Of course the birds strut around it going "So that's what I look like clearly" After a lifetime of puddle and pool reflections, that's got to be a hell of a novelty to them.
u say that but i have seen a bird fight to the dead whit slightly reflective glass because that bird in the glass was invading his territory but i think magpie and crows are smart enough to get it
I think we don't really realize how creeped out the animals must be. Humans with their stunted senses rely heavily on visuals, for us a mirror would be a good imitation of meeting another person; for animals, they'd usually hear or smell other animals before actually seeing them, and then suddenly seeing such an apparition that STILL doesn't emit any noise or smell must be like a human seeing a ghost or zombie, some sort of human-like puppet that clearly lacks some human characteristics.
This is what I was thinking too! I know they rely a lot on smell and truly those animals (perhaps except for the birds) must've been so confused. And yes, probably creeped out. I like how you described it!!
Humans don’t necessarily have stunted senses, our daytime vision is better than most mammals and we can see more colors, just like other primates. Our sense of hearing isn’t horrible either in relation to most animals. That being said most mammals rely on smell and our nose is mostly just for breathing.
@@TheRestedOneIt’s just a gateway to the mirror dimension, nothing to worry about. Your mirrored self will emerge and replace you soon after, as expected.
5:14 I think this deer ideally should pass the Mirror Test. He was curious, approached the anomaly carefully, and started investigating. He noticed that the "other dear" was mimicing his every move. When he walked away at 5:49, he noticed there was no deer where he thought he saw one, and came back to investigate more. He realized that there was no deer but if he stepped just slightly to the right, a "deer" appears and when he walks away the "other deer" completely or partially disappears. He kept bowing his head to see if the "other deer" would also mimic this very specific movement. He didn't look scared to me, just very confused. He was even relaxed enough to eat something. I think ultimately, he was very confused but came to the realization that there was no "other deer" infront of him.
Even if it realized there was no real other deer, did it realize it was its own mirror image though? That is why the mirror test involves a red dot painted on an invisible part of oneself, usually, afaik.
@@savinebabe Show sentience? I have yet to see a human actually show sentience. How can one show sentience? One can only show behaviour. Or how do you define sentience?
The species shown are one of the more damaging predators introduced to New Zealand. Like cats, many think they are cute and harmless, the truth is very different. Even conservation organisations seem to miss that issue., which sometimes isn't bewildering given some of the pearls of wisdom (among plenty of sound information) their brilliant technically skilled amazing etc staff regurgitate.
Actually the magpie's shown are also extremely intelligent! I live in Australian and have therefor have never encountered the Eurasian magpie and as such know little of their intelligence (I do know they are very smart though, as most corvids are) but the ones here know how to unzip lunchboxes and turn on drinking fountains, they also memorize the faces of people who have been kind to them!! These ones too can recognize themselves in mirrors and are known for forming games to play with other members of their flock, which is another sign of intelligence.
Imagine walking down the street and seeing someone across the road that looks exactly like you and moves exactly as you do, but then their head or limbs just disappear every now and then.
5:14 this deer is interesting to me. Unlike other deers that either starts running after they start seeing themselves, or backed away and left. This one actually slowly, and carefully approached the mirror. I love how there are certain animals that isnt easily scared. This one looks genuinely curious. Like, it wanted to know what is it or who it is its seeing. Then assumed its a fellow deer like itself. Then when it left, notice something about the deer, seeing partially missing and then goes back to look at it again. Repeated times it does this, and tried to figure out what its seeing. The only deer that handled the situation calmly and didnt run or backed away at first sight. Just shows not all animals are the same.
