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Research conducted at the Barcelona Zoo indicates that giraffes can memorize and update quantities to choose the container with more food.
A discovery about the cognitive ability of giraffes caught the attention of researchers in Spain.
During experiments with carrots, two giraffes identified which container would end up with the largest amount of food after an addition.
The study was published on June 26, 2026 by the scientific journal Scientific Reports.
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The research was conducted by specialists linked to the University of Barcelona and other academic institutions.
The results indicate that these animals can memorize quantities, update information, and compare food portions.
The work, however, does not claim that giraffes perform calculations in the same way humans do.
Research evaluates the numerical capacity of giraffes
The investigation involved the participation of researchers Iker Loidi, Álvaro L. Caicoya, Federica Amici, Pilar Padilla-Solé, and Jordi Galbany.
The experiments were conducted with four giraffes kept at the Barcelona Zoo, in Spain.
The University of Barcelona reported that this was the first study on arithmetic skills conducted with non-domesticated ungulates.
The main objective was to discover if the animals would track changes in quantities that ceased to remain visible.
The scientists used carrots and colored containers to reproduce situations similar to addition, subtraction, and quantity transfer.
How the carrot tests were conducted
The giraffes initially observed two different quantities of carrots placed in yellow containers.
The containers were closed a few seconds later, preventing the animals from continuing to see the food.
A third green container presented, in the next stage, the quantity of carrots that would be moved.
The tests were divided into three situations:
- Addition: new carrots were added to one of the containers;
- Subtraction: part of the food was removed from one of the options;
- Sequential operation: carrots were removed from one container and added to the other.
The final choice required the giraffes to point out which container contained the largest amount of food.
The animals needed, therefore, to remember the initial portions and mentally update each change made by the researchers.
Two giraffes got the addition tasks right
The results showed that two of the four giraffes performed positively on tasks similar to addition.
These animals were able to combine the initially observed quantity with the carrots added later.
The behavior suggests the use of memory, mental representation, and quantity comparison during decision-making.
No giraffe, on the other hand, performed above expectations on subtraction tasks.
The sequential operations also did not produce results considered conclusive by the researchers.
Iker Loidi explained that individual differences in solving numerical problems are also observed among humans.
Subtraction usually requires more complex and controlled brain processing than addition, according to the researcher.
Group life may explain ability
The lifestyle of giraffes may have contributed to the development of this cognitive ability.
These animals live in dynamic societies, where smaller groups separate and reunite according to environmental conditions.
The main food sources, especially acacias, are spread across different points of the savanna.
This distribution requires giraffes to assess where, when, and in what quantity food resources are available.
The need to locate food may have favored skills related to comparison and combination of quantities.
Discovery broadens studies on animal intelligence
The research reinforces the hypothesis that complex cognitive abilities may have evolved separately in different groups of animals.
Previous studies had already identified numerical abilities in some primates and birds, including crows.
Giraffes are now included in research on species capable of using quantitative information during decision-making.
The small number of animals evaluated requires caution in interpreting the results.
The discovery, nevertheless, opens up opportunities for new investigations into the intelligence of mammals not typically associated with numerical abilities.
Did you imagine that giraffes could memorize and combine quantities to find more food? Share your opinion!
