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My younger daughter Lauri likes to play with her reflection, and i like to watch this pretty conversation. But did you know babies don't recognize themselves in the mirror?

In fact not until 18 months that most babies realize it is their own faces and bodies they see in the mirror. It's pretty easy to check out if you have a little baby. Put a color spot on his forehead and watch if he tries to wipe it away or touch while looking in his reflection. If he does, he is already self-aware. But if he play as normal, he haven't hit the self-awareness milestone yet.

But what about cats, you ask? Okay, if you try the same experiment with a cat you will find out that she won't try to wipe the spot out. Actually only kittens pay attention to their reflections but they quickly lose interest. An adult cat mostly doesn't care about the mirrors at all. At this point cat knows that reflection is not another cat, but she has no reason to believe it's her own image, either.

But chimpanzees are concerned with their own appearance in the mirror, and use the mirror to examine themselves carefully. So do elephants and dolphins. Clearly, cats and dogs don't. This difference may be related to how important vision is to the particular species' survival. Primates rely heavily on vision, but for dogs and cats, smell takes precedence.

English: Mirror
日本語: 鏡 (Kagami)
Livvikse: Zirkalo
По-русски: Зеркало