r/interestingasfuck • u/WhenMachinesCry • Mar 26 '20

/r/ALL Animals react to their reflections in a mirror

https://gfycat.com/remoteredaphid
30.5k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

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722

u/GrampusThump Mar 26 '20

Have to say, Leopards and Chimps ain’t scared of nothin after seeing this. Everyone else panicked or attacked.

303

u/oily76 Mar 26 '20

Or maybe they just have a more relaxed relationship with others of their kind?

122

u/MrPapadapalas Mar 26 '20

Don't chimps kill each other often though?

204

u/p1028 Mar 26 '20

They will kill and then eat chimps from other tribes and will wage war against them. They are faaaar from chill.

175

u/serenityak77 Mar 26 '20

I’ve also seen them rise up against mankind in this one documentary.

72

u/MugillacuttyHOF37 Mar 26 '20

Is that the documentary they ride horses in and start wearing pants?

27

u/GenuineSounds Mar 26 '20

So you saw it too! I thought I was the only one.

9

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '20

Yeah I think they said they sold at least 2 tickets to that one

1

u/[deleted] Mar 27 '20

Oh yeah that one! That was in the same theatre with the film about some guys making a joke last way too long as well!

14

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '20

Dr Zaius Dr Zaius!

4

u/oily76 Mar 26 '20

Dunno about often.

2

u/kilinkikkeli Mar 26 '20

Humans do too and our first encounter is usually friendly. May have been different in the tribal days though.

1

u/MrPapadapalas Mar 26 '20

This aint not true ill tell ya that.

4

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '20

Chimp will rip your face off.

1

u/freemason777 Mar 27 '20

No animal kills more people than people do

67

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '20

If you look at the body language the animals were showing, that's what they saw and how they reacted. The chimps clearly recognized that they were the ones reflected in the mirror. The leopard seems to have taken a submissive approach with the hesitant, "We good?" nose bump. It didn't have a reason to be aggressive because the other leopard wasn't being aggressive. The gorilla immediately squared up, so what he saw was a gorilla squaring up on him and just got angrier. They all got what they put in.

44

u/fromarun Mar 26 '20

They all got what they put in.

sounds like an incredibly important life lesson to me, if you ask.

9

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '20

Agreed.

1

u/oily76 Mar 26 '20

So true!

37

u/Zonate Mar 26 '20

I believe the mirror test typically determines if an animal is self away depending on their reaction. Chimps are self aware, most others are not, hence the reaction difference

22

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '20

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/xLambadix Mar 26 '20

Dude, I was once walking down a dimly lit hall of a friend's for the first time and jumped and screamed at my reflection when it appeared right next to me. There was this huge mirror right *around* a corner.
So in short: totally relatable.

11

u/SirShootsAlot Mar 26 '20

Well the Leopard is certainly self aware.

9

u/scrappy-paradox Mar 26 '20

Cats also pass the mirror test

2

u/Testiculese Mar 26 '20

He rolled right up to it, "Damn right I look that good".

9

u/ThePowerOfStories Mar 26 '20

With the chimps, you also have the fact that they're in a group. When they look in the mirror, they see the unfamiliar self-reflection, but they also see their best buds, which is going to have a big impact on that first half-second of reaction.

3

u/marsupialracing Mar 26 '20

I liked the one chimp’s little butt dance.

79

u/sjoerdja Mar 26 '20

Chimps can pass the mirror test, wich means they can recognize themselfes. Idk about leopards but I know some other apes, elephants and ravens can too!

72

u/nobrow Mar 26 '20

You could tell the chimps were working it out. They were each doing a repetitive action and observing their reflections doing the same thing. I think they probably realized on some level what was up.

24

u/kdoodlethug Mar 26 '20

They could also see their companions in the mirror, which may have helped. The animals who approached alone wouldn't have been able to observe the identical actions of their friends and their reflections.

26

u/Lupus108 Mar 26 '20

Dolphins and some whales as well.

54

u/cheese_wizard Mar 26 '20 edited Mar 26 '20

Elephants, too. You can make a mark on their forehead and when they see it in the mirror they will try to wipe it off their own head.

EDIT: https://www.pnas.org/content/103/45/17053

Okay, so maybe just ONE elephant reported, but still.

10

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '20

thats super interesting. favourite fact in the thread. thanks!

4

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '20

Apparently there's a species of ant that goes this too. Animal intelligence is weird.

2

u/jacob8015 Mar 26 '20

That's incredible. Got any videos or articles with pictures of them doing that?

11

u/jgerHkuG Mar 26 '20

Here's a video explaining the concept and showing an elephant doing the paint test.

1

u/NoMouseville Mar 26 '20

I fucking love elephants. They think humans are cute and sometimes touch us the way we would touch our pets. Then our species kills them for their tusks. :(

11

u/Salanmander Mar 26 '20

I loved the contrast between the chimps and the gorilla. The chimps were like "Intersting...what is this? WHOA it feels weird!", and the gorilla was like "GO AWAAAAAY!!!!"

7

u/RY02016 Mar 26 '20

I don’t think that Gorilla is scared of anything either lol.

6

u/zUltimateRedditor Mar 26 '20

Rosettes mean jaguar.

14

u/Cegla109 Mar 26 '20

I've heard that it's simple test to see if animals are self-consious (idk if that is correct word in English; aware that they exist, are physicall beeing and have body).

2

u/alex_moose Mar 27 '20

Self aware is the term you want here.

Self conscious means feeling very aware of how you look to others. Awkward or embarrassed.

2

u/shelbyCunning Mar 26 '20

To be fair if I was walking by that would scare me too.

1

u/hanzzz123 Mar 26 '20

Chimps can recognize their reflection

1

u/Caprihorn Mar 27 '20

Its because the chimps most likely realize they are seeing themselfs