(BIRD INTELLIGENCE) Researchers have found that birds, specifically pigeons, are math wizards in the animal kingdom. Besides for humans and certain non-human primates, pigeons can learn abstract mathematical rules and other numerical skills. Read more on this new finding and why the shared math intelligence of birds and primates is puzzling scientists. — Global Animal
Pigeons turn out to be math whizzes -- and other birds may be equally skilled. Photo credit: Discovery News

Discovery News, Jennifer Viegas

Pigeons may be ubiquitous, but they’re also brainy, according to a new study that found these birds are on par with primates when it comes to numerical competence.


Could pigeons then be the Einsteins of the bird world?

“It would be fair to say that, even among birds, pigeons are not thought to be the sharpest crayon in the box,” lead author Damian Scarf told Discovery News. “I think that this ability may be widespread among birds. There is already clear evidence that it is widespread among primates.”



“We took steps to ensure things like volume could not control responding in training and testing,” he said. “For example, during training and testing, the higher numerosity did not always have the largest surface area/volume and thus the pigeons could not respond based on this stimulus dimension.”

The images also came in different colors and shapes, so the pigeons weren’t somehow linking those qualities to quantity.


“Remarkably, the pigeons were able to respond to these novel pairs correctly,” Scarf said. “In addition, their performance was indistinguishable from that of two rhesus monkeys that had been previously trained on this task.”




For example, he called a juicy red apple that appears to have brought to mind bananas and cherries a “banerry.”

In terms of math, one of Alex’s greatest feats was that he understood a numerical concept akin to zero, which is an abstract notion that people don’t typically understand until age three or four.


One explanation could be that the last common ancestor of these two groups possessed amazing numerical competence, but that would mean many other animals have it too, and studies haven’t found clear evidence for such abilities yet.


“At this point in time, I have no inkling as to which hypothesis is correct,” Scarf said. “To answer this question, many distantly related animals would have to be tested.”

More Discovery News: http://news.discovery.com/animals/pigeons-math-animals-111222.html#mkcpgn=rssnws1