Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Foreword, by Louis J. Moses
- Acknowledgments
- Note added in proof
- Part I Comparative and Developmental Approaches to Self-awareness
- Part II The Development of Self in Human Infants and Children
- Part III Self-awareness in Great Apes
- 11 Social and cognitive factors in chimpanzee and gorilla mirror behavior and self-recognition
- 12 The comparative and developmental study of self-recognition and imitation: The importance of social factors
- 13 Shadows and mirrors: Alternative avenues to the development of self-recognition in chimpanzees
- 14 Symbolic representation of possession in a chimpanzee
- 15 Self-awareness in bonobos and chimpanzees: A comparative perspective
- 16 me chantek: The development of self-awareness in a signing orangutan
- 17 Self-recognition and self-awareness in lowland gorillas
- 18 How to create self-recognizing gorillas (but don't try it on macaques)
- 19 Incipient mirror self-recognition in zoo gorillas and chimpanzees
- 20 Do gorillas recognize themselves on television?
- Part IV Mirrors and Monkeys, Dolphins, and Pigeons
- Part V Epilogue
- Author index
- Subject index
20 - Do gorillas recognize themselves on television?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 November 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Foreword, by Louis J. Moses
- Acknowledgments
- Note added in proof
- Part I Comparative and Developmental Approaches to Self-awareness
- Part II The Development of Self in Human Infants and Children
- Part III Self-awareness in Great Apes
- 11 Social and cognitive factors in chimpanzee and gorilla mirror behavior and self-recognition
- 12 The comparative and developmental study of self-recognition and imitation: The importance of social factors
- 13 Shadows and mirrors: Alternative avenues to the development of self-recognition in chimpanzees
- 14 Symbolic representation of possession in a chimpanzee
- 15 Self-awareness in bonobos and chimpanzees: A comparative perspective
- 16 me chantek: The development of self-awareness in a signing orangutan
- 17 Self-recognition and self-awareness in lowland gorillas
- 18 How to create self-recognizing gorillas (but don't try it on macaques)
- 19 Incipient mirror self-recognition in zoo gorillas and chimpanzees
- 20 Do gorillas recognize themselves on television?
- Part IV Mirrors and Monkeys, Dolphins, and Pigeons
- Part V Epilogue
- Author index
- Subject index
Summary
Following demonstrations that chimpanzees react to video images of themselves in the same way as to their mirror images (Menzel, Savage-Rumbaugh, & Lawson, 1985; Savage-Rumbaugh & Rubert, 1986), we monitored the reactions of four western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) to video images of themselves and others at the Bristol Zoo, United Kingdom. The male, Jason, and female, Delilah, were wild-born, estimated to be 26 years old, and housed together. Another male, Jeremiah, born at Bristol and aged 5 years, was housed with the wild-born female, Diana, whose estimated age was 17 years. As these gorillas were housed in glass-fronted enclosures with glass-covered pictures on the opposite wall, they all had some experience of reflections. Portable Canon or Panasonic video-recording equipment was used, along with a 52-cm Sony television monitor, the screen of which was positioned close to the glass fronts of the enclosures, enabling the gorillas to approach to within 50 cm of it. They were presented with three conditions: (1) videotapes of unfamiliar gorillas, (2) videotapes of themselves in delayed playback (recorded the previous day), and (3) live video transmissions of themselves.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Self-Awareness in Animals and HumansDevelopmental Perspectives, pp. 308 - 312Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1994
- 7
- Cited by