Can your pet do Math? Science says some animals might be quietly crunching numbers

Math might seem like a strictly human domain, but scientists have long suspected that animals possess a primitive ability to recognize and compare numbers. The term for this is numerosity—the capacity to identify and distinguish quantities without actual counting. As per a report from VICE, according to Georgia State University psychologist Michael Beran, this cognitive skill shows up across species as diverse as frogs, spiders, birds, and primates.

Why would nature hand animals a math toolkit? For survival, of course. Beran explains that understanding basic quantities helps animals make smarter decisions—like how many predators to avoid, how much food to chase, or even when to retreat from conflict.

Animal Math in Action
You might expect apes or dolphins to flex some numerical logic. But the real shockers are bees, frogs, and spiders.

Golden orb weaver spiders track how many insects fall into their web. Honeybees count landmarks mid-flight to navigate. Túngara frogs, in a bizarre twist of biological one-upmanship, add extra syllables to their mating calls, essentially flexing their quantity sense to impress potential mates.

In one of 2024’s most talked-about studies, researchers discovered that carrion crows could caw out precise numbers—up to four—when prompted. That makes them the first known birds to “count aloud,” a milestone in animal cognition research.

How They Do It?
This isn’t traditional math with symbols and equations. Most animals rely on an inborn tool called the Approximate Number System (ANS). Giorgio Vallortigara, a neuroscience professor at the University of Trento, explains that even newborn chicks show signs of this innate ability.

ANS operates on ratios, not precise numbers. Animals are better at distinguishing large differences—like two versus five—than close quantities like eleven versus thirteen. This mental shortcut follows a rule known as Weber’s Law, which governs how our brain perceives relative differences more easily than absolute ones.

The Few That Actually Count
While most animals estimate, a rare few break the mold. Irene Pepperberg’s iconic African Grey parrot, Alex, could not only identify numbers but perform simple addition with jelly beans. That level of numeric comprehension remains uncommon but not unheard of.

In controlled lab experiments, even unexpected species like pigeons, stingrays, cichlids, and honeybees have shown they can solve basic arithmetic when trained using visual symbols. Some researchers believe multiplication may also be possible in such scenarios, although the evidence is still emerging.

Limits to the Logic
Still, don’t expect your dog to do calculus. Beran cautions that when numerical tasks get too complex or abstract, “the case is much, much weaker.” These abilities operate within limits, but even within those bounds, they’re striking.

So, Is Your Pet Secretly a Mathematician?
While your cat isn’t solving algebra under the sofa, it might be using a primitive number sense to decide whether it got fewer treats than your dog. And the next time a pigeon beats you to a parking space, just remember—it may have calculated its odds faster than you did.

In short, math isn’t just for humans. And nature? It’s been doing mental math long before we invented chalkboards.