Monkeys Understand Basic Counting Skills A team of researchers
studying Old World monkeys have found that the primates have
better numerical skills than previously believed, BBC News
reports. They found, using a basic numeracy test, that long-tail
macaques were able to determine which of two plates had more
raisins. However, in strange fashion, the macaques only excelled
in the basic test if they were not allowed to eat the raisins
used in the experiment. The results of the experiments show that
the animals have the ability to understand the concept of
relative quantities. The researchers, from the German Primate
Center in Goettingen, Germany, first tested the macaques by
showing them two different amounts of raisins. The primates were
then fed the raisins that they pointed to. But the researchers
noted that in this test, the monkeys usually got it wrong —
choosing the smaller pile of raisins. Vanessa Schmidt, lead
researcher on the study, said that instead of thinking about the
quantities, the monkeys were t