Is there compelling evidence chimps, orangutans, and dolphins are conscious and self-aware?
In 1977 the psychologist Gordon Gallup published an article entitled “Self-Recognition in Primates.” When chimpanzees born in the wild were confronted with a full-length mirror, at first — like other animals — they thought the reflection was someone else. But within a few days they had figured it out. Then they’d use the mirror to preen, and to examine inaccessible parts of themselves, looking over their shoulders to view their backs, for example. Gallup then anesthetized the chimps and painted them red — in places that they could see only in the mirror. Upon regaining consciousness and resuming the pleasures of self-examination in the mirrors, they quickly discovered the red marks. Did they reach out to the ape in the glass? Instead, they groped their own bodies, touched the painted areas repeatedly, and then smelled their fingers. They trebled the time they spent each day examining their mirror images. Among the other great apes, Gallup found mirror self-awareness in oranges, but not
