Could your next pet be a goat? New research suggests that these farm animals try to communicate with people in the same way that dogs and horses do. In a series of experiments, researchers found that when the animals had a problem that they couldn’t solve alone, the goats would stare at a person for help. The research also showed that goats will change their actions by a person’s behavior.
Goats were the first domesticated(驯养的) animal species, about 10,000 years ago, according to Alan McElligott, University of London. “From our earlier research, we already know that goats are smarter than their reputation suggests, but these results show how they can communicate with people even though they were not raised as pets or working animals,” McElligott said.
To test the goats’ communication skills, the researchers trained the animals to remove a cover from a box to receive a reward. The reward was then made inaccessible, and the goats’ reactions toward the experimenters—who were either facing the goats or had their backs turned away—were recorded. The researchers found that the goats would stare toward the forward-facing person more often, and for longer periods of time, than they would with the people who had turned away. Sometimes, the goats would also approach the forward-facing person before returning to the box.
“Goats stare at humans in the same way as dogs do when asking for a treat that is out of reach, for example,” study researcher Christian Nawroth said in the same statement. “Our results provide strong evidence for communication directed at humans in a species that was raised mainly for agricultural production, and show similarities with animals kept to become pets or working animals, such as dogs and horses.”
The authors said that they hope the study will help people to better understand the ability that domesticated animals like goats, dogs and horses own, and how that affects their communications with humans.
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