CHIMPANZEES RECOGNIZE THEMSELVES IN MIRRORS

Heyes' (1994, Anim. Behav., 97, 909-919; 1995, Anim. Behav., 50, 1533- 1542) recent account of chimpanzees', Pan troglodytes, reactions to mi rrors challenged the view that they are capable of recognizing the equ ivalence between their mirror images and their physical appearance. In particular, she argued that observations that chimpanzees touch surre ptitiously placed marks on their faces while in front of mirrors can b e explained as an interaction between ambient levels of face touching and procedural artefacts of the anaesthetization and markings of the s ubjects. Using new analytical techniques, data are reported that falsi fy the central predictions generated by her account and confirm predic tions derived from the self-recognition model. (C) 1997 The Associatio n for the Study of Animal Behaviour.