What does an elephant see when it looks in the mirror?

Itself apparently – a rare cognitive feat that was previously only known in humans, dolphins and apes, according to a recent article in National Geographic.

In studies, and I'm not quite sure how they were carried out, Asian elephants, those are the ones with the smaller ears, were given mirrors, which to begin with they treated as objects.

But on further inspection it is thought that they may realise they are seeing themselves as they will repeatedly touch a mark painted on their heads which they wouldn't be able to see if it were not for the mirror.

On a smaller scale an 8 week old cichlid fish with a brain the size of a pea may adopt female colours to sneak food from another male's territory. Isn't this fascinating to know that social relationships can alter a fish's brain cells?

Continuing with the animal theme, I was reading another article about a scientist, Irene Pepperberg, who bought an African gray parrot in 1977 to teach him to reproduce the sounds of the English language. She thought if he learned to communicate, she could ask him questions about how he sees the world.

So how does a scientist prove that an animal is capable of thinking?

Over time, ingenious experiments have shown that many of the talents we thought were unique to us as human, are shared with some other animals. Did you know, for example that sheep can recognise faces, that dolphins can imitate human postures?   Alex the parrot turned out to be a surprisingly good talker.

We all see the love in our dog's eyes and know that, of course, Lucky has thoughts and feelings.  We see the look of disdain in our cat as it puts on its answerphone and ignores us.

Don't you know people like that?  Aren't the ones you find easy to relate to or manage just like your dog?   As long as you remember them and are nice to them and feed them, they will do practically anything for you.  It’s the cats you want to look out for – think about it, they are the 'difficult' ones, who spurn our food - the ones who challenge us in our managerial roles!  And are usually completely unaware of the impact they have.  This lovely analogy of human behaviour comes from Michael Grinder. 

We can sometimes become all bitter and twisted about individuals at work, looking at their behaviour in terms of cats and dogs takes some of the heat off. :)