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posted by chromas on Monday July 02 2018, @07:02PM   Printer-friendly
from the e.cs dept.

Goats display audience-dependent human-directed gazing behaviour in a problem-solving task

Goats might not seem like the most cuddly animals, but researchers have found evidence that goats are as clever as dogs, and just as capable of building emotional relationships with humans as all the other domesticated animals we've let into our hearts and homes. The 2016 study showed that goats stare intensely at their owner when they're struggling to complete a task - a trait that's also observed in domesticated dogs, but not wolves.

[...] "From our earlier research, we already know that goats are smarter than their reputation suggests," said one of the researchers Alan McElligott. "But these results show how they can communicate and interact with their human handlers even though they were not domesticated as pets or working animals."

Not only does that suggest goats have the potential to be awesome and loving sidekicks, just like dogs, it also indicates that living alongside humans for tens of thousands of years - regardless of whether they're companion animals or not - might have a bigger impact on species than we expected.

Goats display audience-dependent human-directed gazing behaviour in a problem-solving task (open, DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2016.0283) (DX)


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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Arik on Tuesday July 03 2018, @05:29AM

    by Arik (4543) on Tuesday July 03 2018, @05:29AM (#701740) Journal
    "but researchers have found evidence that goats are as clever as dogs"

    The researchers still haven't realized that the goats are studying them.

    I'm only half joking. I've known a lot of dogs - and several goats. Only the sharpest dogs stand a chance in a battle of wits with the goats.

    "The 2016 study showed that goats stare intensely at their owner when they're struggling to complete a task - a trait that's also observed in domesticated dogs, but not wolves."

    They did a study on that, really? Just who were they expecting the wolves to look at?

    "From our earlier research, we already know that goats are smarter than their reputation suggests"

    It's just painfully obvious that these 'researchers' didn't bother to do their homework. What "reputation" are they talking about? Some stupid image from a childhood cartoon or hollywood sitcom? Talk to anyone that knows their reputation and they'll tell you they're crazy smart. Also they like to climb, eat briars, and play games. One of their favorite games is prank the dumb dog btw.

    "But these results show how they can communicate and interact with their human handlers even though they were not domesticated as pets or working animals."

    WHAT THE ACTUAL... wow. No. They were domesticated as working animals. "Pets" is a concept that probably didn't really exist at the time, but I see no particular reason to doubt they were also the first animals to be treated as pets. Or at least one of the first.

    This is just nonsense.
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