Science: Giraffes may be able to perform statistical calculations

the giraffes They can calculate which option is most likely to produce their favorite food based on basic statistical calculations, these are the conclusions of an article published in Scientific reports. This discovery is based on a study of four Aloe giraffes Barcelona Zoo, suggesting that giraffes may have more advanced statistical abilities than previously thought. The ability to make statistical inferences is a highly developed cognitive function and has only been tested in large-brained animals primates And bag (Nestor Notables).

However, the statistical capabilities of animals with relatively smaller brains, such as giraffes (camelopardalis giraffe), has not been tested. Federica’s friends Giraffes and two women were given a choice between two stringy vegetable sticks pulled from transparent containers containing different proportions of their favorite carrot sticks and zucchini sticks.

The great computing power of giraffes

while the giraffe He could see the amounts of different vegetables in each bowl, and he couldn’t see which ones Vegetables Selected authors and presenters. Various conditions included a container containing 20 carrots plus 100 zucchini vs. one containing 100 carrots plus 20 zucchini vs. 20 carrots plus 100 zucchini vs. 20 carrots plus four zucchini, and finally 57 carrots plus 63 zucchini chunks vs. 3 carrots and 63 zucchini. zucchini.

These last two conditions are checked whether giraffes The relative frequencies of vegetables can be estimated, rather than the absolute number of each. In at least 17 of the 20 trials, giraffes were able to reliably choose the container they were most likely to produce. Favorite carrot sticks.

The authors used control conditions to exclude if the giraffe used other information, such as the sense of speech.Smell (rather than seeing containers) or evidence from the experimenters, when they made up their minds. The authors report that these results show similar statistical reasoning to those observed in primates and in bag.

Given the size brain relatively small group of giraffes, the authors suggest that A big brain It may not be a prerequisite for complex statistical ability, and that the ability to make statistical inferences may be more widespread in the animal kingdom than previously thought.