This was repeated until both buckets were filled with discrete total quantities. For example, if the comparison was 4 + 1 vs. 3 + 3, 4 pieces of bait were dropped into one bucket, then 3 pieces of bait were dropped into the second bucket, then 1 piece of bait was dropped into the first bucket, then 3 pieces of bait were dropped into the second bucket. Thus, the elephants had to add the quantities added to each bucket in order to assess how many pieces of bait were contained therein. Then, the elephants were given a “go” command and allowed to walk to one bucket and consume the bait inside. As soon as the elephant stood in front of one bucket, the unselected bucket was removed. Because the buckets were 50 cm deep, the elephants could not look into the buckets until they walked up to either bucket. Thus, they had no opportunity to visually compare the quantities in each bucket.