Snakes display self-awareness through scent-based ‘mirror test’

Some snakes seem to respond differently to their scent when it changes, suggesting that they have some form of self-awareness.

A small number of animals, including roosters, horses, and cleaner fish, have shown signs of self-awareness in the so-called mirror test. This includes applying paint to areas of the body that cannot be seen without a mirror, such as the forehead. If an animal touches a mark when it looks in the mirror, it suggests that it knows it is its own reflection and not another individual’s image.

“But snakes and most reptiles interact with the world primarily through smell,” he says. gnome miller At Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada. So he and his colleagues tried an alternative, odor-based version of the mirror test.

Team members collected scents from 36 Eastern Garter Snakes (Thamnophis certalis) and 18 ball pythons (python) Wipe along the skin with a cotton pad.

Next, each snake was exposed to five scents. My snake, my snake with a little olive oil, his one with just olive oil, another snake of the same species, and his one with another snake with a little olive oil.

The garter snakes responded to their own modified scent by clicking their tongues more often and for longer periods of time compared to other scents.

“The only time they click their tongues is when they’re interested in something or when they’re researching something,” Miller said. This suggests that garter snakes can recognize that something about themselves doesn’t smell right. “They might be thinking, ‘Oh, this is weird, I shouldn’t smell like this.'”

Ball pythons, on the other hand, responded the same way to all odors. Garter snakes are much more social than ball pythons, Miller said, so social species may be more likely to be self-aware.

This discovery is the first evidence of potential self-awareness in snakes, Miller said. “There’s a misconception that snakes, and almost all reptiles, are dull, instinctive, non-cognitive animals, but that’s definitely not true.”

but, Johannes Brandl Researchers at the University of Salzburg in Austria question whether this should be interpreted as self-awareness. “This interpretation is only valid if a correlation with social behavior can be established,” he says. Otherwise, one could argue that some snake species are simply more inclined to participate in experiments.