“Mirror mirror on the wall, who’s the most inquisitive of them all?
Animals at Victoria’s Werribee Open Range Zoo were introduced to their own reflection last week, with mirrors placed in some enclosures to stimulate natural wild behaviour.
The zoo’s Australian natives co-ordinator Jacinda Goodwin said mirrors were placed with koalas, orange-bellied parrots, vervet monkeys, slender tailed meerkats and leopard tortoises to challenge the animals’ critical thinking and encourage beneficial social interactions. “In the wild, animals would come across their own reflections when looking into a large body of water, so the mirrors are one of the methods we can use to replicate that experience at the zoo,” Goodwin said.
“There are some species, such as the vervet monkeys, that have the cognitive ability to look in the mirror and recognise their own reflection.
“This can be a great challenge for the monkeys; they don’t automatically recognise their reflection as themselves. Like a good brain teaser, we observe them investing considerable time into trying to work out who the other monkey is. “Other animals, such as koalas and orange-bellied parrots, may perceive their reflection as another member of their species, so the reflections can stimulate social behaviour, such as investigation, vocalising or flocking.
“For other species, we may see a territorial response to perceiving another animal in their habitat through their reflection. This is a natural behaviour that they would exhibit in the wild when territories overlap, and in social species, who live in mobs orpacks, these experiences can encourage valuable group cohesion behaviours.” The mirrors are part of the enrichment experiences the zoo provides to give the animals opportunities to learn and encounter new challenges.