The idea of animals that can count or do maths may sound like viral news stories or tiktok videos. However, the sense of quantity, sometimes called “numbers,” appears in the surprising variety of species.
So which animals can count and understand simple mathematics?
“Many species (land and sea life) including insects, mollusks, lizards, birds and many types of mammals (land and sea life) told Live Science via email. This ability has the evolutionary advantage of helping animals find more food, so they help them stay alive and pass on genes.
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For example, studies have shown that bees (APIS mellifera) count landmarks while they fly towards nectar-rich flowers. Golden Orb Weaver Spider (Nephila Krabi Pes) tracks the number of insects caught in nets.
Túngara Frogs (Physalaemus pustulosus) even stages numerical duels as part of a mating ritual. One man whines that ends with a strange, short sound known as “Chuck.” This competition is growing in number of chucks until you run out of breath.
Lioness (Pantera Leo) weighs the odds in combat by counting the number of roars from approaching rival pride before deciding whether to attack or retreat.
And in 2024, researchers discovered that carrion crows (Corvus Corones) can utter accurate numbers of CAWs depending on their visual or auditory cues, allowing them to be counted loudly between 1 and 4.
However, these species “cannot count in the way humans mean this,” Veran pointed out.
Instead, many animals have cognitive tools that scientists call Giorgio Valortigara, a professor of neuroscience at the University of Trent in Italy, whom scientists have called approximate numbers systems (ANS) or “numbers.” The ANS appears to rely on neurons “number of neurons” that exhibit peak responses to a particular amount. “Interestingly, these neurons have discovered even newly hatched chicks, suggesting that ANS may be innate.”
Related: When was mathematics invented?
This “number” is not a function that relies on your fingers. It’s about making a quick comparison. The two critical characteristics are the distance effect and size effect. The distance effect is the idea that it is easier to distinguish between distant numbers such as 8 and 4 compared to 8 and 6, and the size effect is the idea that it is easier to compare small numbers than large numbers, even if the differences are the same. For example, comparing 2 and 4 is easier than comparing 12 and 14, Vallortigara said.
ANS says that in accordance with Weber’s law, animals recognize differences in quantity based on ratios rather than absolute quantities, Eileen Pepperberg, an auxiliary research professor who worked with Alex the Parrot at Boston University, told Live Science.
Pepperberg and Beran said the ability to estimate quantities using ANS is completely different from the human ability to count. This includes knowing that a number like “4” means exactly four things, whether it is cork, key, or marble. It was explained that true counting also involves learning symbols, understanding the values represented by each number, and knowing the order. Human children need years of learning to get a full grasp of these ideas, and “only a very small number of people” – two chimps called Alex the Parrot and Sheba and Aye “were approaching the real count,” Pepperberg said.
Alex the Parrot can identify Arabic numbers from 1 to 8, order correctly, and even add two sets of objects, such as crackers and jelly beans.
Can animals do mathematics?
For many researchers, counting is considered a precursor and foundation of mathematics, but in reality it is not mathematics itself. So, while many animals seem to be able to do basic counting, the majority are not actually doing math, at least if you notice changes in quantity. This involves arithmetic at the basic level. This is the numbers and symbols used to add, subtract, multiply, and split.
“The kind of formal arithmetic that our children learn in school is clearly a very recent cultural invention,” Valortigara said. He pointed out that some traditional societies, such as the Himba people of Namibia, still rely on the ANS to estimate the amount. With the rise of agriculture and livestock agriculture, humans need more accurate calculations and can produce formal arithmetic.
However, scientists have devised clever experiments to show that some selected species could potentially be able to handle simple mathematics such as additions and subtractions, Veran said.
When trained to associate certain colors or symbols with arithmetic operations, several animal species, including African grey parrots, pigeons, certain primates, honeybees, stintrays and cichlids, have demonstrated the ability to make basic additions and subtractions in a small number. In these experiments, animals learned to interpret visual cues (such as a blue dot to “add one”). I then applied those rules to solve simple math problems.
“And perhaps, with creative design, even multiplication and division of some forms, it’s really a special case of addition/subtraction. [might be possible]”Beran said.
However, when mathematics includes many numbers, such as 12 + 22 or more complex formulas, as used in algebra, “in this case, the non-human animal ability for arithmetic, is much weaker in this case,” Veran said.
PI Quiz: How much do you know about this irrational number?
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