Elephants have a nose for quantity
Open accessAbstract
Significance: Although many animal species have demonstrated an ability to differentiate between more and less when presented with different amounts of food, they have done so primarily using vision. In this study, by contrast, elephants showed that they can detect differences between various quantities of food using only their sense of smell. Thus, elephants may be unique in their use of olfaction in cognitive tasks. This research suggests that it is important for psychologists to incorporate into experimental designs the ways in which different animals interact with their environment using all of their senses. Such species-specific paradigms would ensure comparisons about cognition across taxa are fair and relevant.
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Elephants are likely to have much richer olfactory experiences than humans but less richly detailed visual experiences.
“For example, given their sensory abilities, elephants are likely to have much richer olfactory experiences than humans but less richly detailed visual experiences [14–16].”
From Dimensions of Animal Consciousness (2020) · cites this paper as [15]
The paper’s discussion of elephant sensory abilities (page not provided) says that elephants use vision mainly to complement their more dominant senses, including smell. Its Significance section shows that elephants can distinguish food quantities by smell alone. Neither passage compares the richness of elephants’ olfactory experiences with humans’ or establishes that their visual experiences are less detailed. (LLM, conf=0.83)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredOther studies on elephant quantity discrimination have found different results, which were consistent with the accumulator model.
“However, other studies on elephant quantity discrimination have found different results, which were consistent with the accumulator model (Perdue et al., 2012; Plotnik et al., 2019; Snyder et al., 2021).”
From Do elephants really never forget? What we know about elephant memory and a call for further investigation (2025) · cites this paper as Plotnik et al., 2019
The Results and Discussion report differing findings across elephant quantity-discrimination studies and say this study’s results follow an approximation model and Weber’s law. Our copy does not identify that model as the accumulator model, so it supports the contrast in results but not the specific model attribution. (LLM, conf=0.82)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredAsian elephants have demonstrated the ability to discriminate between different quantities of food using only olfactory cues.
“In addition, Asian elephants have demonstrated the ability to discriminate between different quantities of food using only olfactory cues (Plotnik et al., 2019).”
From Do elephants really never forget? What we know about elephant memory and a call for further investigation (2025) · cites this paper as Plotnik et al., 2019
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Dimensions of Animal Consciousness
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Plotnik, J. M., Brubaker, D. L., Dale, R., Tiller, L. N., Mumby, H. S., & Clayton, N. S.
- Affiliations
- City University of New York (US)
- Think Elephants International, New York, NY 10017;
- University of Cambridge (GB)
- Venue
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Publisher
- National Academy of Sciences
- Published
- 2019-06-03
- Volume
- 116
- Issue
- 25
- Pages
- 12566-12571
- ISSN
- 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
- 1091-6490
- PMC
- PMC6591706
- OpenAlex
- W2948587458
- Cited by
- 71
- References
- 50
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 15 · 2021: 20 · 2020: 10 · 2019: 3
- FWCI
- 15.08
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Apollo (University of Cambridge) (submittedVersion)
- Apollo
- Funders
- Earthwatch Institute
- Royal Society
- National Research Council of Thailand
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Primate Behavior and Ecology
- Physical Sciences › Mathematics › Statistics and Probability › Cognitive and developmental aspects of mathematical skills
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
- Keywords
- elephants, numerical cognition, quantity discrimination, olfaction, object-choice task, ratio effect, comparative cognition, animal cognition
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Choice Behavior, Cognition, Elephants, Female, Male, Odorants, Smell, Task Performance and Analysis
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