Why cats do not see themselves in the mirror

. And so a cat doesn't have to admire itself in the mirror at all, for that makes no sense to it. It is for you humans to comb your hair, put on makeup, and shave. So admire yourselves at your leisure. And kitty shouldn't be distracted from important things by useless things.

Why, when you bring a cat to the mirror, he looks anywhere but at himself?

Cats can't even see another specimen of their own species in the mirror, because their perception is based not only on visual associations – their sense of smell also plays a great role. Precisely because of the absence of smell, which announces the presence of a fellow cat, cats and cats lose interest in the image in the mirror.

Why then do some cats still react to themselves in the mirror? Can you explain this, please?

Cats don't associate themselves with what they see in the mirror. Roughly speaking, they don't recognize themselves in the reflection. But they can associate their reflection with other "familiar" cats. For example, my acquaintances have an eight-year-old adult cat who, after living with another cat for two months, began to react to his reflection. He tried to play with it, jumped on it, meowed – in general. Read more

All of my cats at first saw themselves in the mirror – some were frightened, some were interested. Then they realized that they could not interact with the reflection in any way and simply stopped paying attention. Interestingly, my cat ignores his reflection, but very often follows toys or me in the mirror, but does not attack them. I think he's figured out it's a trick: some. Read more

It's time to answer this question again. Let us first agree: it is likely that cats can recognize their reflection in the mirror, just as humans, dogs, bees, and some birds can, since the opposite assumption is based only on the outdated concept of self-awareness as a uniquely human trait. But just because cats can recognize themselves doesn't mean that all cats. Read more

Kittens try to make friends with a reflection

Kittens are enthusiastic about the mirror at first, trying to play with their reflection. But the lack of feedback quickly dampens interest, and kittens switch their attention to another object.

There is a version that otherwise explains the failure of the "mirror test" by cats. Researcher Sacha Scofield believes: the reason is that the cat is a non-social animal, and its appearance has no effect on its life, so it simply doesn't care.

Cats use the mirror in their own way

After spending some time in a room with a mirror, cats start using it to observe others. Lying with its face to the mirror, the cat always knows what is going on behind its back. In addition, with the help of the mirror, cats can look into inaccessible areas of space.

Seeing the owner in the mirror, the cat animates, turns around to the approaching cat and sometimes starts meowing. So far, no one has managed to find out if the cat realizes that there is only one person in the room.

The Mirror Test

For many years, scientists thought that only humans and great apes could recognize themselves in the mirror.

In 1970, American zoologist Gordon Gallup followed the primates' behavior in front of a mirror. It turned out that great apes such as chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans recognize themselves in the mirror. At first they perceive their reflection as another animal, but after a while they begin to search their fur based on what they see in the mirror. Gallup conducted a simple experiment: the asleep animals were dyed brow and ear tips with odorless paint. When they woke up, they didn't notice these changes. But, looking at themselves in the mirror, they began to actively touch their eyebrows and ears. No doubt the primates understood that they saw themselves in the mirror – they were aware that they looked different than before.

The mirror test revealed five animal species that associate themselves with their reflection. These are orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees, dolphins, and elephants. Also, of course, humans (from about 18 months of age) and … European magpies.

An interesting fact is that some animals (e.g. pigs), ignoring their own reflection, are able to understand and use other information seen in the mirror, for example, they perceive the mirror projection of the food placed behind them.

So what does this mean? That they are stupid? That they are losing in intelligence to magpies?! Well, no!

Lack of interest in their reflection is not necessarily a sign that they lack self-awareness.

It is a matter of the peculiarities of survival of a particular species. While primates rely on sight, cats prioritize smells and other tactile senses.

How a cat reacts to a mirror depends on its age, experience and intelligence.

Kittens are always ready to play, even if only with their reflection. But they soon discover that the mirror kitten provides no feedback. As a result, they usually give up on an uninteresting toy that doesn't meet their reproducing prey instinct. And when the reflection fails the "sniff" test, the animal usually decides to ignore it forever.

A few numbers and facts about cats

Well, cats really are fantastic animals. Back in ancient Egypt, they were considered deities and worshipped. So everyone who is the lucky owner of this furry lord can be considered a little Egyptian at heart.

Of course, this is just a joke, but let's study what the results of official and reliable studies conducted by scientists around the world for many years say. So:

• The cat's eye is capable of discerning objects as much as seven times beyond the limits of human vision.
• The radius of view of a cat's convex eye reaches almost three hundred degrees, which is about two and a half times that of a human.
• With the onset of darkness the pupil of a pet expands almost to the size of the eye itself, due to which the illumination of its retina increases by almost fifty times.
• The normal frame rate of a cat's eye is 50 per second, twice that of a human.
• The number of photoreceptors in a cat's pupil is six times greater than in a human's pupil.
• Vision of all cats is supplemented with phenomenal bonuses – perfectly developed sense of smell and amazing whiskers-locators continuously scanning the surrounding space.

