Is your billy goat a little gruff? Then try smiling!

FARMYARD animals can react to humans with fear, indifference or occasionally, in the case of goats, hostility.

But they can be won over with a smile, just like dogs, scientists said yesterday.

Goats have been found to prefer people who are grinning rather than scowling when shown pictures of both. They mostly made straight for the smiling person, whose photograph they nuzzled.

Researchers at Queen Mary University in London tested 20 goats and found they spent about 50 per cent longer with pictures of smiling people.

It suggests goats, which have the reputation of being smelly, not all that bright and rather partial to head-butting

‘Important implications’

humans, actually have similar characteristics to man’s best friend. Their ability to read people’s expressions, like dogs, may be a side effect of the animals being domesticated and kept in petting zoos or to provide milk and cheese.

Dr Alan McElligott, who led the research published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, said: ‘The study has important implications for how we interact with livestock, because the abilities of animals to perceive human emotions might be widespread and not just limited to pets.’

The scientists showed goats two photos of a smiling and scowling woman or a man. Goats approached the happy face first 51 per cent of the time and the angry face just 30 per cent of the time, spending the rest of the time ignoring the pictures.

Researchers had to deal with one or two goats trying to eat the pictures. But overall they found the animals spent roughly 1.4 seconds during a 30-second trial engaging with a smiling picture, compared to 0.9 seconds with a scowling one.