What animals can count? Can animals count? Can animals count

We all remember the old Soviet cartoon "The Kid Who Counted to Ten". In this story, the goat was first punished for his education, but then the ability to count saved not only the mathematician himself, but also his friends. In reality, animals cannot boast of the same ingenuity, but they can solve some addition and subtraction problems. Especially if they are related to food.

Quack horse and sweet tooth dogs

At the end of the 19th century, the teacher Wilhelm von Osten made headlines when he introduced his horse, Clever Hans, to the public, who could count. The horse "tapped" with its hoof the correct answer to the owner's tasks. However, pretty soon the deception was revealed: it turned out that Hans simply reacted to the signs of an enterprising teacher and stopped knocking at the right moment.

Even though Clever Hans turned out to be a scammer, modern researchers have found that many animals exhibit certain counting skills. For example, dogs can tell the difference between two and three treats and can even count up to five. If you place three treats on the floor, then cover them, and when you open them again, remove one, the dog will still remember that there were three treats and will persistently search for the missing one.

Well, with dogs, of course. They lived with people for a long time, learned something. And what about wild animals? Studies of black bears have shown that they can distinguish between a different number of dots in an image - they cannot count, but they have an understanding of numbers.

Self-taught monkeys and ant pedometer

The math skills of chimpanzees are even more impressive. When Ohio State University professor Sally Boysen taught chimpanzees to count, they ended up learning to add and subtract themselves. Another group of scientists from the University of Rochester conducted an experiment with rhesus monkeys, during which they found that monkeys count almost as well as college students, and with faster reactions. When this experiment was repeated with pigeons, the birds almost caught up with the monkeys in terms of results.

But what about even smaller and simpler creatures? Can they count like mammals or birds? Research on the common mosquito fish suggests that these tiny fish can distinguish between small numbers, but not when it comes to large numbers like four or five.

Even more interesting is the "pedometer" of desert ants. These insects somehow count their steps as they leave the anthill to find their way home. While not exactly counting in the classical sense, the ant is still able to process numbers through a mechanism in the central nervous system.

Municipal budget institution

"Ermakovskaya secondary school No. 2"

Research work

"Can animals think?"

Kulinchenko Camilla and Syatkin Dima

Supervisor : Tyulberova A.A.,

Primary school teacher, ESOSH №2

Ermakovskoye, 2016

Introduction

Chapter I. Theoretical review of the literature.

1. .The science that studies the intelligence of animals.

1. .Rezultaty research scientists.

1. .The smartest animal.

Chapter II. Identification of the generalized opinion of the interviewed people about the ability of animals to think.

2.1. Organization and research methods.

2.2. Observations.

2.3. Questioning.

2.5.IQ test for cats.

Conclusion.

Bibliography.

Application.

Introduction

We have pets at home - cats, dogs, fish. We love to watch them. There is an opinion of people that animals are rational beings. Evidence of this can be cited from life - a dog can run for a newspaper, cats demonstrate captured mice. There is a story about how a dog for many years at a certain time comes to meet his long-lost sailor master. How can you explain the behavior of some animals? "Can animals think?" "Do they have intelligence?"

These questions have been on the minds of people for a long time. And today, the riddles of animal behavior are of interest not only to scientists, but to all those who love nature.

Hypothesis: we assume that animals are capable of thinking.

Objects of study: cats, hamsters.

Subject of study:intellectual abilities of animals.

Objective : find the answer to the question - can animals think?

Tasks:

1) study the literature on this topic;

2) watch feature and popular science films;

3) watch pets;

4) interview relatives and friends;

5) analyze the results and formulate conclusions

Working methods:

theoretical: study of sources of information;

practical : observation, questioning;

Interviewing;

Generalization and conclusions.

Practical significance: the results of the study can be used in the lessons of the surrounding world, in class hours and in life.

Chapter I Theoretical review of the literature.

