THEY’RE SELF-AWARE

When scientists from the University of South Florida lowered a giant mirror into an aquarium, two manta rays circled around it, gazing at their reflections. Did the mantas realise they were looking at themselves? Were they self-aware? The scientists involved think so (although not everyone agrees). They argue that when the mantas blew bubbles at their reflections, by dislodging air caught in their gills, this could have been a process known as contingency checking, just like you might wave your hand to check it’s your reflection in a distant window.

Another self-awareness test involves painting a dot on an animal’s body somewhere they can only see in a mirror. A human toddler, adult chimpanzee and even some magpies will reach for and touch the unexpected dot. Of course, manta rays don’t have hands or beaks, so there’s no easy way of applying this test.

If mantas are eventually added to the small list of self-aware animals, which so far includes mainly mammals and a few birds, it will show that this trait probably evolved many times in the animal kingdom and could perhaps be more widespread than previously thought.