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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."

12 of 103 comments (clear)

  1. Makes sense by clonan · · Score: 5, Funny

    They are in School!!!

    (Yes I know, I know! It is a stupid joke)

  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. one fish, two fish by stoolpigeon · · Score: 4, Funny

    red fish, blue fish

    --
    It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
  4. Clever Hans by suso · · Score: 4, Informative

    Have they ruled out the Clever Hans effect? Doesn't look like it.

    1. 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.

      --
      - None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
  5. Bad for cardassians... by geminidomino · · Score: 5, Funny

    Gul Madred: There are five lights.
    Jean-Luc Salmon: I only count four. ... ...
    *6 hours later*
    Gul Madred clicks on a fifth light.
    Madred: How many lights do you see?
    Salmon: There are FOUR lights!
    Madred: *facepalms*

  6. I;m not sure by techpawn · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Not sure if the can count but I think my betta fish is learning how to lift the gate that separates it from the other betta in the dual betta tank. A few minutes after I close the gate he's there at the bottom trying to lift it. I know fish are smarter than most give them credit for, thank god there not a reverse scuba suit...

    --
    Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what your country did to you
    1. Re:I;m not sure by Rogue+Haggis+Landing · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The betta I had as a kid could recognize me. When I opened the lid to his little tank he would come to the surface on the right side, where I would drop food. He wouldn't come when my brother (who never fed him) did the same thing. We were both about the same height, same hair and skin coloring, etc., so that's pretty clever, at least for a fish. Hell, my own father still can't tell us apart. I suppose I should have fed him more often.

      Anyway, the point is that fish aren't mindless automatons like everyone thinks. They have a (limited) ability to learn (simple) things.

  7. Just like rabbits. by Stavr0 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Rabbits: One, Two, Three, Four, Hrair Fish: One, Two, Three, Four, School

  8. Perhaps Best Not to Publish This Research by hardburn · · Score: 4, Funny

    This will only encourage PETA to make loud press releases about how fish are "intelligent, sensitive creatures" and how the Inuit diet is a source of great evil in the world.

    --
    Not a typewriter
  9. Big Deal by trongey · · Score: 4, Funny

    I can count way higher than 4, and nobody's writing research papers about me.
    Stupid fish.

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    You never really know how close to the edge you can go until you fall off.
  10. We finally have proof! by Gregour · · Score: 5, Funny

    My goldfish is smarter than my president.