The Vanity of Other Species

I've got a cockatiel with an inverted beak - it's a pretty funny looking underbite, but doesn't interfere with his eating - and I've often wondered if animals ever get self-conscious about their appearance. Does my cockatiel have any clue that he looks a little ridiculous? Does the chinese crested hairless dog realize that it's a hairless dog? This probably strikes you as a silly question - vanity, after all, can seem like such a human preoccupation - but the logic of sexual selection would imply that creatures, especially males, are actually exquisitely aware of how they look. That's why my cockatiel spends hours preening himself and gazing into his mirror.

That bit of theorizing was really an excuse to post this video, which holds out the tantalizing possibility that, at least for every other species, beauty really is on the inside:

More like this

A family friend recently found some cockatiel eggs in their pair's cage. One hatched and this little alien emerged. All photos courtesy of Tom Deering.
Please forgive this post, but as the proud parent of a cockatiel with an inverted beak (a common birth defect), it has long upset me that there is very little information available on the web about birds with this "problem".
A few days ago we brought you the astonishingly ugly baby cockatiel. On the other, tastier side of the spectrum, we have this hardboiled ostrich egg and a massive deviled ostrich egg. Again, brought to you by our friends in New Mexico.
As the proud owner of an African Grey Timneh who is preening herself on my shoulder right now, I thought my bird was adept at impersonations.

Oh, wow! It's definitely all about the attitude!

The Australian Bowerbird doesn't feel very self conscious about its appearance per se, but each bird does spend a lot of time very specifically arranging its own colorful found-object display in order to attract mates. The birds with less colorful plumage have especially developed aesthetics.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowerbird

By Tim Schafer (not verified) on 24 Apr 2008 #permalink