Animals that count

The ability to sense numbers is not the " specialty " of humans because many animals like lemurs and honey bees can count.

Can animals count?

1. Red-backed salamanders

Psychologist Claudia Uller of Essex University (UK) tested the counting ability of red-backed salamanders in the US with tubes containing fruit flies . She found that they could distinguish tubes with 1,2 and 3 flies. But when Uller showed only three and four flies, they became awkward. She then continued to increase the number of flies in the tube to 16 and found that the animals continued to distinguish numbers from 5 to 16.

Red-backed salamanders.(Photo: umich.edu)

2. Chicken

If chickens are split into several groups, chicks often run to the largest group. Rosa Rugani and Lucia Regolin - two University of Padova scientists (Italy) discovered that chicks can distinguish numbers, making simple addition and subtraction.

Chicken.(Photo: Lucia Regolin)

3. North American ginseng

Laying eggs in another nest is quite common behavior in North American ginseng. They do so for other children to hatch their eggs and raise their children. To prevent the risk of being cheated, ginseng developed a special ability. They count and remember the number of eggs in the nest after each delivery. Therefore, ginseng can detect strange eggs if it appears.

North American ginseng.(Photo: Newscientist)

4. Rhesus Monkey

There is much evidence that some primates feel about numbers like humans. For example, Duke University scientists (USA) have demonstrated that Rhesus monkeys (monkey herds) have the ability to identify the most physical group among many groups. Their accuracy does not change after many choices.

Rhesus Monkey.

5. Fish eat mosquitoes

Christian Agrillo and his colleagues at the University of Padova (Italy) found that the gambusia affinis can distinguish the more individual fish. With many specific tests, the team demonstrated that mosquito-eating fish can distinguish numbers from 1 to 16.

Fish eat mosquitoes.

7. Lemurs

Zoologist Elizabeth Brannon of Duke University (USA) studies the behavior of lemurs in decades. With some experiments, she proved that bell-tailed lemurs can arrange numbers in order of increasing or decreasing. In addition, another species of mongoose lemurs have the ability to know the change in the number of objects (increase or decrease) in their surroundings.

Elizabeth Brannon is experimenting with a mongoose lemur.(Photo: Elizabeth Brannon)

8. Honey bees

This is the first insect to have a chance to prove that it has a sense of numbers. Dr. Jurgen Tautz, a scientist from the University of Wurzburg (Germany) and his colleagues found that honey bees are capable of distinguishing groups of 1,2,3,4 and 5 objects. However, they only distinguish the two groups. If you see three groups of objects or more, bees will be confused.

Honeybee.