(Web Desk) - A new study has found that giraffes can estimate quantities and understand simple arithmetic changes, suggesting they possess basic numerical abilities.
The research was conducted jointly by scientists from the University of Barcelona, the University of Leipzig, and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. The findings were published in the scientific journal Scientific Reports.
During the study, researchers presented four giraffes at Barcelona Zoo with two containers holding different numbers of carrot pieces. The containers were then covered, and researchers either added or removed carrot pieces in front of the animals.
The results showed that when carrot pieces were added, the giraffes selected the container with the larger quantity in 68% of trials, a performance researchers said was significantly better than chance.
Researchers conducted additional experiments to determine whether the giraffes were simply responding to human actions, such as touching the containers, or were genuinely estimating quantities. The findings suggested that two giraffes may have been influenced by other cues, while the remaining two consistently chose the container with more carrots.
According to the researchers, the performance of those two giraffes indicates they may be capable of using more complex cognitive processes.
However, when carrot pieces were removed from the containers instead of added, the giraffes' performance dropped significantly, with their choices approaching chance levels.
Researchers said giraffes do not perform arithmetic in the same way humans do, but the study suggests they can understand basic concepts of numbers and quantity, which influence their decision-making.