1. The science that studies the intelligence of animals.

As a result of studying the topic, we got acquainted with science - cognitive ethology.Cognitive ethology(lat. cognitio - knowledge) studies the intelligence of animals. Intelligence is understood as the ability to carry out the process of cognition and to solve problems, in particular, when mastering a new range of life tasks. "Cognitive" means "learning process". Cognitive processes include perception, memorization, information processing, decision making.

Cognitive ethology is a relatively new science around which until recently there were critical opinions regarding the scientific status.

Cognitive ethology has common areas of study with a number of scientific fields and disciplines. Within the framework of cognitive ethology, it is considered:

Zoopsychology studies the patterns and functions of the psyche, innate and acquired, considering in a comparative aspect the psychology of primates and humans, especially children.

Comparative psychology- a branch of psychology that studies the similarities and differences in behavior and psyche between animals and humans

Ethology studies innate, instinctive forms of behavior

1.2. The results of the study of scientists

When asked whether animals think, scientists answer this question in different ways. While the behavior of animals is studied only in laboratories by physiological methods, the answer was: no, they don’t think, they have the same instincts and reflexes, I. P. Pavlov fined his employees for the expressions: “the dog thought”, “the dog wanted”, “the dog felt” . But at the end of his career, he already wrote that the conditioned reflex is not only a physiological phenomenon, but also a psychological one.

German scientist German Reimarus admitted that animals have actions that can be compared with rational human behavior. Reimarus, like his contemporaries and predecessors, included in this category, first of all, the ability to imitate and learn.

He spoke for the first time about the presence of intelligence and emotions in animals Charles Darwin , who believed that, along with instincts and associations, they also have "the ability to reason." Darwin believed that the rudiments of the mind ("the ability to reason" - Eng. Reasoning) are also inherent in many animals, like instincts and the ability to learn.

A friend and associate of Darwin also spoke about the evolutionary process, John Romens (1848-1894). The most famous was his book The Mind of Animals (1888), where he acted as a naturalist who sought to prove the unity and continuity of the development of the psyche at all levels of the evolutionary process.

A. N. Severtsov in his book "Evolution and the Psyche" (1922) believed that in animals, in addition to instincts and simple conditioned reflexes, there is a type of behavior that can be characterized as reasonable.

Head of the Laboratory of Physiology and Genetics of Behavior, Faculty of Biology, Moscow State University, Doctor of BiologyZoya Alexandrovna Zorina: “The unique abilities of a person, his thinking really have biological prerequisites. And between the human psyche and the psyche of animals there is no impassable abyss, which for a long time was somehow attributed and implied. Moreover, back in the middle of the 19th century, Darwin said about this that the difference between the psyche of man and animals, no matter how great it may be, is a difference in degree, not in quality.

A special contribution to the study of the behavior and psyche of animals was made byNadezhda Nikolaevna Ladygina-Kots(Fig. 1). Nadezhda Nikolaevna Ladygina-Kots in 1913 bought a chimpanzee who was 1.5 years old. And for two and a half years she studied him, described his behavior and for the first time showed clearly, reliably, experimentally that, at least in chimpanzees, there are elements of human thinking, that they are capable of generalization.

In the same years, in 1914, a German scientist Wolfgang Köhler , working all these years with a colony of monkeys, he became convinced that anthropoid monkeys, anthropoid apes, in any case .. that their behavior is by no means only and not so much the result of learning; and not only instincts and some innate reactions underlie their behavior; that these animals are capable, when faced with a new task, for which they have no solution, as such, neither innate nor acquired as a result of learning, that they are able to solve these problems. How? By analyzing the situation.

At the beginning of the 20th century (1900-1904) Baron W. von Osten, convinced of the enormous mental abilities of horses, he taught several of them to distinguish colors, the alphabet and “counting”. The recognition of each letter or number was indicated by the corresponding number of hoof beats.

Foreign scientists have come to such conclusions only now, and our ornithologists have known all this for a long time. That is, that the crow has intelligence. More than two years ago, in the newspaper "World of News" the article was called "Intellectual Crow". And there it is said that the famous Russian scientist Leonid Viktorovich Krushinsky made something like a rating of the mental abilities of representatives of the fauna. This rating shows that among the birds the smartest are crows and jackdaws (jackdaws, by the way, belong to the same family of corvids as crows and crows), moreover, crows are higher in mental development than cats, dogs and even wolves. “Some of the tasks that wolves solved were handled by seven-year-olds,” the scientists say. "It's easy to assume that a crow's mind corresponds to the intelligence of an eight or nine-year-old child."

1.3. The smartest animal

Ask five scientists to list the smartest animals and you'll get five different answers. Most experts consider man to be the most developed, complex and intelligent animal, but some question this. In identifying the smartest animals, the problem in particular is that there are several different kinds of intelligence: the ability to communicate, the ability to adapt to the environment, and the ability to solve problems that arise. And scientists have always tried to find out how the brains of animals work - despite the fact that communication between animals and people is very limited. People traditionally consider themselves the smartest creatures. We are able to think, analyze, memorize and reproduce information. However, we are not the only ones who can do this. Here is a list of 6 smartest animals, which are not very different from people in their mental abilities. (Table 1)

Table 1.

Chapter II Revealing the generalized opinion of the interviewed people about the ability of animals to think.

2.1. Organization and research methods.

We conducted an interview to identify opinions about whether animals can think. The following questions were asked:

1. Do animals think or not?

2. What role can understanding their thinking abilities play?

In order to find the answer, we went to a veterinary clinic and interviewed a veterinarian - Krytsina Elena Sergeevna.

To our questions, Elena Sergeevna said that, in her opinion, animals think and even feel. When animals come for treatment, they are nervous and worried. Of course, animals differ from each other in their behavior, they, like people, are different in character. When some animals are brought in for treatment, they behave calmly, as if they are waiting for help, they feel human kindness, although the treatment is a little painful. Other pets are very worried, scream, break out of their hands, try to run away, and when they visit the clinic again, they behave the same way, remembering unpleasant procedures.

We took a sick cat for a conversation with a veterinarian - his ears hurt, Elena Sergeevna examined Kuzya and prescribed treatment. Now our cat is healthy.

When we were at the circus, we watched different animals during the performance, the scene with the crocodile was the one we liked the most. The trainer showed the number - the struggle of a man with a crocodile. At the end of the performance, we asked the trainer if animals think? In his opinion: “Reason cannot develop in reptiles at any size of the brain. They are cold-blooded and their brain functions in such a way that all conditioned reflexes are lost when the brain is cooled to a certain low temperature. But the whole rationality of a person consists of conditioned reflexes. Without them, we would be animals."

2.2. Observations.

Dogs and cats that live nearby are amazing with their ingenuity. We have not opened the gate for the dog for a long time, she copes with it perfectly herself. Standing on its hind legs, with its front legs it reaches the handle and presses it, and it knows perfectly well in which direction it opens. If you need to enter, she leans on her, and if you leave, then with her teeth and paws she opens herself.

Djungarian hamsters live in our house - it is very interesting to watch them. The hamster Homa has two wheels in a cage, he always sleeps in one, and runs in the other, and he will never confuse them. And we also conducted an experiment - we wrapped a piece of apple in a candy wrapper. Hamsters easily got their favorite treat out of the wrapper.

Some people consider animals to be just biorobots that have no feelings, but only instincts and reflexes. Undoubtedly, these same instincts and reflexes underlie the behavior of animals. But none of the people who communicate with animals in the slightest degree will deny that they have feelings that cannot be called otherwise than reasonable.

2.3. Questioning.

We conducted a survey on the topic “Do animals think?” among children of 4 "a" class. 25 children were interviewed. The questionnaire consists of 5 questions. (Table 2)

Table 2

From the answers, it became clear that all families of the children surveyed have pets, and even several. All 25 children answered that they love their pets, they are glad to communicate with them, their mood improves.

To the question "Do animals think?"

