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Fish Can Count to Four

Posted by samzenpus on from the incredible-mr.-limpet dept.

Khemist writes "Fish can count, according to scientists, who have found that North American mosquito fish have the ability to count up to four. Previously it was known that fish could tell big shoals from small ones, but researchers have now found that they have a limited ability to count how many other fish are nearby. This means that they have similar counting abilities to those observed in apes, monkeys and dolphins and humans with very limited mathematical ability."

6 of 103 comments (clear)

  1. maybe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    maybe they should help Taco learn how to count so I stop seeing that there are -1 replies?

  2. Re:Or not.. by clonan · · Score: 4, Insightful

    By that deffinition please explain how "intelligence" is any different...it is bigger, more complex but still the same general idea.

    BTW they never said that fish were "intelligent" only that they could descern 4 from 3.

  3. Re:Clever Hans by aproposofwhat · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Well if there is a Clever Hans effect, it's even more astounding, because it would imply that these fish are able to pick up on the experimenters' body language!

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    One swallow does not a fellatrix make
  4. Re:Clever Hans by esocid · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Have you seen a mosquitofish? Those things are most likely not able to discern body language and cues from humans nearby. Even if they were, I doubt that the fish had any interaction with humans during this experimentation. In TFA the females were observed being harassed by male fish and given a choice of either a 3 fish or 4 fish school, and chose 4 over 3. Those characteristic decisions were on par with human infants 6-12 months old, which is pretty impressive for a type of minnow.

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    Absolute power corrupts absolutely. indymedia
  5. Fish approved for... by lpangelrob · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Well, I suppose this means they're more than eligible to receive their own Holy Hand Grenades then. Science is always causing trouble...

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    -Rob

    Biblical fiscal responsibility

  6. Re:Clever Hans by spun · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I doubt researcher in the field of animal intelligence would know about this completely obscure effect. I mean, it's not like the clever Hans case was a seminal event in the field of comparative psychology which completely changed the way everyone did animal experiments for the past 100 years. Thanks for bringing up this little known incident.

    Sorry, sorry, it's a pet peave of mine when some /. poster thinks that scientists don't consider the most obvious and well known aspects of their field. If you, someone not in their field, have considered it, chances are pretty damn good they have too.

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    - None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton