Goat Fun Fact #2
Goats can be taught their name and to come when called like a dog. They also have a similar lifespan to a dog.
Researchers from Queen Mary University of London and the Institute of Agricultural Science in Switzerland hypothesized that goats were more intelligent than they seem. For example, goats live in complex social groups. They are experts at getting at hard-to-reach foods. They also live a relatively long time, and are better able to build memories and skills than some short-lived animals.
To test intelligence, researchers gave the animals the “artificial fruit challenge” A game/test developed by primate scientists. The researchers placed fruit inside a box. The fruit can only be reached by solving a puzzle. If they correctly performed the task, they received a food reward that dropped out of the box.
The researchers attempted to teach twelve goats to complete the task. Of those twelve, nine were able to master the task after about four tries.
The same nine goats were tested again after ten months and remembered how to solve the problem in under a minute. “The speed at which the goats completed the task at that time, compared to how long it took them to learn indicates excellent long-term memory,” said Elodie Briefer, the lead author of the research paper.
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