It looks like it's testing putting it's head down or doing other thinga to test out if the "other deer" does the same. Like it knows something is fishy, I wonder if it was just curiosity or it was catching on to something
That’s the same deer that will analyze the street before crossing or going another way. The skittish deer are known to be the runners just going head first (generally)
And if the video poster is correct about the summer growing, I think the deer that are influenced by humans more whether it’s this Mirror test or proximity or dudes feeding them in the forest, those deer are often the more confident, “smart deer” while everyone else sees the skittish deer acting out of natural behavior as the “stupid” road kill ones
At 2:29 we have a rare sighting of a "house cat" taking a walk through the deep forest late at night! I shall call him "Cotton Eyed Joe" because I have two questions: Where did he come from and Where did he go?
Him trying to figure it out was hilarious. You can tell his brain is telling him "something isn't right here" but he's really curious as well. Gorgeous set of antlers!
The young deer seems to remember the mirror from when she was younger and didnt run away or get scared during the second encounter. "oh yes, here is that weird thing I had encountered in the woods.. " And the birds clearly love it!
well she was like curios but she felt.. scared? it was just looking at it's reflection, maybe she did not remember but it's really cute to see a deer going back to the same place, it's like some feeling if proudness
I felt sorry for the fawn/yearling. I don't know what happened to her mom, but she was clearly alone and wanted some sort of companionship. Oh well, mirror deer. At least I have you.
maybe. although i'm pretty sure that young deer dont have a smell. so they may be used to deer not having a smell if they've been around really young deer.
there was more going on than that. at 2:30 the bird goes up and checks, looks behind, and what seemed to me like clear communication letting its partner know the suspicious birds were not rivals or something of the sort. Idk but I definitely got a husband going to check out the situation while wife stands back. just my thoughts on that little interesting exchange
Birds in general react much better when seeing their reflection, because they come into contact with their reflection more often. Through the form of windows created by humans or simply by flying over water sources and seeing how reflective they are. This allows them to perceive themselves more often than other animals giving them a stronger sense of self, and awareness. Hence why they are able to check themselves in the mirror.
More to do with the fact that both birds and primates rely heavily on sight while most mammals rely primarily on scent and sound. Imagine seeing your reflection but not being able to smell or hear it
The deer had the most interesting reaction. Seeing it again all that time later, wanting to figure it out, testing out different movements. I wonder if she remembered seeing it when she was younger.
The bottom of my front door has a mirror-polished brass kick plate that the eastern bluebirds love to interact with. At least once a week I hear loud knocking at my door. They hit it hard enough that it sounds like a person is knocking but when I open the door all I see is a startled eastern blue flying off my porch. I'm guessing it's a male eastern blue and he see's his reflection as a threat to his territory. 🤣
when i was a boy, in my bed room there were celing height triangle windows . every summer a bird would come along and sit on floodlights that were about the same height. the bird would start whacking at the window at all hours of the day. the bird was male and he was attacking his own reflection. we put newspapers in the window and that stopped that.
They dont "love" to interact with it genius. They view it as being another bird in their territory and are trying to attack it and make it leave. Birds do this to any sort of window or reflection. It isn't cute, it's harming wildlife and this video is fucking stupid.
The male cardinals in my backyard used to fly into my bedroom window in the morning and attack their reflection. It was an odd sound to hear first thing in the morning. Heard a smack and then the flapping of feathers up against the glass.
This is super intressting to watch! I dont think the deer really fully recognizes itself as himself but just the idea of the deer trying to figure out whats infront of him is super exciting! Animals keep proving that they are smarter than what we give them credit for. They might be predictable like a toddler but every animal carrys its own knowledge kinda like humans do & thats verry wild!
Some animals, like the magpies, can recognize their own reflection, but most animals can't. I imagine it's kind of trippy to see another deer making all the exact same movements as you.
@@dragonsember It's more accurate to say most animals haven't been "proven" (by whatever criteria) to recognize themselves in mirrors. There is some evidence that ants can do this, as well as some fish. I think a deer can figure it out eventually. We can't know what's going on in their minds, but clearly far, far, FAR more animals are capable of self-recognition in mirrors than is accepted. Seems like someone should set the record straight on this, but no one is doing it, bizarrely. Maybe the tests they use are flawed but they just assume a negative means no need for further testing (for example, applying a dot to the animal; some animals may just not care to remove the dot, and they will "fail" the test).
