Elephants aren't big boors after all. Asian elephants can do mathematics, and have proved their skill at addition in an experiment with their favorite food, according to a Japanese researcher.
One elephant was 87 percent correct and the other 69 percent right in months of addition exercises involving single digits, says a source of the University of Tokyo.
In one test, researchers dropped three apples into one bucket and five into another bucket and then added two apples to each. Five times out of six, Ashya a 30 -year-old female elephant at Tokyo's Usno 200, chose the bucket with seven apples rather than five although she could not see or feel the inside of the containers.
The other elephant, 38-year-old Mito from Kyoto was also right five times in a test involving oranges.
They can compare numbers like six and five.
Each animal was tested using their favorite food. They were able to choose the bigger of two numbers.
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