Carrion crows (Corvus corone corone) fail the mirror mark test yet again

The mirror mark test is generally considered to be an indicator of an animal's ability to recognize itself in the mirror. For this test, an animal is confronted with a mirror and has a mark placed where it can see the mark only with the help of the mirror. When the animal extensively touches or interacts with the mark, compared with control conditions, the mirror mark test is passed. Many nonhuman animal species have been tested, but few have succeeded. After magpies and Indian house crows passed, there has been a sustained interest to find out whether other corvids would pass the mirror mark test. Here, we presented 12 carrion crows (Corvus corone corone) with the mirror mark test. There was no significant increase of mark-directed behavior in the mirror mark test, compared with control conditions. We find very few occasions of mark-directed behaviors and have to interpret them in the context of self-directed behavior more generally. In addition, we show that our crows were motivated to interact with a mark when it was visible to them without the aid of a mirror. We conclude that our crows fail the test, and thereby replicate previous studies showing a similar failure in corvids, and crows in particular. Because our study adds to the growing literature of corvids failing the mirror mark test, the issue of mirror self-recognition in these birds remains controversial. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).