Whatever the mirror test tells us, beluga whales pass it
摘要
一项发表于《PLOS One》的新研究首次记录到白鲸表现出镜子自我识别的行为特征。在纽约水族馆的水下视频中，白鲸娜塔莎和她的女儿玛丽斯在双向镜前做出伸颈、旋转、点头和摇头等动作。镜子自我识别测试（MSR）长期被视为自我意识的标志，此前仅有少数物种通过该测试，包括人类、部分类人猿、亚洲象、宽吻海豚、喜鹊、虎鲸及裂唇鱼。若该结果成立，白鲸将加入这一极短的名单。
In hours of underwater video footage from a New York aquarium, a beluga whale named Natasha stretches her neck, pirouettes, nods, and shakes her head in front of a two-way mirror. Her daughter Maris does much the same. According to a new study published in PLOS One, both animals show the behavioral hallmarks of mirror self-recognition—a cognitive ability long considered a marker of self-awareness, and one that had never before been documented in beluga whales.
If the result holds up, belugas join a remarkably short list. The mirror self-recognition test (MSR) has been passed, with varying degrees of confidence, by humans (starting around age two), a handful of great apes (chimps, bonobos, orangutans, and—somewhat contentiously—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. Plenty of species we had assumed were self-aware have been tested and failed.
Looking at the mirror
So what is this test, exactly, and what is it supposed to tell us?
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