Up until recently, scientists had shown that only three types of animals—great apes, bottlenose dolphins and humans—displayed characteristics of being aware they exist as distinct individuals separate from others. However, according to a study published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a fourth species—elephants—can now be added to this list of self-aware animals.

Last year, researchers at the Bronx Zoo conducted a study with the Wildlife Conservation Society to determine whether elephants could prove self-aware. They administered the mirror test, the standard scientific method for defining self-awareness, to three Asian elephants at the zoo. The team first painted a small X above the eye of each elephant, and then exposed them to an 8-by-8-foot mirror erected in their enclosure for the purposes of the experiment.

Most animals (and most human children less than 18 months old) will react to a mirror without recognizing themselves, perhaps looking behind it or believing the reflection is someone else, yet remaining unable to solve the mystery. However, the Bronx Zoo's 34-year-old elephant, Happy, actually looked in the mirror and repeatedly touched the mark with the tip of her trunk. She could not have seen the X without looking in the mirror, and an identical but invisible mark was also placed above her other eye, yet she did not touch that one.

Scientists on the project draw parallels between elephants' capacity for self-awareness and their mental and social complexity, as well as the empathy and altruism they often show toward family members. "Although elephants are far more distantly related to us than the great apes, they seem to have evolved similar social and cognitive capacities, making complex social systems and intelligence part of this picture," stated Frans de Waal, one of the project's researchers. "These parallels between humans and elephants suggest a convergent cognitive evolution possibly related to complex sociality and cooperation."

A growing body of scientific research indicates that elephants in zoos and circuses suffer disproportionately from serious physical and psychological disorders—and, tragically, premature death—as a result of long-term confinement. The evidence overwhelmingly indicates that zoos simply cannot provide the vast amount of space that elephants need to be healthy. Being self-aware may be one of the reasons that elephants cannot thrive in zoos: perhaps they understand all too well that they are being deprived of the life they were meant for, compounding their misery. 

An increasing number of zoos have acknowledged that they cannot provide for this species’ health and well-being, and have accordingly closed their elephant exhibits. The best home for elephants raised in captivity is one of the nation’s two elephant sanctuaries, which each offer hundreds of acres of naturalistic landscape and an exceptionally higher quality of life than any zoo in the world possibly could. If you live near a zoo with elephants, you can help get them moved from cramped zoo enclosures into spacious sanctuaries by joining IDA's Elephant Task Force. Visit helpelephants.com/youcando.html to learn more and sign up.