A recent study has revealed that elephants can use their sense of smell to ‘count,’ identifying which of two containers holds more food. In tests, elephants could determine which of the two buckets contained more sunflower seeds by relying solely on their olfactory abilities.
This discovery is significant because it marks the first time an animal has been shown to use smell to compare quantities, a basic form of mathematical reasoning. The amounts tested were small, ranging from 4 to 24 grams of seeds.
While many animals have demonstrated the ability to distinguish between larger and smaller amounts of food, most rely on sight to make this distinction.
Dogs, for example, have not been able to perform similar tasks using only their sense of smell despite their well-known olfactory capabilities.
The research, published in the journal PNAS, highlights that elephants are unique in their ability to use smell to solve cognitive challenges.
The study’s authors suggest that this skill is essential for elephants, who often travel vast distances for better food and water.
Their environment can change seasonally, and they face the risk of human threats, making efficient food locations necessary.
The study’s top performers were two male elephants, Pepsi and Phuki, who accurately identified the larger quantity of seeds more than 80% of the time.
The researchers speculate that male elephants might have a sharper sense of smell because they need to consume more food.
Additionally, males must locate females in heat over long distances, further enhancing the importance of their sense of smell.
The experiments were conducted on six Asian elephants, aged 12 to 45, at a resort in northern Thailand. The elephants were presented with opaque buckets, each containing different seeds.
These buckets had perforated lids to allow the smell of the seeds to escape, enabling the elephants to sniff out the larger quantity.
Interestingly, the elephants’ accuracy improved as the difference in seed quantity between the buckets increased.
However, when the two quantities were closer, their ability to make the correct choice decreased, supporting the idea that elephants use their sense of smell to gauge quantity.
Though elephants use their vision in certain situations, especially when interacting with each other, their dominant senses remain hearing, smell, and touch. Elephants possess around 2,000 genes related to smell—far more than a dog’s 800 genes.
A separate study showed that elephants are even better at detecting hidden explosives like TNT than specially trained sniffer dogs.
This research sheds light on the cognitive abilities of elephants and emphasizes their remarkable olfactory prowess, which plays a critical role in their survival.
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