Did you know ANTS are self-aware? Or that giraffes can do mental math? New book documents the little-known brilliance of animal intelligence that may surprise you
- The book explores how animals engage in complex mental math and language
- Even insects, like ants and bees, prove to be more perceptive than expected
- ‘The Animal Mind’ by nature writer and photographer Marianne Taylor is out now
By Matthew Phelan Senior Science Reporter For Dailymail.Com
Published: 07:37 EDT, 3 April 2024 | Updated: 07:37 EDT, 3 April 2024
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Giraffes can do math in their heads
Technically speaking, it’s a miracle of evolution that a giraffe can get its blood pumping 14 to 19 feet up to its brain to do much high-quality thinking at all.
But to the surprise of researchers at the Barcelona Zoo, the tall, hooved creatures are actually capable of doing complex mental math, engaging in statistical inference to assess probabilities and make predictions.
The study, conducted with four of the zoo’s giraffe’s by animal behaviorists as Barcelona University, two male and two female giraffes were shown two clear boxes filled with vegetable sticks.
Each had a mix of carrot and courgette sticks (zucchini), with carrots being the preferred option. But soon, the researchers started putting up barriers to the boxes, hiding visual cues and eliminating scent information.
In a stunning game of intellect, the giraffes managed to select which container was more likely to produce their preferred carrot sticks in 17 out of 20 experiments.
This was based on the relative frequencies of food in the containers, and not on other information such as their sense of smell, the researchers said.
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I would assume that we, as humans, could learn a lot more if we were a little more humble in our position as the apex predator.
Aside from being beautiful, seems like giraffes have some “intelligence”. I wonder if they will ever exceed or replace us?
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Reinke Faces Life 