Chicks Do Math
Print This Post
Baby chicks can do math! The BBC reports:
“We had already found that the chicks have a tendency to approach a group containing more of these familiar objects,” explained Professor Regolin, who studies animal behaviour at the University of Padova.[...]
In each of the mini maths tests, a chick watched from a clear-fronted holding box while one of the researchers slowly moved the balls behind the screens – three behind one screen and two behind the other.
The front door of the box was then opened, releasing the chick into the tiny arena, so it could walk around and select a screen to look behind.
“The chicks still approached the larger of the two groups first, even though they had to rely on memory to work out which screen to choose,” said Professor Regolin. [...]
“In a further experiment, once we had hidden the balls behind each screen, we transferred some of them from one to the other,” Professor Regolin explained.
The birds, she said, were able to “count” the balls that were moved to work out which screen hid the larger set at the end of the transfer.
“They still chose correctly – adding up the numbers based on groups of objects they couldn’t see at that moment.”
More and more these stories are coming out that demonstrate the intelligence of the animals people eat.
How then, is this justified:
Respond