00:00You probably think of baby chicks as cute, fluffy, and, well, not that bright.
00:05But what if I told you that just a few days after hatching, they can actually do math?
00:10No, seriously, scientists have proven it.
00:13So how did they figure this out?
00:15Researchers got clever and used a natural instinct called imprinting.
00:19They let three-day-old chicks imprint on small objects
00:22and then hit them behind two separate screens.
00:25And here's where it gets wild.
00:27The chicks watched objects move to form groups,
00:30three behind one screen and two behind another.
00:33When released, they consistently walked to the screen hiding the larger number.
00:37They solved problems like 1 plus 2 or 4 minus 2 correctly about 75% of the time.
00:43That's far too accurate to be a lucky guess.
00:45It means they were actually keeping score.
00:47And they weren't trained.
00:48This ability appears almost from birth,
00:50a skill that takes human toddlers years to develop,
00:53which makes you wonder how many hidden abilities animals have that we've never even noticed.
00:57What's the smartest animal you've ever encountered?
00:59Let me know in the comments and subscribe for more mind-blowing discoveries.