"Yes" answered 86%

"No" answered 4%

“I don’t know” answered 10%

Chart 1

Also, a survey was conducted among the parents of those previously interviewed children and the question “do animals think”

"Yes" answered 74%

"No" answered 16%

“I don’t know” answered 10%

Schedule

2.4. Analysis of fiction.

Working on our topic, we read not only scientific literature, but also fiction. We read stories about animals by famous writers, about their attitude to the animal world. (Table 3)

Table 3

2.5. IQ test for cats

Intelligence tests are now very widely used in America and Europe to determine the mental potential of adults and children. According to the results of this test, the intelligence quotient - IQ is determined. The higher the IQ, the more highly developed a person (or animal) is considered. A great variety of IQ tests have been developed, including for various types of animals.

According to the tests, we decided to determine the IQ of our cat. The domestic cat intelligence test assesses the cat's motor coordination, wordless communication ability, and environmental adjustment.

According to the test results, the cat scored 78 points. And that means he's smart. See appendix 1.

Conclusion.

The above material shows that animals really have the rudiments of thinking. The main feature of thinking is that it ensures the ability of the animal to make a new adequate decision at the first encounter with an unusual situation.

Scientists call the intelligence of animals in different ways: thinking, intellect, mind or rational activity. As a rule, the word “elementary” is also added, because no matter how “intelligent” animals behave, only a few elements of human thinking are available to them.

Observations obtained, literature study helped us to conclude: “Yes, animals think, but not like people!” But, despite the external complexity and the apparent "reasonableness" of the behavior of animals in nature, their ability to think is at a low level and is poorly expressed. Most of the outwardly complex forms of their behavior are based on instincts and individual experience acquired by animals in the process of life.

But let's not forget that the process of cognition is endless, that any scientific discovery raises new questions and often raises more than it solves. But one answer is known for sure: a person must finally understand that all life on Earth has the right to life, and in conditions when it is in the hands of a person that enormous forces and opportunities are concentrated, a person is responsible for nature, for its preservation and development. Otherwise, he cannot be considered reasonable, since real reason must be good. Man must learn this kindness from animals, even if their intelligence is not very similar to his own. And only when a person becomes kind and generous, he will be able to find a common language with animals, only then their mind and ours will understand each other.

Bibliography

1. Zhanna Reznikova. Intelligence and language of animals and humans. Fundamentals of cognitive ethology. - 1st ed. - M.: Akademkniga, 2005. - 518 p.

2.Karoy Akos "Do animals think?"

3. Z.A. Zorina. Elementary Animal Thinking: Textbook. M.: Aspect Press, 2002.- 320 p.

4.K.E.Fabry. Fundamentals of zoopsychology

Application

IQ test for cats

Do not try to force the cat to act correctly when performing the tasks of the test, just carefully observe it if you want to get an objective result. Do not test kittens under eight weeks old. The test does not require any special equipment. A rope, a pillow, a mirror, and a large plastic bag with handles are all you need.

Part I

Answer the questions carefully.

When answering, your cat gets 1 point

3 points

5 points.

Questions

1. Does your cat feel your mood changes throughout the day?

2. The cat performs at least two verbal commands, for example: , ?

3. Does the cat recognize the expression on the owner's face, such as a smile, an angry frown, an expression of pain or fear?

4. Has the cat developed its own language to express its feelings and desires, for example: purr, squeak, purr, scream?

5. The cat has a certain order of washing, for example, first washes its muzzle with its paw, then licks its back and hind legs, and so on.

6. The cat associates certain events with feelings of joy or pain, such as a car ride, a visit to the vet, and so on.

7. Does a cat have a memory: does it remember names, places it has been to before, favorite but rarely received foods?

8. Does the cat tolerate the presence of other animals, even if they approach her closer than 1 meter?

9. Does the cat have a sense of time, for example, does she know the time of feeding, brushing, etc.?

10. Does a cat use the same paw to wash certain areas of its muzzle, for example, does it wash only the left half of its muzzle with its left paw?

Part II

Follow the test instructions exactly. Each task can be repeated 3 times, while choosing the highest score.

