A Canadian psychologist specializing in animal behaviour has found the first evidence that black bears have a counting ability comparable to that exhibited by some primates.
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She got to know three black bears living in the same facility — siblings named Bella, Brutus and Dusty, all born at the zoo — and wondered whether the bears would use a touch-screen.
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Vonk coached the bears to “lick or touch their noses” to the screen to prevent their sharp-clawed paws from “scratching it to shreds.”
And gradually they learned — led by the best counter, Brutus — to reliably select one picture of a square over another square based on the number of coloured dots each contained.