@@HuckleberryHimWell we have to consider that they do have to "Carry on" and survive. When taken out of a survival situation, you can better analyze it because they have more time to relax.
@@HuckleberryHim well, the dot test is more about looking at wether they try to remove the dot from themselves or from the animal they see in the mirror. If they go for themselves you know they understand how the mirror works. The thing is that you're right there could be other reason even if they go for the mirror. They might not have the spatial awareness to understand how to use the mirror to interact with their own body (it's not that easy honestly even if you understand it) or a ton of other reason. And also not understanding mirrors doesn't necessarily mean lacking any form of sentience. But yeah the more we study animals the clearer it gets that they have a much deeper internal world than we give them credit for.
I love showing my animals a mirror. Brought our new rabbit in, it studied itself, pupped it ears up a couple times, nose was going crazy, pretty hilarious. At first it was irritable, so it must have thought it was a rival, after 10 minutes or so it seemed like it figured out what was going on and interest waned.
Mirrors are a great way to tell intelligence level. Magpie knows it is themselves instantly, they are very smart. Pheasant is not to far behind, see self thinks who is that, tries to say hi then realises it is him and is all like hey that is a handsome pheasant right there! 4:52 Buck is not seeing his reflection yet but instantly notices things don't seem right, part of that tree is missing.. what is going on here!?
Interesting video. The ability to self-identify a reflection is a rare characteristic in nature and a sign of significantly higher intelligence. There are only a handful of animals that we know of which can do this - the great apes, dolphins, elephants and maybe octopuses.
@@JazzyWaffles Australian Magpies are not corvids. They are Artamids, a different family all together. The name "magpie" is misleading since they are not closely related to the true magpies from Eurasia and America, they just called them that because of their pied colour.
@@JazzyWafflesMaybe they could, I don’t know much about Australian Magpies, I only know that the Eurasian one can identify their reflection. The ones in this video are a different species though. So it’s unconfirmed whether they can identify themselves or not
Interesting how the birds, especially the magpies, are the most inquisitive (they are very clever, too), but also how that one deer became more curious and began to approach and try to find out what was going on with that mirror...
We used to have a couple long mirrors, and my Australian cattle dog figured out that he was looking at himself when he looked in, and he would go from mirror to mirror with a big grin on his face admiring himself. He was a character. And I think he thought he was very handsome. I am 100% sure that he realized it was himself for multiple reasons.
Be careful carrying large mirrors. I have a friend who had a mirror shatter while he was moving it, and it sliced open his wrist/forearm are so bad that it severed all the the major arteries, veins and tendons. He had to be rushed to the ER to have everything reattached, skin graphs, etc, and he is still partially paralyzed in his fingers and hand.
I agree. The dear kept coming back. I believe it started figuring out that it was looking at itself. They did this with elephants. They would put a mark on an elephants head. The elephant finally realized it was looking at it's reflection and used their trunk to remove the mark from it's own head. Not from its reflection. Animals figure things out.
@@stellviahohenheim oh please, a baby would have act the same, you are just adult and know more than them and there are alot of thing you don't know about, how ignorant of you to comment such thing
Interesting. About a third of the way through, there were two dark and light colored birds. One such looked behind the mirror to try to fathom what might be going on, I guess. Some species of birds are pretty clever. Crows come to mind. I have seen similar clips concerning some of the higher primates that also look behind their puzzling mirrors.
They're magpies! Same group as crows and ravens, and just as smart. They almost definitely recognized themselves in the mirror, corvids are one of the smartest animal groups on the planet.
If I lived in a forest all my life and never saw my reflection, I wouldn't immediately recognize myself in the mirror either. Given that these animals were confronted with something they'd never seen before, their reactions looks quite intelligent. For example, many animals come quite close to their reflection and don't see it as a threat, does that mean they at least realize it's not another animal?
