ReviewPhilosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences2017
Numerical assessment in the wild: insights from social carnivores.
Review in Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Numerical cognition: A meta-analysis of neuroimaging, transcranial magnetic stimulation and brain-damaged patients studies.NeuroImage. Clinical · 2019Pooled it
- Wild Carrion Crows Choose Walnuts Based on Visual and Weight Cues.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Assessing quantity combination and dissociation in giraffes.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- PriMath-The Role of Intrinsic Factors in Quantitative Cognitive Performance of Highly Social Primates.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Exploring the Neural Substrates of Number Sense: A Perspective on Genetics, Behaviour and Neural Circuity.The European journal of neuroscience · 2026Review
- The Social Relevance of Numbers: Insights from Animal Studies.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Quick on their paws: mice living in human-disturbed areas are faster problem-solvers than mice in strictly protected areas.Animal cognition · 2025Article
- Continuous or discrete magnitudes? A comparative study between cats, dogs and humans.PloS one · 2025Article
- Identifying potential palaeolithic artificial memory systems via Spatial statistics: Implications for the origin of quantification.Archaeological and anthropological sciences · 2025Article
- Investigating the relationship between physical cognitive tasks and a social cognitive task in a wild bird.Animal cognition · 2024Article
- The relative contribution of acoustic signals versus movement cues in group coordination and collective decision-making.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2024Review
- Quantity discrimination by kittens of the domestic cat (Felis silvestris catus).Animal cognition · 2023Article
- Evidence for acoustic discrimination in lemurs: A playback study on wild indrisCurrent zoology · 2023Article
- Response to change in the number of visual stimuli in zebrafish:A behavioural and molecular study.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- Evidence for individual discrimination and numerical assessment in collective antipredator behaviour in wild jackdaws (Biology letters · 2019Article
- Honeybees use absolute rather than relative numerosity in number discrimination.Biology letters · 2019Article
- Number detectors spontaneously emerge in a deep neural network designed for visual object recognition.Science advances · 2019Article
- Introduction: The origins of numerical abilities.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2017Article
- Understanding the origin of number sense: a review of fish studies.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2017Review
- Response to intruder number is related to spontaneous quantity discrimination performance in a wild bird.Behavioral ecology : official journal of the International Society for Behavioral EcologyArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Playback experiments have proved to be a useful tool to investigate the extent to which wild animals understand numerical concepts and the factors that play into their decisions to respond to different numbers of vocalizing conspecifics. In particular, playback experiments have broadened our understanding of the cognitive abilities of historically understudied species that are challenging to test in the traditional laboratory, such as members of the Order Carnivora. Additionally, playback experiments allow us to assess the importance of numerical information versus other ecologically important variables when animals are making adaptive decisions in their natural habitats. Here, we begin by reviewing what we know about quantity discrimination in carnivores from studies conducted in captivity. We then review a series of playback experiments conducted with wild social carnivores, including African lions, spotted hyenas and wolves, which demonstrate that these animals can assess the number of conspecifics calling and respond based on numerical advantage. We discuss how the wild studies complement those conducted in captivity and allow us to gain insights into why wild animals may not always respond based solely on differences in quantity. We then consider the key roles that individual discrimination and cross-modal recognition play in the ability of animals to assess the number of conspecifics vocalizing nearby. Finally, we explore new directions for future research in this area, highlighting in particular the need for further work on the cognitive basis of numerical assessment skills and experimental paradigms that can be effective in both captive and wild settings.This article is part of a discussion meeting issue 'The origins of numerical abilities'.
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