Animals doing math might sound like something out of a viral video, but researchers say it’s surprisingly real.
Scientists call it “numerosity”—the ability to recognize quantities without actual counting. It’s been found in everything from spiders and frogs to parrots and primates. Michael Beran, a psychology professor at Georgia State University, told Live Science that a wide range of species can “discriminate between quantities,” which helps them make survival decisions, like where to find food or when to back off from a fight.
Some examples feel weirdly strategic. Honeybees count landmarks while flying. Golden orb weaver spiders track how many bugs hit their web. Túngara frogs one-up each other during mating season by tossing extra syllables into their croaks, like they’re flexing in frog code.
In 2024, researchers even found carrion crows could caw out exact numbers—up to four—when prompted. That makes them the first birds known to count out loud.
Scientists Say These Animals Might Be Doing Math
But this isn’t formal math. Most animals rely on what’s known as the approximate number system (ANS), a kind of mental shortcut for estimating. Giorgio Vallortigara, a neuroscience professor at the University of Trento, said it’s probably innate and shows up even in newborn chicks. It doesn’t involve symbols or actual counting—it’s more about knowing that five grapes beat three.
This system follows something called Weber’s Law, where the brain handles ratios better than exact values. So, it’s easier for animals to tell the difference between two and four than twelve and fourteen. Irene Pepperberg, who famously trained the parrot Alex, pointed out that very few animals grasp true counting. Alex could not only identify numerals, but also use them to add jelly beans and get the totals right.
Still, with enough training, some species push into arithmetic. In controlled experiments, pigeons, cichlids, stingrays, and honeybees learned to solve basic addition and subtraction problems using symbols. Some may even be capable of multiplication in the right setup.
But don’t expect them to crack algebra anytime soon. As Beran put it, once the numbers get big or the equations get complex, “the case is much, much weaker.”
Still, for a parrot or a stingray, even basic math is pretty wild.
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