First task.

Put in a large, open plastic bag. Make sure the cat sees the package. Then carefully observe and give the cat points.

A. The cat approaches the bag with curiosity - 1 point.

B. Any part of the body touches the bag (nose, mustache, paw, and so on) - 1 point.

B. The cat looks into the bag - 2 points.

D. She enters the package, then immediately leaves - 3 points.

D. The cat enters the bag and stays there for at least 10 seconds - 3 points.

Second task.

Take a medium-sized pillow and a rope or twine about 1 meter long. Place a pillow in front of the cat while she watches the moving rope. Then slowly pull the rope under the pillow so that it gradually disappears from one side of the pillow and appears on the other.

A. The cat follows the movement of the rope with its eyes - 1 point.

B. The cat touches the rope with its paw - 1 point.

B. She looks at the place on the pillow where the rope disappeared - 2 points.

D. Tries to catch the end of the rope under the pillow with his paw - 2 points.

D. The cat lifts the pillow with its paw to see if the rope is there - 2 points.

E. She looks at the pillow from the side where the rope will appear or has already appeared - 3 points.

Third task.

You need a portable mirror measuring approximately 60-120 cm. Lean the mirror against a wall or furniture. Put your cat in front of a mirror. Watch her and earn points.

A. The cat approaches the mirror - 2 points.

B. Notices his reflection in the mirror - 2 points.

B. Hits the mirror with his paw, plays with his own reflection - 3 points.

The owner answers the questions of this task based on his observations of the cat.

1. Your cat is well oriented in the apartment. This manifests itself in such a way that the cat always runs to the right windows and doors if something interesting happens behind them - 5 points.

2. The cat releases objects from the paw in accordance with its desire or with the instructions of the owner. Your cat will never drop an object by accident - 5 points.

Part IV

If the answer to the questions of this task is positive, the indicated points are subtracted from the total points scored in the previous tasks.

1. The cat sleeps or naps more time than it is awake - subtract 2 points.

2. The cat often plays with its own tail - subtract 1 point.

3. The cat is poorly oriented in the apartment, it can even get lost - subtract 2 points.

Evaluation of results:

Calculate the total number of points scored in the first three parts, and subtract from it the points scored in the fourth part.

82-88 points - your cat is talented and very smart

75-81 points - your cat is very smart

69-74 points - your cat's mental abilities are above average

56-68 points - your cat's mental abilities are average

50-55 points - your cat's mental abilities are slightly below average

44-49 points - your cat is stupid

43 or less points - your cat is completely stupid.

1. 1. Supervisor: Terentyeva T.M., primary school teacher, MKOU secondary school No. 1, town. Kavalerovo, Primorsky Territory Performed by students of grade 3 "B" MKOU secondary school No. 1 village. Kavalerovo Primorsky Krai
2. Hypothesis: We like to watch a cartoon where a goat can count to ten. Do animals really know how to do simple arithmetic? Do we think that animals can count?
3. 3. Crows A crow can count up to seven, and even up to nine. A crow understands that seven cherries are more than six. But heaps of ten and eleven cherries are the same for her.06/03/12 http://aida.ucoz.ru 3
4. 4. Pisces Pisces can count up to 4. They can visually distinguish larger numbers. So, for example, a female will see the difference between groups of 16 and 8 fish, but will not be able to distinguish between schools of 12 and 8 fish.
5. 5. Chimpanzee A chimpanzee trained in counting takes out of the box and gives the experimenter as many sticks as the experimenter asks for. There are 4 sticks left in the box. The experimenter asked for five. What do you think the chimpanzee will do? After thinking for a while, the monkey breaks one stick in half and hands the man five sticks.
6. 6. CanaryA canary can choose a certain number of objects regardless of their color, size or shape.
7. 7. SalamanderSalamander can understand that two is less than three, but can’t count further.
8. 8. Rat A rat can learn to press a lever up to 40-45 times to get food.
9. 9. Jackdaw The jackdaw is able to understand that two groups have the same number of different objects.
10. 10. Conclusion It turns out that some animals can count, and this was proved by the observations of scientists.
11. 11. Internet resources of the Crow - http://horoscope.info.ge/Images/yvavi.gifFish - http://img-fotki.yandex.ru/get/5603/michaelsmirnoff.8c/0_4e796_c0893387_XLChimpanzee - http://www. wpclipart.com/animals/primates/chimp/chimpanzee_in_tree_T.pngCanary - http://img-fotki.yandex.ru/get/5014/89635038.5fe/0_6f5d0_b7cee3be_XLSalamander - http://www.risk.ru/i/post/157 /157132_full.jpgRat - http://samara.strana-ru.ru/cache/pics/samar_050/1268556668_b8c9b633_1_bJackdaw - http://album.foto.ru:8080/photos/or/51915/1634140.jpg

