Animals can think like autistic savants, which might explain some of their more puzzling behaviour, a US researcher says.

But an international team of researchers say this intriguing idea is unlikely and is undermined by available scientific evidence.

Australian animal behaviour expert, Professor Lesley Rogers from the University of New England in Armidale, and colleagues take on the savant hypothesis in the current issue of the journal PloS Biology.

People with autism tend to focus on detail at the expense of other abilities.

Autistic savants have an extreme case of this and often have exceptional skills in music, maths or art but often have poor social skills.

Then there are birds that have a savant-like memory for remembering accurately where they stashed thousands of different seeds to get them through winter.

Grandin thinks such birds have this highly developed skill at the cost of other cognitive abilities, just like human autistic savants.