For the approximately three hundred signatories, there is little doubt and even “strong scientific support” concerning a first group formed by mammals and birds, while serious signs are accumulating for “all vertebrates, including reptiles, amphibians or fish” but also for invertebrates such as insects, ten-legged crustaceans (crayfish, crabs, shrimps, etc.) and cephalopods (octopuses, cuttlefish, nautiluses, etc.). This “realistic possibility” of consciousness in this second group is based on research conducted in the last decade. For example: crayfish can suffer from anxiety and see it relieved by taking anxiolytics, shrimps recoil when their eyes are gouged out, cuttlefish can remember how they experienced an object (sight or touch), octopuses avoid pain if they can, bumblebees can play ball, fruit flies see their sleep disturbed by social isolation…
Basic subjective experience
The Declaration is limited to the “phenomenal consciousness”in other words the subjective experience. “CThis consciousness includes both sensory experiences, for example the experience of touch, taste, sight or smell, and experiences that feel good or bad, for example the experience of pleasure, pain, hope or fear.”explains the philosopher Jonathan Birch, professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science and initiator of the Declaration.
The octopus, this “alien” with fascinating intelligence
However, some signatories go much further. “Consciousness comes in several levelssays for example the neuroscientist Martin Giurfa (Sorbonne), who studies consciousness in bees. The first level is basal, we can speak of sentience, a term which is associated with consciousness and designates the capacity of an animal to experience subjective sensations and emotions. Our latest study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, suggests that bees can experience what we would call mammalian fear. We can broaden this notion of consciousness to “access consciousness”, the ability to manipulate previously acquired information to produce a new solution and not a reflex response. We can also talk about self-awareness: does the animal recognize itself as an individual distinct from others and the environment? There is also metacognition, that is to say the awareness of one’s own knowledge, which implies self-awareness. We have a protocol ready to study metacognition in bees.”
Crows under electrodes
Among the various existing protocols, a well-known test for assessing self-awareness in animals, for example, is the mirror test, explains ethology professor François Verheggen (ULiège). The experiment consists of placing a colored mark on the animal’s head that it cannot see for itself and then placing the subject in front of a mirror. If the individual shows unusual movements or tries to remove the mark, it is because he has understood that the image in the mirror is his. “Ravens and crows pass it, as do great apes, cetaceans, elephants and even a fish, the cleaner wrasse! This test gives great information, but one should not limit consciousness to the fact of passing or failing the mirror test, judges the zoologist. For example, neuroscience, by analyzing the reactions of the brain, will allow us to decipher whether the animal has a certain level of consciousness. In one study, crows, which had electrodes placed on their heads, were trained to look at a screen and press, depending on figures and the color of different lights. Thanks to the electrodes, we could observe a neuronal response that demonstrates that the bird places itself in a waiting position or not, depending on what appears or not. There was a memorization and an adaptation of the behavioral response according to different contexts. They have a form of consciousness without even having a cerebral cortex.”
“Mom, stop, I’m hungry!”: This scientist decodes conversations between baby whales and their mother
However, it is difficult to say exactly which species are “conscious” and at what “level” because not all of them have been studied, in general.Researchers work on a reduced number of species because it is very complicatedunderlines Martin Giurfa. To set up these experiments, we use “animal models”, a species which over many years of study has been established as an experimental animal because we have specified laboratory breeding methods, experimental protocols which work for test and train these animals… For insects, for example, there are very few animal models…”
Societal implications
But despite the “many uncertainties” and even if everything is not fixed for all species, the New York Declaration considers that it is nevertheless necessary to apply the precautionary principle in the management of their well-being.The most obvious would be an end to inhumane treatment (captivity, exploitation, suffering, etc.) and gratuitous killings. This would move towards taking into consideration the interests of animals, in their diversity, including their interest in continuing to exist in a favorable environment. I am talking about the protection of ecosystems. Significant work must be done at the level of animal experimentation, with the development of alternative methods. And of course, a collective reflection must take place (it is taking place) about the exploitation of livestock, notes anthropologist Véronique Servais, professor at ULiège and signatory of the textThe point of the statement is to show that many animal species have skills, emotions, mental states, even animal species very different from us…”
