TY - JOUR TI - Wild recognition: conducting the mark test for mirror self-recognition on wild baboons Y1 - 2025/01// AV - public VL - 292 N1 - © 2025 The Author(s). Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited. IS - 2039 ID - discovery10204001 N2 - The distribution of self-awareness across species is important to understand, not only as a matter of scientific interest but also because of its implications for the ethical standing of non-human animals. The prevailing methodology for determining self-awareness is to test for visual self-recognition using mirror-image stimulation and a ?mark test?. However, most studies have involved very small sample sizes, omitted a control condition and been conducted on captive animals. Here, we designed and implemented the first controlled mark test in a wild setting, conducting the mark test using a laser pointer on a large (n = 51 individuals, 135 mark tests) sample of wild chacma baboons (Papio ursinus) in situ. Control tests showed that baboons were interested in the mark, but this interest decreased with age, and was greater in males and towards green (cf. red) marks. However, as predicted, subjects showed no evidence of visual self-recognition, which, given the control, cannot be attributed to a lack of motivation in the mark. Our study proposes a novel, controlled mark test in situ and contributes to the evidence that, without extensive training, non-hominid primates are not capable of full visual self-recognition. SN - 1471-2954 UR - https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2024.1933 PB - The Royal Society JF - Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences KW - Baboon KW - mark test KW - mirror self-recognition KW - Papio ursinus KW - self-awareness A1 - Ahmad, Esa A A1 - Reiderman, Helen A1 - Huchard, Elise A1 - Delaunay, Axelle A1 - Roatti, Vittoria A1 - Cowlishaw, Guy A1 - Carter, Alecia ER -