Municipal budgetary preschool education institution kindergarten of a general developmental type No. 335 in Chelyabinsk.

454091, Chelyabinsk, Rossiyskaya street 198a, t/f 2639552

Research project on the subject of mathematics on the topic:

Completed: children gr.Kolokolchiki»

Supervisor:

Rasskazova Antonina Leonidovna

Relevance

The animal world is amazing and diverse. Every inquisitive person can discover something new and unknown in it. In one of our math classes, we watched a cartoon that showed that a goat could count to 10. It was then that most of our group members wanted to find out if animals can actually count. We decided to do a little research.

Hypothesis: After watching a cartoon about a goat that could count and watching the animals in the circus, we assumed that animals can actually count.

Objective of the project : Based on the study of materials from various encyclopedias and Internet sources, find out if animals can count.

Tasks project :

Find out if animals really know how to count;

Find information about experiments and experiments that were carried out on animals to confirm our assumption that animals also have mathematical abilities.

Get to know the world of the animals we have chosen;

Learns to highlight the main facts on the problem of interest from sources and additional literature;

Make a conclusion in the process of research and experiments on this topic.

Research methods:

study of literature on the topic, its analysis;

collection of information from parents.

An object research: mathematical tendencies of animals

Subject research: conditions in which animals learn to count

Plan fulfillment project:

Choose one of the animals to study its mathematical abilities;

Draw a drawing of an animal

To study the experiments of scientists from Russia and other countries who studied the intelligence of an animal and its mathematical abilities

Drawing up a summary of the mathematical abilities of the selected animal;

Make a conclusion.

Expected result: make sure animals can count

Progress

In mathematics classes, we watched a cartoon again about how a kid could count to 10;

In cognitive encyclopedias and Internet sources, we found information that spoke about the results of experiments carried out by scientists on the intellectual and mathematical abilities of animals.

Outlined the main theses of the studied sources.

Drawn animals.

Concluded

Conclusion

Conclusion: found out that there are animals that can count

Project result: made a presentation for a research paper.

Research results- we found out that scientists have repeatedly proved that animals have a much higher intelligence than previously thought: at first, higher primates, dogs and dolphins were considered more prone to arithmetic, followed by parrots and crows, and then it came to sheep, piglets and even insects.

In 1891, retired German teacher Wilhelm von Austin set out to teach his horse Hans arithmetic. Starting with the basics of addition and subtraction, the man soon realized that he could do more. As a result, he taught his horse to solve more complex problems: multiply, divide, subtract from two-digit numbers, and even take the root. Hans gave answers by tapping his hoof on the ground a certain number of times.

The rumor about the learned horse quickly spread throughout Europe.

No wonder that the rumor about the animal's mathematical talents quickly spread both throughout Germany and beyond. People flocked from all over Europe to see with their own eyes a horse that could count. However, scientists could not believe it and decided to assemble a special commission to study the abilities of Hans. And one of the members of this commission, psychologist Oskar Pfungst, noticed one strange feature during a second study. The person who asked the questions knows the answer and gives non-verbal signals to the horse.

