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Do rhesus monkeys recognize themselves in mirrors?
Author(s) -
Anderson James R.,
Gallup Gordon G.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
american journal of primatology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.988
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1098-2345
pISSN - 0275-2565
DOI - 10.1002/ajp.20950
Subject(s) - primate , psychology , cognitive psychology , social psychology , neuroscience
Self‐recognition continues to attract attention because of the evidence of a striking difference between the great apes and humans, on the one hand, and all other primates; the former are capable of self‐recognition, whereas no compelling evidence exists for prosimians, monkeys, or lesser apes. This is in spite of numerous attempts to facilitate mirror self‐recognition in other primates. Although all previous attempts to find self‐recognition in rhesus macaques have failed, a recent article [Rajala et al., PLoS One 9:e12865, 2010] claimed the opposite—that adult male rhesus monkeys did recognize their own image in a mirror. We critically examine this claim, and conclude that the article fails to provide acceptable evidence for self‐recognition in rhesus monkeys. Am. J. Primatol. 73:603–606, 2011. © 2011 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.