Giraffes have shown great ability and even do basic statistical calculations to choose their favorite food, a highly developed cognitive function that until now had only been proven in animals with large brains, such as primates.
This has been verified by a team of scientists who have carried out a study with four giraffes at the Barcelona Zoo, where they have verified that these animals may have much more sophisticated statistical abilities than previously thought.
The research has been led by scientists from the University of Leipzig, the German Max Plank Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and the Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychobiology of the University of Barcelona and the conclusions of their work are published today in Scientific Reports.
These abilities to do simple statistical "calculations" have not been observed until now in animals with the proportionally smallest brains, such as giraffes.
The researchers showed the giraffes a choice between vegetable sticks held in a clenched fist that were drawn from transparent boxes containing mostly, but not limited to, portions of carrot (their favourites) and zucchini sticks (less favourites). The animals saw which box the food was taken from, but not which vegetable the researchers selected and offered them.
And in most cases they verified that the animals favored the food that had been removed from the box where there were mostly carrots and therefore the chances of obtaining that food were greater.
Thus, scientists have suggested that a large brain might not be a prerequisite for such cognitive abilities, and that the ability to do statistical interference may be more widespread in the animal kingdom than hitherto thought.
Researcher Álvaro López Caicoya, from the Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychobiology at the University of Barcelona, has highlighted the relevance of the study for understanding evolution, since more and more things and abilities are known that are not exclusively human.
In statements to EFE, López Caicoya explained that until 30 years ago it was thought that this type of statistical reasoning was only typical of adult humans, "but today we know that it is also present in babies a few months old, in primates, in parrots and now even in giraffes".
"It is important to realize that most of the things that we think make us special are present in many more animals," the researcher stressed, highlighting the relevance of this ability for giraffes, since the savannah environment in the one they live in is characterized by having widely spaced trees and therefore they can identify from a distance which trees have the best proportions of leaves and flowers.
That way they conserve energy by saving unnecessary trips to less desirable food sources and focus their efforts on reaching the trees that provide them with the most beneficial nutrients, he explained.
In his opinion, it is a fundamental ability in the animal and he does not believe that the fact of living in captivity determines the results, since they are not animals -he has specified- that have not been trained for that nor do they have much interaction with humans beyond the studio.
Caicoya has observed that wild giraffes are very elusive towards humans and would never come close to carry out an experiment like this, so the research would have been impossible with animals that were not in captivity, and he has been convinced that "the data from giraffes in captivity are the best we will ever have to assess these kinds of capabilities in these animals."