In the end, Pfungst proved that a horse can't count, it just taps its hooves and waits for a signal to stop in time. Insignificant nods of the head or straightening of the back were used as such signals. But the conclusion of the commission did not disappoint the owner of the horse at all, and Hans and his owner continued to tour all over Germany in the same way, and the public greeted them with a bang. However, this case is now of interest to the scientists themselves, who set out to find out if there are animals in nature that have the ability to count.

Features of lions existing in prides

One of the most basic and elementary counting skills is determining how much one quantity is greater than another. Did you know that the lions that live in the Serengeti National Park are excellent at this task? Animals can easily determine how their pride differs in numbers from another. This is told by Brian Butterward, an employee of University College London. The scientist claims that lions attack the enemy pride only if they are outnumbered.

And Karen McComb from the University of Sussex in Brighton (UK) conducted the following experiment. A researcher imitated the sounds of a hostile pride's roar while interacting with lions in Tanzania. At that moment, when five lionesses gathered together, McComb imitated the sounds that a group of three lions could make. The lionesses, having heard the roar, immediately rushed to the attack to the place where the loudspeaker was hidden.

However, lions are unlikely to be able to integrate digital information exceeding the roar of six individuals. In this case, a strong roar begins to mislead the animals. However, this impressive feature of the behavior of lion prides prompted scientists to study other species of animals.

Mathematical skills of hyenas

Similar experiments were carried out on chimpanzees, other monkeys and hyenas. And in all cases, the experiments gave similar results. So, spotted hyenas were especially good at comparison skills, and they could count both the number of sounds and the number of objects themselves. Karen McComb states an irrefutable fact: hyenas can solve quite complex problems. However, let's agree that just determining more or less is not enough, and we want to know if animals can understand the exact sequence.

Studies on the Mathematical Ability of Domestic Dogs

Who do we consider the most intelligent and intelligent animals? Of course, dogs. Krista McPherson of the University of Western Ontario (Canada) conducted tests in domestic dogs.
She watched as dogs distinguished the amount of food in opaque bowls. It turned out that dogs can only distinguish between "1" and "0". They understand the difference when there is no food in the bowl at all, and there is a bowl with one product nearby. To distinguish between the number of products, more than one, dogs can not. We apologize to passionate dog lovers who think their pets are the smartest creatures on the planet.

Pacific tree frogs

Counting objects or sounds is not always necessary for animals only for attack or defense. This skill is good for choosing a mating partner. Thus, the Pacific tree frog must find the right pair to reproduce healthy offspring. This is not always easy visually, because many species are very similar to each other.

That is why frogs make characteristic sounds with a certain number of impulses. The duration of the sound emitted by the male Pacific tree frog can reach 10 notes. And this means that the female must correctly assess the situation and calculate the required number of impulses, also focusing on the duration and volume of sounds. So, frogs calculate the number of impulses in the sounds they make in order to find a potential mate, and bees do this in order to make it easier to navigate in space.

worker bees

Worker bees fly from their hive in search of food. After a bee finds nectar, it collects it. If the marker with food is artificially removed, then the bee will still first fly to the place that it remembered for the first time. However, after finding a new place with nectar, the bee will not forget about its old route. If the next marker is also veiled, the insect will find the third location, but also store the entire route in memory. This way the bees can remember how far they have traveled by counting the number of markers between the food and the hive.

Primate counting skills

There is evidence that counting is an innate skill in primates, our closest biological relatives. And some of them are really good at it. For example, Tetsuro Matsuzawa of Kyoto University in Japan has been researching this issue for four decades. The 39-year-old chimpanzee Ai became the first animal to understand the Arabic characters "1" and "2" and learned to match the number of dots on a computer display with the numeric characters on a keyboard. The monkey also managed to study the sequence of the number line up to 5 using apples as an example.

It turns out that evolution has endowed chimpanzees with the ability to calculate. Scientists say that this skill is possible thanks to the neocortex, the part of the brain that is responsible for counting. Of course, many animals have this section, it's just that in primates it is closest to the human.