Goats are more intelligent than most people believe, according to new research from Queen Mary University of London and the Institute of Agricultural Science in Switzerland. A new study shows that goats are able to learn new tasks in as little as four attempts. They can then remember how to carry out that task up to ten months later.
The animals are members of a group of animals called ungulates. Animals in this group usually have hooves - even the name roughly translates as "hoofed animal." Ungulates include several farm favorites, including cows, donkeys and sheep. Most of these animals are cute and friendly, but are not known for their high intelligence.
Goats differ from those other species, in that they are quick to learn, and possess excellent memory, both in the long and short terms.
Investigators trained the animals to extract food from a box. To do this, the test goats needed to lift a lever in order to expose the reward.
Elodie Briefer and her team of researchers began the study with 12 animals, which were each shown the box. Three of the animals ignored the lever and began prying the box open. They were removed from the test. They remaining animal subjects were each able to figure out how to open the box in 12 or fewer tries.
Animals were retested 10 months later, and were able to open boxes in under two minutes. Researchers believe this performance indicates significant long-term memory skills.
"Goats possess several features commonly associated with advanced cognition, such as successful colonization of new environments and complex fission-fusion societies. Here, we assessed goat social and physical cognition as well as long-term memory of a complex two-step foraging task (food box cognitive challenge), in order to investigate some of the main selection pressures thought to affect the evolution of [their thought process]" researchers wrote in the accompanying article.
Goat intelligence does not seem to extend to second-hand learning. Goats that have never before seen the device were unable to learn the process by watching other members of their species. This may indicate the animals are only able to learn from humans.
Other intelligent ungulate species include elephants, whales and dolphins. Unlike goats, dolphins excel at learning by watching others.
Briefer proposes that higher-than-expected levels of cognition in goats may have evolved in harsh conditions. By being able to successfully forage under difficult conditions, the species could survive in unwelcoming environments. They may have also been better able than other animals to populate nearly-barren territories, allowing goats to expand into new areas.
Research into the mental abilities of goats was profiled in the journal Frontiers in Zoology.
