Beasts of Burden: Animal and Disability Liberation

by Sunaura Taylor

Despite these complexities, many species of animals have passed the test, including chimpanzees, bonobos, orangutans, gorillas, bottlenose dolphins, orcas, elephants, and magpies. Some species were more difficult to test than others because of their species-specific cultures, though. For example, gorillas were thought unable to pass the mirror test until scientists realized that gorillas have a strong aversion to eye contact and are easily embarrassed. Gorillas would often leave the mirror, go hide, and then try to remove the mark in private. Joshua Plotnik, the head of elephant research at the Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation in Thailand, commented, “The mark test can be difficult to apply across species because it assumes that a particular animal will be interested in something weird on their body. Primates are interested in such things—we’re groomers. But elephants are different. They’re huge and they’re used to putting things on, not taking things off of their bodies, like mud and dirt.” The test also privileges vision—we really can’t tell much about the fact that dogs, for example, fail the mirror test, because we know vision is not their prominent sense.56