Scientists have been skeptical of claims of mathematical abilities in animals ever since the case of Clever Hans about 100 years ago. The horse, which performed arithmetic and other intellectual tasks ...

Several species of animal can count, but only humans can do so using abstract number symbols like ‘2’ or ‘4’. Now we know we do so using a different set of brain cells from those we use to recognise ...

'Our work not only shows that dogs use a similar part of their brain to process numbers of objects as humans do — it shows that they don't need to be trained to do it' You can save this article by ...