bee Rolling a wooden ball – obviously for fun. The beautiful wrasse fish is Recognize yourself in an underwater mirror. The octopus seems to be like that. reacts to anesthetics And you will avoid environments where you are likely to have experienced pain in the past.

All three discoveries were made in the past five years, and the more scientists experiment with animals, the more they discover that many species have an inner life and may be sentient. It shows that. A surprising range of organisms show evidence of conscious thought and experience, including insects, fish, and some crustaceans.

That’s why a group of top animal cognition researchers has released a new statement they hope will change the way scientists and society view and care for animals.

Nearly 40 researchers signed the petition. New York Declaration on Animal Consciousness” was first presented Friday morning at a conference at New York University. This comes at a pivotal moment, as a plethora of research on animal cognition collides with debates about how different species should be treated.

The declaration says there is “strong scientific support” that birds and mammals have conscious experience, and that there is a “realistic possibility” that consciousness exists in all vertebrates, including reptiles, amphibians, and fish. It has said. The possibility extends to many organisms without backbones, including insects, decapod crustaceans (including crabs and lobsters), and cephalopod molluscs such as squid, octopuses, and cuttlefish, he added.

“If an animal has a real possibility of conscious experience, it would be irresponsible to ignore that possibility in decisions affecting that animal,” the declaration reads. “We should consider welfare risks and use evidence to inform our responses to these risks.”

Jonathan Birch, professor of philosophy at the London School of Economics and principal investigator of the Fundamentals of Animal Senses project, is also one of the signatories of the declaration. He said many scientists had previously thought questions about animal consciousness were unanswerable, but the declaration shows his field is moving in a new direction.

“This has been a very exciting decade for the study of animal minds,” Professor Birch said. “People are boldly going out there in ways that have never been done before, and are excited about the possibility that animals like bees, octopuses, and squids are somehow having conscious experiences.”

From “automaton” to perceiver

There is no standard definition for animal perception or consciousness, but these terms generally refer to the ability to have subjective experiences, i.e. the ability to feel and map the outside world, and to feel emotions such as pleasure and pain. Refers to ability. In some cases, it may mean that the animal has some degree of self-awareness.

In this sense, the new declaration goes against long-standing orthodoxy in historical science. In the 17th century, French philosopher René Descartes argued that animals are nothing more than “material automatons” without souls or consciousness.

Rajesh Reddy, assistant professor and director of the animal law program at Lewis & Clark College, said Descartes believed that animals “cannot feel or suffer.” “There was something stupid and anthropomorphic about feeling sorry for them or empathizing with them.”

In the early 20th century, prominent behavioral psychologists promoted the idea that science should study only observable behavior in animals. rather than emotions or subjective experience.. But in the 1960s, scientists began to reconsider. Research began to focus on animal cognition, primarily other primates.

Birch said the new declaration attempts to “embody an emerging consensus that rejects the 100-year-old view that there is no way to study these issues scientifically.”

Indeed, there has been a recent surge in new discoveries that support the new declaration. As scientists develop new cognitive tests and test existing tests on a wider range of species, there are some surprises.

For example, consider the mirror mark test that scientists sometimes use to see if animals recognize themselves.

In a series of studies, The cleaner wrasse fish seems to have passed the test.

The fish were placed in an aquarium covered with mirrors, but no abnormal reactions were observed. However, when the cover was removed, seven out of 10 fish launched an attack toward the mirror, indicating that they may have interpreted the image as a rival fish.

After a few days, the fish calmed down and attempted strange behaviors never seen before in this species, such as swimming upside down in front of a mirror. Afterwards, some spent an unusual amount of time in front of the mirror observing their bodies. The researchers then placed brown spots under the fish’s skin to resemble parasites. Some fish tried to scrape off the mark.

“They’re able to see wrasse perform a series of steps that you can only imagine seeing in incredibly intelligent animals like chimpanzees and dolphins,” Birch said. “No one in a million years would have expected a small fish to pass this test.”

In other studies, researchers found that: Zebrafish showed signs of curiosity When a new object is introduced into the aquarium and it The squid remembered what it saw and smelled..An experiment caused stress Give electric shock to crayfish, and administered an anti-anxiety drug that is also used in humans. The drug seems to have restored normal behavior.

Birch said these experiments are part of a growing body of animal consciousness research over the past 10 to 15 years. “You have a much broader canvas to study a much wider range of animals, not just mammals and birds, but also invertebrates like octopuses and squid,” he said. “And people are talking about this idea more and more in relation to insects.”

Reddy said researchers may soon need to completely reorient their research, as more and more species are showing these signs.

A new legal perspective

Reddy said the change in scientists’ understanding of animal sentience could have implications for U.S. law, which does not classify animals as sentient at the federal level. Instead, animal-related laws primarily focus on conservation, agriculture, or the treatment of animals by zoos, laboratories, and pet retailers.

“The law moves very slowly and follows society’s views on many of these issues,” Reddy said. “This declaration, and other measures to remind the public that animals are more than just biological automatons, could greatly increase support for increased protections.”

State laws vary widely. Ten years ago, Oregon passed a law recognizing that animals are sentient and capable of feeling pain, stress and fear, forming the basis of progressive judicial opinion in the state, Reddy said. he said.

meanwhile, Washington and California These are among the states where lawmakers this year are considering bans on farming octopuses, a species in which scientists have found strong evidence of sentience.

British law has recently changed to consider octopuses as living organisms, just like crabs and lobsters.

“Once you realize that animals are intelligent, the concept of humane slaughter starts to become important. You have to make sure that the methods you’re using on the animals are humane,” Birch said. says. “For crabs and lobsters, very inhumane methods such as dropping them into a pot of boiling water are very common.”