Cognition?

[Zeppy44]

No sorry I don't. Seems I remember it was a Nat Geo show. Wish I could remember more on this. I would like to see it again. I did find on youtube : Mirror self recognition in Asian elephants. Not the one I wanted but very good.

We have had treefrogs and pigeons who seem to pass the mirror test. I have no doubt bybthe way Minty would greet me at night outside before i brought him inside due to cold weather that he was intelligent on some level. Will keep on the lookout for papers and with the next round of mantids, will watch for signs of intelligence. I have seen and have read that creatures who move around are much smarter than sit and wait predators, e.g., pacific treefrogs vs pacman frogs, or jumping spiders vs orb weavers. 

No data for this but I have always felt stalking predators to be "smarter" than ambush predators.

I think the mantis might flunk the mirror test since they are fine tuned to notice movement. The ghost I have take little notice around them till they detect movement.

 

[cwebster]

Will check it out this year with older nymphs and adults. Tree frogs only respond to movement...but would blink into a mirror at me when i was behind them...they learn to blink as a greeting. Minty mantis would wave his bad leg as a kind of greeting of some kind.

 

[GingerC]

A while back I saw a documentary about animals and big mirror.  Most striking was watching the elephant figure out it was the reflection. And how it acted when it knew.

Interestingly enough, ants have also passed the mirror test. When a dot of color is applied to the ant, it does not react, but if you put it in front of a mirror it will clean it off. If the dot was the same color as the ant, it would be ignored. Also, if you were to put the ant with a colored dot back in the colony, the other ants kill it. I found this very surprising, since I've never really thought of ants as "visual" animals.

I have a feeling that if I put a mirror in front of George, she'd just ignore it, though.

 

[Zeppy44]

Very interesting. Will have to rethink my ideas on the workers in an insect class with queens. Always thought of the workers as a collective without individual recognition.

Thanks, GingerC  for the information.

 

[Zeppy44]

@GingerC I suspect the new chemical smell was what set the ants off. Still very interesting topic.

 

[spotsy99]

Which brings me to this question.......Do they hear? I know they feel vibrations, but can they actually hear? Hope this is not a silly question.