Researchers at Monash University in Australia have reported that giraffes may reason using statistical principles, even when their brains are relatively small compared to their bodies. The study, published in a scientific journal, sheds light on how cognition might operate beyond species traditionally associated with advanced problem-solving.
Historically, primates and birds have been recognized for displaying statistical reasoning, a skill linked to the size of the brain relative to body mass. Yet this new work challenges that idea by showing that large brain size is not a strict prerequisite for performing probabilistic calculations in living animals.
Previous investigations into giraffes highlighted their capacity for quantitative discrimination, the ability to tell more from less. In addition, researchers have observed that the social structure and broad diet of giraffes may correlate with surprisingly intricate cognitive abilities, hinting at a broader distribution of intelligence across vertebrates than once assumed.
In the Monash experiment, researchers sought to determine whether giraffes could execute simple statistical computations. Food preferences were used as the testing medium; the familiar favorites included carrots and zucchini. Four giraffes participated in the trials, with slices of each vegetable presented in clear containers in varying proportions.
The core aim was to predict whether a giraffe would choose a container containing a greater number of carrots, even when zucchini numbers varied. Each testing session comprised twenty trials. In every trial, a researcher selected a piece of food from each container without revealing the choice to the giraffe. The animal’s decision was then indicated by touching a hand nearest to the preferred food, relying solely on the observed quantities of carrots and zucchini in the two options.
In the first scenario, the correct choice was to select the container with more carrots, while zucchini amounts were randomly determined. The second scenario kept the carrot counts equal, but the container with fewer zucchini pieces became the less favorable option. The third scenario inverted the setups from the prior trials, presenting a reversed distribution of carrots and zucchinis. Across all conditions, the giraffes tended to select the option offering the greater potential value, essentially prioritizing the more useful food payoff.
The findings indicate that a relatively large brain is not essential for acquiring complex statistical skills, at least among vertebrates. Moreover, the researchers propose that the capacity to draw statistical inferences could be more widespread in the animal kingdom than previously thought, with practical implications for understanding animal cognition across diverse species.