Study finds giraffes can understand basic mathematics

A new study has found that giraffes are capable of understanding basic mathematics. Researchers in Barcelona, Spain conducted experiments on giraffes at four zoos and discovered that these animals can understand basic quantities and perform simple numerical reasoning.

Scientists from the University of Barcelona, the University of Leipzig and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology tested four giraffes at the Barcelona Zoo. The animals were shown two containers holding different numbers of carrot pieces after which the containers were covered.

The giraffes carefully watched as researchers either added more carrot pieces to the containers or removed some of them. The animals then chose between the two containers.

The study found that 68% of the time, the giraffes selected the container that had received additional carrot pieces. Researchers said this success rate is too high to be explained by random chance alone.

Scientists carried out additional experiments to determine whether the giraffes were relying on other cues such as noticing which container the researchers had touched. They found that two giraffes may have used this strategy.

However, the other two continued choosing the container with more carrots at a similarly high success rate suggesting they were making decisions based on quantity rather than simple observation. The researchers wrote that the performance of these two giraffes may indicate the use of more complex mental calculation processes.

The experiments also showed that the giraffes were less successful when carrot pieces were removed from the containers. In those cases, their choices were close to what would be expected by random chance.

The scientists concluded that while giraffes do not perform mathematics the way humans do, they appear to possess a basic understanding of numbers and quantities which influences their decision-making.