Fish may be able to recognise your face

Jokes about the limited memory and brain power of goldfish may be cruelly exaggerated after researchers found the animals can remember humans and tell them apart.

Scientists discovered fish can learn to recognise a face and distinguish it from as many as 44 others.

The finding by scientists from Oxford University and the University of Queensland in Australia suggests facial recognition is not the preserve of animals with sophisticated brains.

In the study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, archerfish – a goldfish variety that spurts water at its target – were presented with two images of human faces and trained, using rewards of food, to choose one to squirt. The fish were then presented with the familiar face and a series of new ones, and routinely selected the face they recognised.

Dr Cait Newport, of Oxford University, said: “The fact that archerfish can learn this task suggests complicated brains are not necessarily needed to recognise human faces.”