- Beardie name(s)
- Taco
How do your dragons react to mirrors?
I thought about showing him a mirror as a form of enrichment for a while. Yesterday when letting him out, I've walked with him past the bathroom and just decided to show him the mirror. His reaction was interested but surprisingly not anything like overly excited, angry, shocked, wanting to hide...
I would guess he knew that's just him and me*, maybe he has already learned that from subtle reflections like in the glass, or when letting him out and there is a reflection in a shiny metal object or such. He once watched me closely when I was doing some crafts with aluminum foil. He hasn't seen a proper mirror, however, until yesterday.
So, how do your dragons react?
Are you using mirrors for enrichment?
(I'm of course not intending to leave him unsupervised with a mirror.)
*Regarding whether animals understand they see themselves in a mirror: I have read some recent publication and they say that the usual "mirror test" with placing a dot on an animal's head (if they ignore it in a mirror, they don't recognize themselves but if they remove it when seeing themselves in a mirror they recognize themselves) shouldn't be considered as a good test anymore. The reaction to the dot is said to come more from they might feel the paint or glue, then from seeing in the mirror something is off. Many animals will recognize themselves in a mirror if shown along with something else, like in the above situation: dragon can see his surroundings (incl. me while sitting on my shoulder) while looking into the mirror and so might better associate "person over there just looks like my person, then this dragon is just me and that's just this weird human object that makes this".
(To me, with some background in biology, this makes sense: If you have never seen yourself in a mirror, how would you know that a dot on your face doesn't originally belong to you so it's "dirt" to be removed, whereas e.g. your freckled skin, spots on your fur... that's you? But getting the clue from "ok, this thing in there is the same as the thing here, and if I move this animal also moves, so this animal, that's just me" (or for other animals, not being able to understand that) seems to be to me a better indicator.)
I thought about showing him a mirror as a form of enrichment for a while. Yesterday when letting him out, I've walked with him past the bathroom and just decided to show him the mirror. His reaction was interested but surprisingly not anything like overly excited, angry, shocked, wanting to hide...
I would guess he knew that's just him and me*, maybe he has already learned that from subtle reflections like in the glass, or when letting him out and there is a reflection in a shiny metal object or such. He once watched me closely when I was doing some crafts with aluminum foil. He hasn't seen a proper mirror, however, until yesterday.
So, how do your dragons react?
Are you using mirrors for enrichment?
(I'm of course not intending to leave him unsupervised with a mirror.)
*Regarding whether animals understand they see themselves in a mirror: I have read some recent publication and they say that the usual "mirror test" with placing a dot on an animal's head (if they ignore it in a mirror, they don't recognize themselves but if they remove it when seeing themselves in a mirror they recognize themselves) shouldn't be considered as a good test anymore. The reaction to the dot is said to come more from they might feel the paint or glue, then from seeing in the mirror something is off. Many animals will recognize themselves in a mirror if shown along with something else, like in the above situation: dragon can see his surroundings (incl. me while sitting on my shoulder) while looking into the mirror and so might better associate "person over there just looks like my person, then this dragon is just me and that's just this weird human object that makes this".
(To me, with some background in biology, this makes sense: If you have never seen yourself in a mirror, how would you know that a dot on your face doesn't originally belong to you so it's "dirt" to be removed, whereas e.g. your freckled skin, spots on your fur... that's you? But getting the clue from "ok, this thing in there is the same as the thing here, and if I move this animal also moves, so this animal, that's just me" (or for other animals, not being able to understand that) seems to be to me a better indicator.)