Researchers in Barcelona conducted experiments with four zoo giraffes that indicate the animals might be capable of basic quantity tracking, or simple math.

The University of Barcelona, University of Leipzig and Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology researchers, who published their findings in the journal Scientific Reports, presented four giraffes from the Barcelona Zoo with two containers containing different amounts of carrot pieces.

The researchers then covered the containers, and the animals watched as the humans added or subtracted more carrot pieces to them.

The giraffes then selected the containers with more carrot pieces 68 per cent of the time, which the researchers said exceeds the number that could be attributed to random chance.

Researchers said further tests controlling for whether the giraffes were using other methods of decision-making — such as choosing containers based on whether or not the researchers touched them — indicated two of the giraffes may have been using that method, but the other two continued to choose the containers with more carrots at the same rate.

They wrote the results of those two giraffes suggest “the potential use of more complex mental computations.”

The giraffes were less successful in trials where carrots were subtracted from the containers, choosing at a rate consistent with random chance.

The researchers said the giraffes are likely not performing math the same way as humans, but show a basic understanding of numbers that affect their decision-making.

Officials in a Thailand city said authorities are scrambling to capture nearly 100 monkeys that broke out of their enclosure.

Officials confirmed the monkeys escaped on Tuesday morning from the Lopburi Municipality Animal Nursery in Pho Kao Ton subdistrict, Mueang Lopburi district, while staff managed to keep more than 1,000 other primates from following their lead.

Lopburi Mayor, Chamroen Salacheep, ordered local police and other agencies to round up the monkeys before they can cause damage to the community.

The municipality, which is famous for its annual Monkey Buffet festival, was formerly home to a large number of free-roaming long-tailed macaques, but the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation handed down orders in 2024 for about 2,500 of the animals to be rounded up and put into large enclosures.

The decision came after multiple incidents of monkeys becoming violent in the search for food.