Horses’ Self-recognition in the Mirror Test. New Approach

This paper aims to present a new, modified mirror test procedure and to answer the question of whether the domestic horse (Equus caballus) is a self-conscious species in terms of reflexive consciousness. The new approach to the mirror test is characterised by a reduction in the animal’s exposure time to the mirror image, changes in the marker, and introduction of a control condition, which minimises the likelihood of false positive results. The sample includes 24 horses tested in two conditions. A quarter of the horses tested were able to detect a treat that was invisible to them, without seeing themselves in the mirror. This behaviour was interpreted as self-recognition. This proportion turned out to be statistically significantly different from the proportion expected in the null hypothesis, as shown by the McNemar test. In the light of the above results of the experiment and theoretical analysis of the characteristics of the species we draw a conclusion that the observed horses’ self-recognition is a likely mark of their self-consciousness.