Giraffes may be able to perform a basic form of mental arithmetic, according to a new study that tested how the animals track changes in hidden quantities.
Researchers found that giraffes could remember separate amounts of food, mentally combine them, and then choose the container holding the larger total.
However, the animals did not succeed consistently when researchers removed food or transferred pieces between two hidden groups.
Therefore, the findings suggest a limited ability to process additions rather than a full understanding of mathematics.
The study involved four giraffes living at Barcelona Zoo in Spain.
The group included two males, Nakuru and Njano, and two females, Nuru and Yalinga.
Researchers from the University of Barcelona, the University of Leipzig and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology conducted the experiments.
The study appeared in the journal Scientific Reports on June 26, 2026.
The researchers used carrot pieces as rewards because the giraffes strongly preferred them.
Participation remained voluntary. The animals could approach the experimenter or leave the test whenever they wanted.
Researchers placed different numbers of carrot pieces inside two yellow containers.
They first showed the giraffes the quantities before covering the containers.
A third container then held between one and three additional carrot pieces.
The experimenter visibly moved those pieces into one of the covered containers. However, the giraffes could not see the final totals.
Each animal then selected one of the two containers by touching it with its muzzle or tongue.
A correct choice gave the giraffe access to the larger quantity of carrots.
This setup required the animals to remember the original amounts and mentally track the added pieces.
The giraffes selected the larger final quantity in an average of 68% of the combination trials.
All four animals performed above the level expected through random guessing.
They could mentally add as many as three pieces to an existing set and track final quantities of up to five items.
Researchers said this performance was comparable to results recorded in some primates tested under similar conditions.
However, the sample included only four captive giraffes. Therefore, scientists cannot yet assume that every giraffe has the same ability.
The researchers also tested whether giraffes could track quantities when pieces were removed.
In these trials, the animals chose correctly in around 57% of cases. Their overall performance did not rise significantly above chance.
A third task involved moving food from one covered container to another.
The giraffes recorded an average success rate of 64% in that test. However, this result also remained statistically consistent with chance.
The findings indicate that mentally combining quantities may be easier for giraffes than tracking subtraction or a sequence involving both removal and addition.
The researchers examined whether the giraffes were completing mental calculations or following simpler cues.
Two animals may sometimes have chosen the container handled by the experimenter rather than calculating the final quantity.
However, the other two still performed above chance when that shortcut would have produced the wrong answer.
This suggests that at least some of the giraffes may have used more complex mental processing.
Still, the researchers stopped short of claiming that giraffes understand formal arithmetic.
The ability may instead rely on perceptual memory. In simple terms, the animals could remember amounts and update those mental representations as more food appeared.
Previous research has shown that giraffes can compare quantities and make decisions using statistical information.
The latest study goes further by suggesting that they can mentally manipulate quantities that are no longer visible.
Such skills may help wild giraffes compare food sources, track changing social groups or assess the number of nearby threats.
The findings also challenge the belief that advanced numerical abilities mainly occur in primates or animals with relatively large brains.
Researchers said further studies involving more giraffes and other hoofed mammals would be needed to establish how widespread these abilities are.
For now, the evidence suggests that giraffes can handle a rudimentary form of addition, but describing them as fully capable of mathematics would overstate the results.
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