What does the mirror look for?

Scientists say smart New Caledonian crows can use mirrors to find food.

Researchers from the University of Auckland, New Zealand tested the crow's reactions to the mirror. As a result, they do not recognize themselves but find hidden food by analyzing their images in the mirror.

This result has led crow to smart groups, including primates and elephants - species that can process information through mirrors.

The New Caledonian crow is known for its ability to use clever and creative tools such as twigs - a tool they use to catch nutrient insects out of holes or cracks.

Crows find food through the mirror image but do not recognize themselves in the mirror

Experiments on the reaction of other crows with mirrors show that the magpies crows recognize their image in the mirror but forest crows are impossible.

In the study published in this Animal Behavior magazine, psychologists analyzed the cognitive skills of this cleverly known New Caledonian crow.

They captured 10 wild ravens and placed them in large cages to record their reaction to the mirror.

All ravens responded when they saw their images in the mirror as if they were meeting another crow. Felipe S Medina Rodriguez - who led the study - said that the antagonistic reactions of crow with mirror images "are not surprising".

When the crows move out of the mirror's position and don't see their images in the mirror, they often look behind the mirror to determine the location of the "crow".

Researchers think this action may be due to the crow's "lack of mirror experience" . Similar reactions were noted in newborn primates and children under 2 years of age.

However, the second part of the experiment revealed some surprising results.

Scientists have devised an experiment to test whether these crows could use mirrors to locate the piece of meat appearing in the mirror.

All the crows tested showed a sense of how the image of the meat in the mirror correlated with its actual position.

'We were surprised at how the crows learned to use images in the mirror to determine where the food was hidden. It often takes more time for an animal to start using mirror features to approach things that are not seen directly, " said Medina.

Some rabbits were tested to be more professional than others, so Median predicted that the difference in ability proved that they did not use the olfactory to find food.