A new study shows that while goats can be trained on complex tasks and remember them for long periods of time, they don’t display a strong propensity for social learning. (Credit: Elodie Briefer, Frontiers in Zoology)
Like primates, goats forage widely and live in complex social groups, characteristics that are often associated with intelligence. A new study puts this to the test by training goats in a complex task that involves manipulating levers to release food. The goats were able to solve the task in less than two minutes, even 10 months after training. However, they seem to prefer to learn on their own; goats who saw other goats perform the task did no better than goats who only saw a human demonstrator.
Original research paper published in the journal Frontiers in Zoology on March 26, 2014.
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