Great video! Thank you for educating us about bush animals, I see a lot of animals I don’t see in America and it’s really fun. They are so cute, especially the fawn seeing herself in the mirror. The deer are adorable!
Possibly the most unhealthy forrest in NewZealand. All those animals and even those pines are all introduced pests. They all taste good though. And the video's interesting to see
Funny because of all these animals are all invasive/foreign species. Deers/ cats/ magpies/ hares/ pheasant/ possum/ stag/ wallaby. Most of these are invasive and shouldn't be in NZ. They are all out of control, no thanks to the British. They may be cute buts it's unfortunate to see them.
Magpies are SO smart...he's probably like, "Damn, that bird is fiiinnneee." LOL OMG that 12-pt buck is gorgeous.There's probably folk tales amongst the forest animals about the "looking glass."
The deer at 5:12 it seems like it begins to understand how the mirror works, or at the very least it's interested in understanding what it's seeing in front of it. I can see the cogs turning in that deer's brain :)
@judoboy83 in this video I meant. There are mostly birds, no mammals other than a bat in Aotearoa. All of the animals in this video are non-native, but the magpie might be self-introduced species from Australia. Aotearoa has wicked bird life, beautiful dawn choruses!
If it wasn’t for the animals this forest would easily pass for the ones in Washington State along the mountains. Very similar types of plant life. Probably a bit less safe for the mirrors due to larger predators that might take harsher exception to perceived territorial intruders, especially bears.
Thanks for making and sharing this. There were a few moments when I thought the deer were going to charge the mirror and end it! Thanks also for trapping possums. 🙏
My neighbor hung a sliding closet mirror door on the side of his barn. The cows don't even seem to notice it but the horses he's got like to do stuff in front of the mirror and watch themselves AND they will push each other away so they can get a turn. He's also got a big one meter (or maybe a yard, just estimating) ball that the 4 of them play soccer with so it's cool to sit on my back porch drinking coffee and watch them. Since I'd seen primates interacting with mirrors I tried putting one up next to the squirrel feeder (I thought it was a bird feeder but the damn tree rats proved me wrong) and they like the mirror a lot too.
One of my favorite things to do with kittens on the farm growing up. It identified my favorites. I also was fortunate enough to raise a deer who was welcome in our house often enough. Bucky John Deer seemed to know it was him in the mirror since there were two of me as well.
I love this so much! It's so cool seeing do many different species ❤ The fawn was so cute running away like, "Mommmm!!" And I love that the super intelligent magpie went to investigate so thoroughly... it looked like one of them even looked around the side of the mirror verifying it was a mirror. I never thought about what a mirror in the wilderness would result in and I'm so happy to find out. Thank you for the great idea and sharing it with us all! ❤❤
I was surprised that the Red stag didn't challenge himself in the mirror. Interesting reactions all around and when I saw the cat, my trigger finger suddenly got itchy. 🤣
They have a great sense of smell. Not great eye sight. It think it takes them longer than some animals to figure it out. But eventually they seem to understand it. Like the baby that aged up seemed scared of it at first but then gradually started playing around with it.
Yes! These are the animal experiments I love seeing! No trapping them, force-feeding them, no near-death experiences, no blood-shed, all in the name of "science". This is wild animals being introduced to something foreign to them in their natural habitat, and they have the freedom to choose whether or not they want to interact with the object. I wish more scientists and animal "experts" would take notes from this guy. He's doing it right.
@@youremom5463 It does make it science. But it also makes it cruelty and torture. So I see it as those two before science. And I do not support or accept science if animal cruelty is involved.
Thank you so much! That was absolutely enjoyable! I thought certainly that the stag was going to challenge himself, but I guess he didn't think his chances were good! Not many animals are self-aware :)
The dear are like "oh shit some kind of black magic". But the bird's are just like " I'm a pretty bird" that possum was definitely a trouble maker haha little tutu.
