Photo: A goat relaxes at the Buttercups Sanctuary for Goats, United Kingdom. Credit: Christian Nawroth
Posted on 07/07/2016 4:46:25 AM PDT by SJackson
Goats Form Intense Connections with Humans, Too
It's the first time a creature raised for food has evolved intense, meaningful connections with people.
Photo: A goat relaxes at the Buttercups Sanctuary for Goats, United Kingdom. Credit: Christian Nawroth
Goats have surprisingly just been added to the very short list of animals that are known to communicate in very direct and complex ways with humans.
The other two animals, dogs and horses, are often raised as companions to humans, so the goat findings -- reported in the journal Royal Society Biology Letters -- mark the first time that an animal raised primarily for food has evolved such an intense and meaningful connection with our species.
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"Goats are very social animals," the lead author of the study, Christian Nawroth, told Discovery News. "Being social definitely seems to be a prerequisite to interacting with other species."
That factor alone could help explain why cats tend to fail the basic test that dogs, horses and goats passed with ease. By necessity, wild cats evolved a more solitary lifestyle. While some individual cats do seem to connect well with their owners, the ability is not as widespread.
Photo: A selfie shows researcher Christian Nawroth with one of the goats included in the study. Credit: Christian Nawroth
Nawroth and colleagues Jemma Brett and Alan McElligott, from Queen Mary University of London's School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, conducted their research at Buttercups Sanctuary for Goats in the U.K., with funding provided by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and Farm Sanctuary's "The Someone Project."
The researchers created an "unsolvable problem" task by placing a tasty treat under a plastic box with the lid sealed shut. The goats could therefore see the food, but could never get at it.
As the 34 goats, a mix of male and female, individually approached the box, most looked right into the eyes of a nearby human, as if hoping to obtain some guidance. They also adjusted their behavior to match the gaze and position of the human. From a scientific standpoint, this meant the goats were exhibiting referential and intentional communication with the humans.
Photo: Goats at the U.K.'s Buttercups Sanctuary for Goats were subjects in the study Credit: Christian Nawroth
Goats can be challenging to keep as pets. They are loud herd animals with voracious appetites and they require a lot of space. But, owners who consider their goats to be pets anecdotally report that the animals are extremely affectionate and personable, in ways comparable to dogs and horses.
Dog studies may help pinpoint some of the factors at play in the relationship.
"Results from dogs indicate that genetics play a role," Nawroth said, adding that early experience with humans also seems to be a factor affecting the goat's behavior.
McElligott said that dogs view praise itself as a reward, which helps to fuel human-canine interactions. He and his colleagues are not sure yet if goats value human-offered praise as well.
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It appears, then, that domestication of any kind, even if it is just driven by food needs, can forever change how another species views us.
"Approximately one billion goats are used in farming worldwide, and we need to understand their cognitive abilities in order to improve welfare guidelines for them," McElligott said. "A very small proportion of goats are kept as pets, but better knowledge of the species in general could also help those."
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Jan Langbein, of the Leibniz Institute for Farm Animal Biology, did not work on this study but has collaborated before with Nawroth on research concerning goats. He believes the new paper is of interest for many reasons.
"It broadens our understanding about the impact of domestication and human-animal interaction on cognitive abilities of animals and questioned some of the underlying theories," Langbein said. "Deeper understanding of the outstanding cognitive abilities of various farm animal species will probably help to achieve better welfare standards. Public knowledge about cognition in, and emotions of, farm animals will change consumers' attitudes towards them."
Photo: Horses are well known for their interaction with humans. Credit: Nickel de Vives, Wikimedia Commons
Marie Nitzschner, formerly at MPI-EVA in Germany, is an independent researcher who studies dog-human communication and cooperation. She noted that the socio-cognitive skills of dogs and horses used to seem outstanding in the animal kingdom, but it could be that we have underestimated the abilities of other domesticated animals. She was astounded that goats exhibited human-directed referential communication.
Nitzschner told Discovery News: "This is quite a surprising finding, and questions the hypothesis that the selection for companionship shaped the human-directed, socio-cognitive skills in dogs and horses. Potentially, domestication itself might have a bigger impact on cognition than previously thought."
She concluded: "The growing body of literature on the cognitive skills of domestic, non-companion species might also have implications on how we treat goats and other farm animals. It seems that their cognitive skills are not so different from those our beloved dogs."
Goats are an ecological disaster. The Middle Easr is, at least in part, the arid place that is is due to the goat.
“Goats Form Intense Connections with Humans, Too
It’s the first time a creature raised for food has evolved intense, meaningful connections with people”
The jokes just write themselves.
ISIS porn.
Looks like marriage was re-defined just in time...
Many years ago, I took a summer session at the Tech and was introduced to cabrito.
Seating at El Tio’s was outdoors, with an open fire grilling the ribs.
When the cook determined the meat was done, two young kitchen helpers lifted the carcass off the fire and fired up a nearby band saw, slicing off big chucks for the patrons.
It was quite an experience...
I got head butted by a goat in the bohind one time going to interview a witness. Didn’t feel good. It came out of nowhere. Never saw it coming. I was wearing a jacket so it helped. The homeowner said it was her guard dog. I believed it...
We had a few and plan to get more. They’re very smart and sneaky too and each of them has it’s own personality. Not a replacement for dogs though. I don’t think a goat could ever be house trained. They’re unconscious about defecating.
In AZ, my children had a pet goat who ran and got in the car and rode with her head out the window when I drove them to school. Lol. Just like a dog. She always answered when called also.
Oh yea. Nothing like building a taco with cabrito with some pico de gallo and guacamole. Add a cold Pacifico and it is a little bit of heaven on earth!
Especially in the Middle East, where they are the sex partner of choice for millions of men.
sheep even more so
Our city sends a flock of goats to the end of our street once a year to eat the dead grass on the empty lot. It’s not an easily mowable slope. They also take care of another steep slope on a nearby street.
Exactly.
Beau is planning on going into the goat meat business after he retires. They can clean up the hillsides (free feed!) and you only need to raise them from spring until late summer, then off they go!
Hence, the jingle:
“Mares eat oats and does eat oats, and little lambs eat ivy...”
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