What can I say, the emptiness in humans and cats are completely unrelated concepts.

The emptiness and the wall

Let's try to imagine what thought processes occur in the heads of our pets when they look at the empty wall or in general through space and time.

Cats are rather compact creatures. And certainly if you deprive them of fur, they will become even smaller. And the brains of these animals are also small, no bigger than a walnut. But at the same time, all cats are thinking, and sometimes not less than people. Just look at the ballistic calculations of the next dizzying jump. True, cats don't tell anyone about this, because they are above such "trifles".

Cats' thought processes have only one master: their hunting instincts. And these furry hunters can stare at the wall for hours, because absolutely any point on it for felines can mean lurking prey. A cat has plenty of time, so it can wait for its imaginary trophy for hours.

The same goes for the cat's admiration of the void. But in reality nobody can explain exactly if an animal sees or hears something at this moment, for the cat's vision and hearing capabilities are too different from those of a human cat. Or maybe it is just dreaming and hovering, as it happens even with humans.

Cats may not see themselves in the mirror, because they perceive the world not only visually

Most cats show no interest in their mirror image. But this does not say at all about their lack of intelligence. It is simply not enough for them to see, the cat's world is much richer than that of humans, primates and other animals.

Sounds, smells and other sensations inaccessible for humans are important for cats. She is naturally provided with sensitive sensors all over her body – vibrissae in the form of rigid tactile hair. The vibrissae are longer and thicker than the other hairs.

Vibrissae are whiskers above the lips, hairs on the cheeks, above the eyes, below the chin, on the front legs (at the ankle), on the tail and on the paws between the pads. Vibrissae end with nerve endings transmitting to the cat's brain the whole wealth of information about this or that object or about the environment.

Living in the world of touch, the cat is not at all interested in just a flat picture. Even if it notices the reflection, it will quickly lose interest in it when it realizes that no "feedback" is possible. It is as if she is saying with all her appearance that she does not intend to waste her time on this, in fact, empty space.

The experiment made it possible to understand which animals can see themselves in the mirror

Scientists conducted a so-called mirror test and were able to figure out which animals can see themselves in the mirror.

Previously, it was thought that only humans and great apes can recognize themselves in the mirror. At first, monkeys think that they see another animal, but very soon it becomes clear that they "get it", because they begin to examine their fur just by looking in the mirror.

To make sure they were right, scientists put the animals to sleep and dyed their eyebrows and the edge of their ears with odorless paint. Upon awakening, the animals did not feel any changes, and when they saw their reflection in the mirror, they immediately started touching their eyebrows and ears. This was a confirmation of the fact that primates see themselves in the mirror and understand that there were changes in their appearance.

As a result of the mirror experiment, it was possible to determine that the animals that perceive the reflection in the mirror as their own are only five and one bird. The scientists named orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees, elephants, dolphins and European forty the smartest in this respect. Humans become aware of themselves in the mirror image from about the age of one and a half.

There are animals that, while not aware of themselves in the mirror, are perfectly aware of food in the mirror if you put it behind them (pigs, for example, behave this way).

How do cats perceive themselves in the mirror: do they realize that they see themselves in the mirror?

Many cat lovers ask themselves this interesting and at the same time tricky question: How do cats perceive themselves in the mirror?How do cats see themselves in the mirror? What do they see there? And most importantly, are cats able to realize (know) that it is their reflection in the mirror?

When different cats are brought to the mirror, you can see a variety of reactions. For example, some cats react calmly and don't even show it, others sniff and look at themselves curiously, and in rare cases, a cat may show aggression and hiss at its own reflection. All cats react in their own way, but how do they perceive this very mirror? What do scientists tell us about it?

An American researcher named Gordon Gallup, has developed an interesting test to see if some primates are able to be aware of themselves in the mirror. This test consists of applying a special (odorless) red color paint to the animal's face and then showing the animal its reflection in the mirror. If the animals become aware of themselves in the mirror, they begin to touch their muzzle in an attempt to remove this incomprehensible stain. So, it turns out that cats could not pass this test.

The scientists' opinion is that cats are incapable of being aware of themselves in the mirror. Of course, this does not mean that the cat is too stupid for that, it just says that cats have a slightly different mindset and are not set up to recognize themselves in the mirror. If cats don't recognize themselves in the mirror, what do they perceive there?

Why is a cat not at all interested in the mirror and whether it sees itself in it?

