No kidding! Research shows goats are attracted to smiley happy faces
GOATS can recognise and are attracted to friendly, smiling people, a study reveals.
Scientists showed photographs of the same human face – looking happy or angry – to 20 goats.
When shown the photos from a distance of four yards, the goats generally made straight for the happy image, exploring it curiously with their snouts.
The research, conducted at Buttercups Sanctuary for Goats, in Kent, appeared to demonstrate that the animals preferred to interact with the smiling faces.
The effect was most obvious when the happy face was positioned on the right side of the testing area. This suggests goats use the left side of their brains to process positive emotions, said the team from Queen Mary University of London.
Dr Alan McElligott, who led the research, said: “The study has important implications for how we interact with livestock and other species.
“The abilities of animals to perceive human emotions might be widespread and not just limited to pets.”
Goats were already known to be sensitive to human body language, but the new findings show they also respond to emotional facial expressions.
Co-author Dr Christian Nawroth, a member of the Queen Mary team now based at the Leibniz Institute for Farm Animal Biology in Germany, said: “Here we show for the first time that goats do not only distinguish between expressions, but also prefer to interact with happy ones.”
Other studies have shown that dogs and horses also appear to recognise and remember emotions displayed in human expressions.
And sheep are also known to possess a powerful visual memory and a similar ability to recognise human faces from photographs.
In the findings, published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, researchers said: “The findings suggest the ability of animals to perceive human facial cues is not limited to those with a history of domestication.
“The ability may be far more widespread than previously believed.”