Canines have a conscience too! Sniff tests proves dogs can be added to the list of self aware animals
- Sniff test of self-recognition was used to determine dog's conscience
- Were not interested in sniffing own urine, indicates self-awareness
- Amount of time spent on a sample depended on their age, which indicates self-awareness increases with age, as it does with chimps and humans
A new study has confirmed what most dog owners knew anyway - their canine friends have a conscience.
Humans, great apes, an Asian elephant, some dolphins, magpies and some ants have all passed a self-recognition test, and now dogs have been added to the list.
Researchers used urine samples to create a sniff test to prove that man’s best friends can decipher between itself and others.
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Humans, great apes, an Asian elephant, certain dolphins, magpies and some ants have all passed the test of mirror self-recognition, and now dogs have been added to the list. A new study confirms what most dog owners thought to be true, their canine friends have a conscious
The mirror test is used to assess if an individual is capable of using their own reflection to notice and touch a mark, usually a red dot, during a period of distraction on the face, head or other parts of the body.
This evaluates their ability to understand the concept of ‘self’ and ‘the other’ and able to distinguish between the two.
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The ability to differentiate oneself from others is often considered to play a role in understanding that someone else may be happy or sad, even if the viewer is not.
‘When I became interested in this aspect of ethology I went through the scientific literature and I discovered that, however, the ability to recognize their own image in the mirror is a skill extremely rare in the animal kingdom’, said Roberto Cazzolla Gatti from Tomsk State University in Russia, who is the lead researcher of the study.
‘A wide range of species have been observed to fail the test, including several species of monkeys, giant pandas, sea lions, birds, and dogs.’
HOW THEY DID IT - WHAT IS THE MIRROR TEST?
The mirror test is a measure of self-awareness developed by Gordon Gallup Jr in 1970.
The test gauges self-awareness by determining whether an animal can recognize its own reflection in a mirror as an image of itself.
This is accomplished by surreptitiously marking the animal with an odorless dye, and observing whether the animal reacts in a manner consistent with it being aware that the dye is located on its own body.
Such behavior might include turning and adjusting of the body in order to better view the marking in the mirror, or poking at the marking on its own body with a finger while viewing the mirror.
Animals which have passed the mirror test are common chimpanzees, bonobos, orangutans, dolphins, elephants, humans and possibly pigeons.
Surprisingly, gorillas have not passed the test, although at least one specific gorilla, Koko, has passed the test; this is probably because gorillas consider eye contact an aggressive gesture and normally try to avoid looking each other in the face.
Human children tend to fail this test until they are at least 1.5 to 2 years old.
In the past, dogs have had no interest in looking in the mirror, except to sniff or urinate around it.
Dogs and wolves, like dolphins, show a high level of cognitive complexity, but previous attempts to demonstrate the self-recognition of these animals have been inconclusive.
‘I believed dogs are much less sensitive to visual stimuli with respect to what, for example, humans and many apes are, it is likely that the failure of this and of other species in the mirror test is mainly due to the sensory modality chosen by the investigator to test the self-awareness and not, necessarily, to the absence of this latter, ‘Gatti explained.
The mirror test is used to assess if an individual is capable of using their own reflection to notice and touch a mark, usually a red dot, during a period of distraction on the face, head or other parts of the body. This looks at their ability to understand the concept of ‘self’ and ‘the other’ and able to distinguish between the two
Since dogs have failed the mirror test in the past, Gatti tried it from a new angle with the ‘sniff test of self-recognition (STSR)’.
The test’s goal was still the same, to determine self-awareness, but instead of using their eyes, dogs used their sense of smell.
The study observed four dogs, all were strays that spent a majority of their lives in freedom.
Urine samples were collected from each canine, stored in containers and labelled to each one.
Then Gatti submitted the animals to the sniff test of self-recognition.
The tests were repeated four times a year, at the beginning of each season.
In the next part of the study, Gatti placed five urine samples within a fenced area, each from the dogs and a ‘blank sample’, which was filled with just odorless cotton wool.
Since dogs have failed the mirror test in the past, Gatti tried it from a new angle with the ‘sniff test of self-recognition (STSR)’. The test’s goal was still the same, to determine self-awareness, but instead of using their eyes, dogs used their sense of smell
The dogs were then brought into the fenced in area where they could roam free for five minutes, and the time taken by each dog to sniff each sample was recorded.
Each dog spent more time sniffing samples of the others, rather than their own.
This suggests that they know their own smell, which is less interesting to them, indicating that they are self-aware.
The STSR can now be used to study other animals, such as bats or moles who could never recognize themselves in a mirror.
This study also showed that the time spent sniffing the samples depending on the age of the dog.
Which indicates self-awareness increases with age, which is also demonstrated in other species like chimpanzees and humans.
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