I know what you’re thinking. She must be crazy. Of course animals can’t count. However some scientist argue that animals have mathematical abilities since the claim of Clever Hans in 1891. Clever Hans was a horse who was reportedly able to give the answer to basic mathematical calculations giving the answer by stomping his foot. Have a look here here.

However this was discredited when Psychologist Oskar Pfungst noticed that the horse was using cues from his owner to determine when to stop counting. There is no doubt that the horse was smart however not at counting as first thought. But don’t say I told you so just yet because..

There is however other research to support the claim that animals can demonstrate skills in counting. The experiment which impressed me most was the chimp experiment. The experiment involved the chimps adding up the number of chocolate pieces in the bowl and selecting the bowl which had the most chocolate pieces in it. The chimpanzee succeeded 90% of the time in this task. This experiment got me thinking about how intelligent animals really are, however i’m still not convinced in their ability to actually count.

References:

Goldman, J. (2012) Animals that can count Available at:  http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20121128-animals-that-can-count (Last Accessed: 23.11.2015)