A mirror can reveal more than just an image. It can highlight nuanced personality traits like vanity or insecurity. Placed in front of an animal of another species, a mirror can serve as a valuable tool to unlock secrets of intelligence and self-recognition.

Mark Fernley of ‘Untamed Photography’ set up a mirror and camera traps in various parts of the Amazon rainforest. His hope was to capture and observe the rainforest animals’ interactions with the mirror. While he was able to capture the behaviors of numerous animals, like wild pigs and a colorful bird called a trumpeter, he was most interested in the behaviors of the big cats in front of the mirror.

In 2015, Diana Reiss, an animal psychologist