1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 Animals that Can Count

Counting is so simple even a monkey can do it. Bees really know their numbers. Even most humans can count.  (Joking aside, dyscalculia is a psychological disorder that makes it nearly impossible for its sufferers to deal with numbers. Dyscalculia is a learning disorder said to afflict about 6 percent of the population. Those afflicted with it have difficulty visualizing number sequences and even the passage of time.)

More surprising are the abilities of salamanders, honeybees and newly hatched chicks. But is this really math, or can we count on future studies finding flaws in the latest scientific interpretation? New Scientist article posits that basic math abilities evolved hundreds of millions of years ago.

"The ability to represent time and space and number is a precondition for having any experience whatsoever," says Randy Gallistel, a psychologist at Rutgers University.