There's reference to various animals, like crows or bees learning to "count" or knowing how to "count". However I'm highly skeptical that it's actual "counting"

There's reference to various animals, like crows or bees learning to "count" or knowing how to "count". However I'm highly skeptical that it's actual "counting". I think it's just ability to learn based on whether there's more or less of something, in most cases. Which if you think about it, is an obvious skill all animals must possess in order to make decisions. And nothing new. I don't think those studies are showing true "counting". For example as a person I can without counting tell if there's 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 of something, I can tell how many characters are in shorter words on glimpse, but that's not counting. These amounts are just pattern recognition labels. However I can then use these in groups to do actual counting. Animals certainly must be able to tell if something is smaller or bigger, because they must identify whether it's a potential prey, or a threat. Already this ability should lead to the ability of being able to differentiate between there being 1, 2, 3 or 4 of something. There seems to be studies that are using this idea to prove that animals can count. Ultimately these are the strength of certain stimuli and even a simple machine learning algorithm can produce different output based on the amount of that signal. And then talking about planning and self-control. Many animals are willing to patiently stand still, waiting for their prey to make a move, I don't think it means that they are specifically "thinking" about it. A cat can patiently wait for the mouse when it notices the hole.