Goldfish are not considered to be particularly intelligent animals. Researchers from Israel (Ben Gurion University of the Negev) confirmed in a new experiment.
The goldfish are the drivers of their aquarium: the scientists are developing a kind of inverted submarine to study the behavior of the animals.
The researchers give a total of six goldfish “driving lessons” in motorized water tanks.
The task: if the animals navigate their vehicle to a pink marker by swimming, they receive a reward – in the form of food.
“If you put a person in a car for the first time without telling them anything about it, they will realize that the steering wheel is related to the direction in which the car is going (…) This also applies to fish – they are slowly but fully aware of it.“- Shachar Givon versus “Live Science“
After a few days, the fish head straight for their destination.
Once they are familiar with the exercise, obstacles come into play, which the fish confidently circumvent after a while.
The researchers’ observations suggest that goldfish can learn to move around in completely foreign environments – even outside of their natural habitat.
In the future, they want to observe the behavior of the animals in a dynamic environment.
“We look forward to fish cars rolling across campus.” – Shachar Givon versus “Live Science“
Further experiments also show that goldfish are more intelligent than they are supposed to be. British researchers compared the learning ability of animals with that of dogs.
The research results from Israel also make it clear that keeping the animals in a small goldfish bowl is not appropriate to the species.