Can monkeys recognize themselves in the mirror?

People yes. What about chimpanzees, dolphins, Asian elephants and even magpies? The ability to recognize oneself in a mirror is known as cognate recognition. And we didn't think monkeys could do that—until now.

A team of researchers claims to have taught rhesus monkeys to recognize their reflections in a mirror. "The monkey brain has the basic hardware for self-recognition, but the animal needs some kind of special 'programming' to achieve this ability," says Neng Gong, a neuroscientist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing. The study was published in the journal Current Biology.

In humans, recognizing oneself in a mirror is considered a sign of empathy, so finding it in monkeys has important consequences. In the new study, Gong and his team planted monkeys in front of a mirror and shone a bright beam directly on the faces of animals, which caused a feeling of mild irritation. Later, they shone a low-power laser, which did not cause irritation. After five weeks of training, the seven monkeys learned to touch the mark on their face in front of a mirror, writes AmericaRu.com