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Posted by JB on December 23, 2001 at 12:43:46: In Reply to: Re: Some general caique questions (kinda long) posted by BRANDY on November 21, 2000 at 20:33:04: IF YOU GET ANYTYPE OF BIRD, NO MATTER WHAT EVERYONE ELSE THINKS, DO NOT GIVE THEM ANY TYPE OF MIRROR. THEY WILL GET ATTACHED AND THEN GET MAD IF YOU TAKE THEM AWAY FROM IT BECAUSE NO MATTER HOW SMART THEY ARE, THEY ALWAYS THINK THAT MIRROR IS THERE COMPANION. Actually, birds have a very good self-awareness. Between 10 and 20 years ago (I can't remember at the moment!) there was testing done for psychological purposes, trying to discover if birds had self-awareness. (I believe the author of the experiment was trying to refute the idea that humans are special because we have self-awareness!) During this test, a pigeon was trained to peck at a blue dot, even when the dot was on it's own body. Then the experimenters rigged a bib on the little guy, so that he couldn't see the dot unless he looked in a mirror. Instead of peckig at the blue dot on the mirror, the bird would still turn to his own body and peck it, even though he could see no dot! Mirrors are loved by birds because it's an interactive toy and generally really fun, changing every time they move and all sorts of neat things. But they do know that it's not another bird. JB
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