Thursday 25 October 2018

Asian elephants could be the math kings of the jungle

Experimental evidence shows that Asian elephants possess numerical skills similar to those in humans

Date: October 22, 2018
Source: Springer


Asian elephants demonstrate numeric ability which is closer to that observed in humans rather than in other animals. This is according to lead author Naoko Irie of SOKENDAI (The Graduate University for Advanced Studies and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science) in Japan. In a study published in the Springer-branded Journal of Ethology, Irie and her colleagues found that an Asian elephants' sense of numbers is not affected by distance, magnitude or ratios of presented numerosities, and therefore provides initial experimental evidence that non-human animals have cognitive characteristics similar to human counting.


Previous research has shown that many animals have some form of numerical competence, even though they do not use language. However, this numerical ability is mainly based on inaccurate quantity instead of absolute numbers. In this study, the researchers aimed to replicate the results of previous research that already showed that Asian elephants have exceptional numeric competence.


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