Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I write about biodiversity and the hidden quirks of the natural world. For decades, self-awareness has been guarded as a very ...

Before squaring up for a fight, some fish check themselves out in the mirror to make sure they're big enough. This strange behavior was seen in bluestreak cleaner wrasse (Labroides dimidiatus), who ...

A shrimp scrap drifted down the face of a mirror, and a small reef fish tracked it like it was watching a slow-motion experiment. The fish, a blue-streak cleaner wrasse, had carried the shrimp upward, ...

In the new experiment, roosters made fewer alarm calls, meant to warn peers of predators, when placed in front a mirror versus when standing near another rooster. Stefano Spaziani / picture alliance ...

One winter several years ago, I conducted one of my weekend retreats at a conference center in western Massachusetts. When I arrived, I heard about another retreat being offered there the same weekend ...

Joining the likes of killer whales (Orcinus orca) and bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus), plus a number of primates, a common dark-furred mouse has passed what’s known as the mirror test, backed ...