Experiment shows elephants can count

TOKYO, Sept. 3 (UPI) -- A scientist at the University of Tokyo has discovered that elephants not only have a good memory but they also are proficient at basic math.

Under carefully controlled experimental conditions, an elephant at the Ueno Zoo in Tokyo has managed 87 percent of the time to get its sums correct, The Times of London reported Wednesday.

Behavioral ecologist Naoko Irie subjected elephants to fruit-based arithmetic tests as part of her doctoral thesis.

One of her tests involved counting apples in buckets.

An elephant watched while three apples were dropped into one bucket and five were dropped into another right next to it.

Two apples were then added to each bucket, leaving the first bucket with five apples and the second with seven.

Irie says a 30-year-old elephant named Ashiya was able to select the bucket with seven apples after apparently counting the apples as they were being placed in each of the buckets.