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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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.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 02 2018, @07:06PM
Does cultural bigotry know no end? [wiktionary.org]
(Score: 5, Insightful) by frojack on Monday July 02 2018, @07:10PM (1 child)
Maybe if goats kept their eyes on their work they wouldn't be struggling so much.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday July 02 2018, @08:10PM
Goats stare intensely at owner because goats 'mount' rather than hump your leg as a dog would. Mounting behavior starts young.
If you eat an entire cake without cutting it, you technically only had one piece.
(Score: 2) by suburbanitemediocrity on Monday July 02 2018, @07:26PM (5 children)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2_-i_cohMM [youtube.com]
They're huge dicks IRL though.
(Score: 3, Informative) by frojack on Monday July 02 2018, @07:37PM
Some have an additional option to their Fight or Flight impulse: Faint! [youtube.com]
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2, Funny) by EvilSS on Monday July 02 2018, @11:59PM (3 children)
On the upside he said the goat sausage was quite tasty.
(Score: 2) by Arik on Tuesday July 03 2018, @06:04AM (2 children)
I would bet you they had planned that out several days, maybe a week ahead of time, and had been waiting for her to bend over in just the right place for that to happen.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by EvilSS on Tuesday July 03 2018, @04:40PM (1 child)
(Score: 2) by Arik on Tuesday July 03 2018, @09:07PM
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by frojack on Monday July 02 2018, @07:27PM (3 children)
Animals watch what is watching them, especially if one animal is perceived to be dangerous to the other. So do humans.
Encountering two bears, one watching you intently, one ignoring you (back turned), which one would you keep your eyes on?
Walking a trail yesterday, I came upon a deer, maybe 25 feet away. It froze, watching me, I stopped and watched it. Both animals (me and deer) same behavior. Would we make good pets for each other? Or do animals naturally watch a source of potential danger? I didn't feel threatened, deer didn't instantly run.
Situation persisted long enough for me to slowly take out my phone and take a few pictures.
I turned my back for a couple seconds, to get the sun light off of the phone's screen, and when I looked again the deer was gone. Silently.
It was clearly just self preservation at play here.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 5, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 02 2018, @07:58PM
The one with his back turned, obviously. I would suspect him of hiding the fact that he was texting his friends to sneak up behind me, or loading a gun.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 03 2018, @12:32AM
Course not. The deer won't make a good pet for you.
I don't know about the reverse, the IQ of that deer may be high enough to make it a good idea.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 03 2018, @01:13AM
My own pet frojack? I will call him "Squishy" and he shall be my squishy!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 02 2018, @07:38PM (6 children)
Once curried, they stop staring at you.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 02 2018, @08:11PM
If you not be eating them, they be eating your hair and your clothes if you're not watching.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Monday July 02 2018, @09:28PM (2 children)
Get some goats to clear the brush per fire regulation, get milk while you're at it, then dispose of the goat by giving it to your religious friend for ritual sacrifice, and maybe even get some meat in return.
Goats have been man's useful companion for a while.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 03 2018, @01:24AM (1 child)
It amazes me how often I have heard about some city|institution|whatever which has a hillside that is too steep|irregular|whatever to mow|clear|whatever.
Modern humans are so removed from nature that the vast majority would never think of what should be obvious.
...then there's the smart guys who have turned that into a business. [google.com]
The damned things will eat just about anything.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Tuesday July 03 2018, @05:49PM
The only odd part of that is that you are amazed.
Goats have a long, long, long history of being used to clear underbrush, sometimes with unfortunate results. If you read the Bible you might have noted references to "the cedars of Lebanon". They were eaten by goats. More precisely, goats were used to keep underbrush in check, and they ate all the seedlings and young trees (though I'm not sure what young means in this context).
It's a great way to minimize fire danger. It's also a way to ensure that you don't continue to have a forest. It isn't only small islands that they denude.
As to "They'll eat nearly anything." They ate the plastic covering off my mothers car. When she was doing some construction they ate some of the fiberglass insulation she was getting ready to install. Etc. They don't literally eat tin cans, but I wouldn't be surprised to find them chewing them. (OTOH, they don't seem to eat large pieces of dry wood. Like fence posts.)
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday July 02 2018, @10:05PM
I just realized I've eaten goat but not dog. Whoops.
