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The Conversation
The Conversation
Scarlett Howard, Research Fellow, School of Biological Sciences, Monash University

Fish driving cars and chimps doing maths: what teaching animals ‘irrelevant’ skills reveals about our own minds

VixtorPhoto / Shutterstock

Did you know goldfish can learn to drive cars? Have you heard bumblebees can learn to pull on a string? Would you believe some primates can perform calculations with Arabic numerals?

These tasks seem completely irrelevant to these animals in their natural environment, so why are researchers interested in them?

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