[Lewis Thomson (OP)]

Donald has sent in another question to the forum for answers.

"Are there classifications of how different animals with eyes act/react/learn to behave with unnatural objects like windows, mirrors, or visual illusions. Obviously they might adapt like fish in a glass aquarium, but initially, there must be curiosity/exploration/testing. Birds fly into windows, cats hiss at their reflection,  but what about octopus, turtles, lions, elephants, penguins, etc. Can animals be fooled by visual illusions that humans usually require their advanced cortex to process?"

Submit your answers and findings in the comments below...

[evan_au]

There is a well-known "mirror test": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror_test
- Birds that repeatedly fly at windows are probably males attacking a perceived threat in their territory.
- I think that trying the mirror test on dolphins shows a failure of imagination by human experimenters (or lack of appreciation of the dolphin umwelt), since dolphins see their sonar reflection in any smooth surface (including the walls of a tank).

I am not so sure of visual illusions, but to some extent that also comes back to umwelt.
- For example, the mirror test did not fool my dog for very long, because dogs are strongly driven by smell.
- I'm not sure how you would construct an olfactory illusion, although I often mislead my dog on his daily puzzle hunt by leaving false scent trails...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umwelt

[chiralSPO]

Well, this cat certainly appears to perceive motion in this static picture:

Perhaps just like we do:

rotsnake.jpg (613.75 kB . 1024x768 - viewed 1012 times)

[alancalverd]

Many animals and birds have greater visual acuity, both spatial and temporal, than humans, and birds in particular have exceptional visual memories and pattern recognition.

Fish and birds are often observed to attack their reflections, but whether this is due to stupidity or extreme intelligence (watch a boxer practicing in front of a mirror to sharpen his reflexes) is not clear.

Homo sapiens spends an inordinate amount of time in front of mirrors, much of it applying and removing "natural" warpaint (wax on, wax off) or shaving off a beard. The reason for this behavior is not clear, but it is known to be a very stupid species with severely defective vision.

[Bored chemist]

The reason for this behavior is not clear, but it is known to be a very stupid species with severely defective vision.

That's unfair; our vision is within an order of magnitude or so of being diffraction or quantum limited. We are getting close to the "diminishing returns" issue there.
We also have much better colour vision that many species (though others have better).
 
I can't argue against the claim that the species is stupid.
On the other hand

Fish and birds are often observed to attack their reflections, but whether this is due to stupidity or extreme intelligence (watch a boxer practicing in front of a mirror to sharpen his reflexes) is not clear.

Are you saying that boxers are the most intelligent of our species?

[alancalverd]

I've never seen a vulture with spectacles, nor a human that could navigate by solar polarisation.

Are you saying that boxers are the most intelligent of our species?

I have it on the authority of Mohammed Ali, with whom I would not have cared to argue. Chris Eubank comes across as brighter and more honest than a politician, but that's not saying much, I guess..

[vhfpmr]

https://twitter.com/buitengebieden/status/1523065975654195201
https://twitter.com/buitengebieden/status/1527524346872332289
https://twitter.com/philipnolan1/status/1515260865892732928
https://twitter.com/Yoda4ever/status/1519881660744962049