Didn't even cross my mind when I subbed this.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by EvilSS on Tuesday July 03 2018, @12:00AM
(Score: 0, Troll) by Subsentient on Monday July 02 2018, @08:14PM (5 children)
I thought the first word of the title was something else [imgur.com].
NSFW
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 02 2018, @08:59PM (1 child)
well played
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Tuesday July 03 2018, @05:28AM
Sorry, I'm disappointed. I would have expected goatse to show up within 2 - 3 posts MAX, if not firstpost, on a geek site goat article.
(Score: 5, Funny) by crafoo on Monday July 02 2018, @10:33PM (2 children)
Imgur really is a javascript cesspool. 4 levels of javashit hell, and I was rewarded with a suitable price. Well played.
(Score: 4, Touché) by takyon on Monday July 02 2018, @11:12PM
Never remove your browser condom.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 03 2018, @09:34AM
> and I was rewarded with a suitable price
You mean, you didn't instantly know what the link would be about, without ever visiting it...?
You're one of today's
luckyscarred for life 10,000. [xkcd.com](Score: 2) by black6host on Monday July 02 2018, @08:33PM (1 child)
Don't fall into the trap of thinking that goats are friendly and cuddly. I've played Goat Simulator and let me tell you, they are nothing but a pain in the ass :)
(Score: 2) by Arik on Tuesday July 03 2018, @05:54AM
Also males have a gland that produces a cocktail of PCP, Cocaine, Implant GRX, and Red Bull when they go into rut. As a side effect they get even more near-sighted than normal, and become liable to mistake just about anything of roughly the same size; a car, a toolshed, a person, whatever; for another male goat.
As a result, male goats are normally either made into lamb, or fixed.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 02 2018, @08:36PM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Men_Who_Stare_at_Goats [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 3, Informative) by richtopia on Monday July 02 2018, @08:55PM (6 children)
If you are interested in a goat as a pet, Nigerian Dwarf goats are becoming more popular: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigerian_Dwarf_goat. [wikipedia.org] They reach roughly half a meter in height so they are much easier to handle than typical goats.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 02 2018, @11:19PM (1 child)
Will it still be a virgin when it is delivered? Or is that extra?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 02 2018, @11:24PM
You could always bottle raise it yourself.
(Score: 2) by Arik on Tuesday July 03 2018, @05:45AM (2 children)
Anyway, even without getting into miniature breeds most goats are pretty small anyway. Full grown adults are usually ~150lbs or less, so comparable to a large dog or even a medium sized dog. The trouble with 'handling them' tends to be more mental than physical, but I wouldn't recommend them to most people as a pet, regardless of the size. They're extremely smart, clever, active. People buy dogs they can't keep up with every day and those dogs get lonely and eat until they die of heart disease because of it. If you can't keep up with a Dalmatian then you have no chance at all with a goat, trust me.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Tuesday July 03 2018, @08:46AM (1 child)
The url abutted a trailing period which isn't part of it, and "Plain Old Text" mode doesn't do the right thing :(
The real link's this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigerian_Dwarf_goat [wikipedia.org] .
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Tuesday July 03 2018, @11:22AM
If you end a sentence with a URL and a full stop in "Plain Old Text" mode, then it gets automatically linkified in a way that is unexpected and undesired.
E.g. when I type:
http://foo.bar/baz.
SN turns it into the non-useful unintended:
http://foo.bar/baz. [foo.bar]
rather than the useful and intended:
http://foo.bar/baz [foo.bar].
Patch sent to #dev fixes this to do what was most likely intended.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 03 2018, @09:39AM
> Nigerian Dwarf goats
Geeze, that combination of words raises so many red flags...
(Score: 5, Funny) by MostCynical on Monday July 02 2018, @10:52PM
A scraggly old Greek man in a dusty village speaks to a group of strangers.
“See that school? I built that school – with my own hands. Ten years it took, and thousands of children have been schooled there, but nobody talks about Stavros the school-builder. Nobody!
See that hospital? I built it with these very hands. Fifteen years it took. Countless lives have been saved there, children born, the sick cured, but nobody ever talks about Stavros the man who built the hospital. Nobody!
But f*** just one goat…”
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 02 2018, @11:22PM (1 child)
They all have a hole at the back
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday July 03 2018, @03:49AM
That is not what "animal husbandry" means, thank you *very* much...
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Arik on Tuesday July 03 2018, @05:29AM
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.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?