However, in the presence of a mirror, the roosters remained mostly silent, indicating that the roosters recognized their appearance and therefore did not raise the alarm.
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