Skeptical? See below, a 'copy/paste' from the Self-Awareness portion of Wikipedia's page on Elephant Intelligence, even containing a reference to my previous post's video. The entire page is nothing short of astonishing. Sections on Altruism, Problem-solving and Death Ritual - particularly so. Required reading for Fr C and Felipe!
"Asian Elephants have joined a small group of animals, including humans, great apes and Bottlenose dolphins, that exhibit self awareness. The study was conducted with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) using elephants at the Bronx Zoo in New York. Although many animals will respond to a mirror, very few show any evidence that they recognize it is in fact themselves in the mirror reflection.
"The Asian elephants in the study also displayed this type of behavior when standing in front of a 2.5m-by-2.5m mirror - they inspected the rear and brought food close to the mirror for consumption.Absolute evidence of elephant self awareness was shown when "Happy" repeatedly touched a painted "X" on her head with her trunk, a mark which could only be seen in the mirror. Happy ignored another mark made with colourless paint that was also on her forehead to ensure she was not merely reacting to a smell or feeling.
"Extraordinary video documentation of an elephant painting a picture of an elephant - possibly indicating self-awareness - has become widespread on internet news and video websites. The quality of the painting is extremely high, leading many astonished viewers to doubt the video's authenticity. The website snopes.com, which specializes in debunking urban legends, lists the video as 'true'."
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