A fascinating study from the University of Barcelona, published in "Scientific Reports," suggests giraffes possess surprising mathematical abilities. Researchers tested four giraffes at the Barcelona Zoo to see if they could track hidden food quantities. The animals watched as varying amounts of carrots were placed into two closed containers, followed by additional carrots from a separate box, meaning they never saw the final totals.
Impressively, the giraffes consistently chose the container with the larger sum, succeeding roughly 68 percent of the time—a rate far too high to be random luck. However, their skills faltered during subtraction tasks or sequential trials, where none of the giraffes could successfully calculate the missing quantities.
Two giraffes, Nuru and Njano, consistently outperformed the others, avoiding experimental tricks. The findings prove that basic numerical competence isn't limited to primates.