Cleaner fish recognise own reflection better than human infants

Here's looking at you: cleaner fish perform better at facial recognition than very young children. Keystone / Antonio Lacerda

Cleaner fish have a previously unknown talent of recognising their own reflection in a mirror, research has shown.

This species of fish ranks above pigs, dogs and human infants under the age of two at this mental feat.

Scientists from the universities of Neuchâtel and Osaka performed a series of tests to determine the cleaner fish’s powers of memory and recognition.

The fish attacked their own reflection at first but soon apparently learned that they were peering into their own reflection and acted calmly.

The researchers then went several stages further to test this behaviour.

They first drew a spot, resembling a parasite on the throats of fish, which scratched that exact spot when looking into a mirror.

They were then shown manipulated images of their own face on the body of another fish, which produced no reaction.

But the fish would attack an image that sported another’s face imposed on their body.

The results of the research project have been published in the journal ‘Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences’.