Whatever the mirror test tells us, beluga whales pass it

In hours of underwater video footage from a New York aquarium, a beluga whale named Natasha stretches her neck, does pirouettes, nods and shakes her head in front of a two-way mirror. Her daughter Maris does much the same thing. According to a new study published in PLOS One, both animals exhibit the behavioral characteristics of mirror self-recognition, a cognitive ability long considered a marker of self-awareness that has never been previously documented in beluga whales.

If the result holds, belugas will join a remarkably short list. The Mirror Self-Recognition (MSR) test has been passed, with varying degrees of confidence, by humans (starting at about age two), a handful of great apes (chimpanzees, bonobos, orangutans, and, somewhat controversially, gorillas), Asian elephants, bottlenose dolphins, probably magpies, possibly orcas, and, if you can believe it, a cleaner wrasse. That’s it. No dogs, no cats, no monkeys. Many species that we thought were self-aware have been tested and failed.

Looking at the mirror

So, what exactly is this test and what is it supposed to tell us?

The procedure is as follows: While the animal is not looking, researchers place a mark in a location that it can only see by reflection. A mirror is then placed in front of the animal while the researchers observe it. If the animal touches or examines the mark while looking at its reflection, it understands that the figure in the mirror is itself. The test is intuitive and easy to perform, and almost no species passes.

Why is this a test of self-awareness in the first place? The logic, dating back to psychologist Gordon Gallup (who invented the test in 1970), is that to use a mirror as a tool for inspecting your own body, you need a mental representation of yourself as a separate entity. A piece of silver glass, in this story, can open many cognitive doors.