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posted by martyb on Wednesday November 08 2017, @07:23PM   Printer-friendly
from the yes-we-baaah dept.

Sheep have been trained to recognize human faces, such as that of Baaahrack Obama:

Sheep have demonstrated the ability to recognise familiar human faces, according to a study. Cambridge University researchers were able to train sheep to identify the faces of actors Jake Gyllenhaal and Emma Watson, former US President Barack Obama and BBC newsreader Fiona Bruce. After training, the sheep chose photos of familiar faces over unfamiliar ones significantly more often than not.

It shows that sheep possess similar face recognition abilities to primates. Previous studies had shown that sheep could identify other sheep and human handlers that they already knew.

"What we did is ask whether a sheep could learn to recognise someone from a photograph," the study's lead author Prof Jenny Morton said. "We focused on whether or not an animal was capable of processing a two-dimensional object as a person."

Sheep recognize familiar and unfamiliar human faces from two-dimensional images (open, DOI: 10.1098/rsos.171228) (DX)


Original Submission

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Goats Prefer Happy Human Faces 39 comments

Goats 'drawn to happy human faces'

Scientists have found that goats are drawn to humans with happy facial expressions. The result suggests a wider range of animals can read people's moods than was previously thought.

The researchers showed goats pairs of photos of the same person, one of them featuring an angry expression, and the other a happy demeanour.

The goats made a beeline for the happy faces, the team reports in the journal Royal Society Open Science.

The result implies that the ability of animals to perceive human facial cues is not limited to those with a long history of working as human companions, such as dogs and horses.

Instead, it seems, animals domesticated for food production, such as goats, can also decipher human facial cues.

[...] But the effect was only significant when the happy-faced photo was placed on the right-hand side.

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  • (Score: 5, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 08 2017, @07:27PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 08 2017, @07:27PM (#594207)

    How else could they recognize the Dear Leader?!

    Wake up, SHEEEEEPLE!!!!1111

    • (Score: 2) by Bot on Wednesday November 08 2017, @09:14PM

      by Bot (3902) on Wednesday November 08 2017, @09:14PM (#594241) Journal

      Needless to say, leaders do not have much confidence in sheeple capabilities, so they usually get sheeple to move to one side by putting barking dogs on the other.

      --
      Account abandoned.
    • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday November 08 2017, @09:44PM

      by Freeman (732) on Wednesday November 08 2017, @09:44PM (#594255) Journal

      https://www.xkcd.com/1013/ [xkcd.com] - Do not invoke the wrath of the Sheeple.

      --
      Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
  • (Score: 5, Funny) by Justin Case on Wednesday November 08 2017, @07:38PM (6 children)

    by Justin Case (4239) on Wednesday November 08 2017, @07:38PM (#594212) Journal

    OK so they can recognize someone they've seen before, but will their testimony be admitted at the rape trial?

    • (Score: 5, Funny) by krishnoid on Wednesday November 08 2017, @07:43PM (3 children)

      by krishnoid (1156) on Wednesday November 08 2017, @07:43PM (#594215)

      Triggered [youtube.com].

      • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday November 08 2017, @07:53PM

        by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday November 08 2017, @07:53PM (#594224) Journal

        I wish I could mod you funny.

        --
        People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
      • (Score: 1, Troll) by realDonaldTrump on Wednesday November 08 2017, @09:41PM (1 child)

        by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Wednesday November 08 2017, @09:41PM (#594251) Homepage Journal

        When one of them wears a mask, it's not good, it's scary, it's a problem, right? Now imagine 200 of them in masks, dressed all in black. It's a big, big problem. This is why we need some form of punishment against DisruptJ20.

        • (Score: 2) by krishnoid on Wednesday November 08 2017, @10:17PM

          by krishnoid (1156) on Wednesday November 08 2017, @10:17PM (#594272)

          Or better leadership. After all, the only thing that stops 200 sheep dressed in black, wearing skull masks is a shepherd dressed in black with a skull mask. And possibly a dog similarly attired.

    • (Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 08 2017, @08:04PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 08 2017, @08:04PM (#594227)

      Why so curious?

    • (Score: 2) by stretch611 on Wednesday November 08 2017, @10:08PM

      by stretch611 (6199) on Wednesday November 08 2017, @10:08PM (#594263)

      Are you starting to worry? ;)

      --
      Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
  • (Score: 2) by RamiK on Wednesday November 08 2017, @08:07PM

    by RamiK (1813) on Wednesday November 08 2017, @08:07PM (#594229)

    bus tickets to Wales.

    --
    compiling...
  • (Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 08 2017, @08:19PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 08 2017, @08:19PM (#594232)

    ...from a cold steel rail? A turtle from a rifle? Do you think they can tell?

  • (Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Wednesday November 08 2017, @09:03PM (1 child)

    by wonkey_monkey (279) on Wednesday November 08 2017, @09:03PM (#594236) Homepage
    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk
  • (Score: 2) by krishnoid on Wednesday November 08 2017, @10:36PM

    by krishnoid (1156) on Wednesday November 08 2017, @10:36PM (#594280)

    What we did is ask whether a sheep could learn to recognise someone from a photograph," the study's lead author Prof Jenny Morton said. "We focused on whether or not an animal was capable of processing a two-dimensional object as a person.

    Due to accidental introduction of confounding factors, we did notice that the subjects could reliably distinguish between tartan patterns, accompanied by varied and sometimes animated responses. We intend to investigate this further in a separate study, for eventual submission to the Journal of Irreproducible Results for publication.

    (Apologies in advance to the Scots.)

  • (Score: 2) by Nuke on Wednesday November 08 2017, @11:13PM (1 child)

    by Nuke (3162) on Wednesday November 08 2017, @11:13PM (#594298)

    After training, the sheep chose photos of familiar faces over unfamiliar ones significantly more often than not.

    Chose for what purpose? Wiping their butt on?

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 09 2017, @03:47PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 09 2017, @03:47PM (#594649)

    So can crows despite having much tinier brains. And crows can even learn from other crows:
    http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/26/science/26crow.html [nytimes.com]

    Wearing the dangerous mask on one recent walk through campus, Dr. Marzluff said, he was scolded by 47 of the 53 crows he encountered, many more than had experienced or witnessed the initial trapping. The researchers hypothesize that crows learn to recognize threatening humans from both parents and others in their flock.

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