Giraffes use statistics to make decisions find the tastiest food

Researchers find they assesses the data, weighs the odds and pick the option most likely to lead to their preferred outcome.

A tower of much smarter than you think giraffes on the move in Ruaha National Park, Tanzania. Picture: Greg Funnell

We have a new reason to look up to giraffes: they are much smarter than we thought, and use statistics to make decisions.

Researchers have discovered that when a giraffe has to choose between two courses of action it assesses the data, weighs the odds and picks the option most likely to lead to its preferred outcome.

This ability to make inferences based on statistical information had previously been seen only in animals with far larger brains in relation to their body size, including the great apes, certain monkeys and the kea, a famously clever species of parrot.

“Our research demonstrates that ungulates (hoofed animals), and giraffes in particular, are far more capable than previously believed,” said Alvaro Caicoya, a PhD student at the University of Barcelona, who led the study.

The experiments involved four giraffes at Barcelona Zoo.

They were each shown two transparent boxes containing carrots, one of their favourite foods, and courgettes, which they like less. One box contained mostly carrots and the other held mostly courgettes.

A researcher reached into each box at the same time.

They “covertly” picked up a vegetable and held it in their closed fist. The ­giraffes could not see which vegetables had been picked up, but consistently chose the one taken from the box with more carrots.

Mr Caicoya and his colleagues concluded that the giraffes were reasoning about probabilities.

When the giraffes were offered a box with 20 carrots and 100 courgettes or one with 20 carrots and four courgettes they went for the latter, suggesting that the ratio and not the absolute number was the deciding factor.

The findings, published in the journal Scientific Reports this week , were likely to be a surprise to researchers less familiar with giraffes, Mr Caicoya said.

“But our team has been studying the cognitive abilities of ungulates for several years. Interestingly, giraffes have consistently demonstrated superior performance.”

The ability to weigh the odds probably helps giraffes in the wild, where they browse on trees that are often far apart. “Being able to identify from a distance which trees have the best proportions of leaves and flowers . . . likely provides an evolutionary advantage,” Mr Caicoya said.

“This ability allows giraffes to conserve energy by avoiding ­unnecessary travel . . . and focus their efforts on reaching the trees that provide the most beneficial nutrients.”

The Times