Every true cat person at least once in their life should take their meowing pet in their arms, bring it up to the mirror and say, "Look, it's you!" Sometimes, however, the cat flatly refuses to look at his reflection and simply turns away from the mirror surface. And sometimes it also looks at you so unhappily, as if to say, "Master, why are you poking me in the glass here? Are you out of your mind?"

And, indeed, cats are not very fond of looking at their reflection. And sometimes you get the feeling that they do not see themselves in the mirror. And everything else, which is also reflected there, it seems that they do not see.

I wonder if this is true or not. In fact, it's a little different. Cats can see themselves perfectly well in the mirror, but they do not react to the reflection, because it is of no interest to them.

And it is of no interest to them because the picture they see does not cause them any feelings. Murkies and leopard kittens receive all important information from their environment with the help of such senses as smell and hearing. Vision is not the main source of information.

Just once, our meowing pet may show interest in what it sees in the mirror. However, this interest soon passes, as the cat receives no response from its reflection in the mirror. Well, and danger is also not necessary to be afraid of for the cat.

And if for the first few minutes the cat might think that a tailed competitor is standing in front of it, very soon it will become clear that it was wrong. And the hunting instinct suggests that an object that has no smell and makes no noise cannot be dangerous, and therefore becomes uninteresting.

The mirror test

Gordon Gallup, a psychologist at New York University, suggested a way to test an animal's reaction to reflection. In the case of a cat, it is necessary to stick a piece of painter's tape (duct tape) on the forehead of a sleeping pet. After it wakes up, it is held up to the mirror. The test is passed if the cat tries to remove the foreign object. Aside from humans, identifying with a reflection can:

Cats and dogs are deprived of this ability. For them, the mirror shows a potential adversary (play partner) or a foreign picture. The reaction depends on the experience of interaction with reflective surfaces and the state of the nervous system.

The mirror test is not always relevant. It was applied to children from non-Western cultures who did not identify with reflections. The test subjects were not deprived of self-awareness. They simply were not familiar with mirrors.

The inability to perceive reflection is also observed in children under 1 year of age. The same is true for cats. The pet has a pronounced personality, can interact with visual images. But the structure of the brain and the principle of development did not instill in them the skills of identifying themselves with the reflection.

What a cat sees

Evolution is one of the main reasons why cats don't look in the mirror. Interacting with reflections, species rely heavily on vision for survival. For predators, including the feline family, smell plays a leading role.

Animals spend a lot of time in conditions of limited visibility. They notice movement, determine size and distance to objects. But it is the sense of smell that allows them to divide them into friends, enemies and strangers.

A pet recognizes an image of a cat in the reflection. The response depends on behavior and experience with mirrors. It varies between:

Seeing his reflection while playing, the pet may be frightened, try to attack the "opponent" or get acquainted with the "newcomer". To do this, the cat goes around the mirror, sniffing. The lack of smell reduces the interest in the reflection. A pet familiar with mirrors from childhood will react calmly to the reflection, perceiving it as a foreign picture. This is how a curious cat chases the cursor on the screen at first, gradually losing interest in the game due to the lack of recoil.

A world without smells: how cats see their reflection

The question if cats see their reflection in the mirror arises because of the atypical behavior of pets, who are usually very curious and respond vividly to moving objects.

But the thing is that small carnivores are used to rely not only (and not so much) on their eyes. Much more information is given to them by smells and air vibrations, which they feel with their "magic" vibrissae. In nature, they recognize by them what kind of living creature is nearby: an enemy or potential prey.

And although the reflection walks and even jumps sometimes, it does not smell anything and therefore is not worthy of attention, because cats do not expect any harm or benefit from it.

The stranger from the looking-glass: can cats see themselves in the mirror?

Of course, this rule doesn't apply to everybody. Sometimes, if the cat sees itself in the mirror, it turns into a whole performance for the owners. Murka can meow threateningly, hiss and even lunge at a stranger on the other side of the glass.

There is no question about whether cats and kittens see themselves in the mirror, and owners of whiskered babies. Some kittens like to play with their reflection. And some beauties and beauties can spend hours admiring themselves. Scientists believe that a cat's reaction to what it sees in the mirror depends on its age, experience and intelligence.

But the question whether cats recognize themselves in the mirror can be answered definitively: no! The reason is that they, like other animals, do not have such a purely human aspect of psyche as consciousness. So, cats see a reflection, but do not associate it with themselves, for they do not have a concept of "I".

Rather, they think it's another animal – hence the aggression shown by some particularly emotional individuals. No one has found out yet how to explain to the cat that it is reflected in the smooth surface. And is it really necessary? Cats do not need to make up their faces in front of the mirror, they are irresistible anyway!