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Sophie F's posting lead me into an interesting journey through the winding information mines of the Internet, as I wondered to myself, "Is consciousness a uniquely human trait?" Looking to the example of non-human primates, my gut instinct was "no, but I wonder what aspects of consciousness are?"

The mirror test, developed in the 1970s, was designed to test whether chimpanzees had self-awareness. The test involves placing a mark on the forehead of the subject, then placing them in front of the mirror and seeing how the organism reacts. Very young children (and I will tell you anecdotally that this is true of my stupid, 20-lb kitten, too), when placed in front of a mirror, will react as though they are seeing another child, but children who are around 18 months old will see the mark and try to wipe it off, which suggests that they are capable of recognizing the image in the mirror as themselves. Humans, great apes (excluding gorillas), dolphins, and elephants have all been documented as recognizing their reflections.
Critics claim that the test doesn't prove an animal is actually conscious of itself, but merely capable of modeling its environment.

I'm interested in further exploring what other tests for consciousness have been done with non-human primates, given that we know that primates are capable of solving problems, modeling body language, and even communicating with humans through sign language and flash cards.
If you're interested in reading more about the mirror test, this webpage has some information, along with really cute pictures of chimpanzees. There's also a really old article about tests of primate consciousness in Science Magazine.