Search Here

Goats are smarter than previously thought, according to new research.

Scientists at Queen Mary University of London said that goats have the ability to learn how to solve complicated tasks quickly and are able to recall how to perform them for at least ten months.

Researchers said that intelligence might explain goats' remarkable ability to adapt to harsh environments and to forage for plants in the wild.

In the study, researchers trained a group of goats to get food from a box using a linked sequence of steps. Researchers said the goats had to first pull a lever with their mouths and then lift it to release the reward.

Researchers then tested the goats' ability to remember the task a month later and again at ten months.

The findings revealed that the goats learned the task within 12 trials and took less than two minutes to remember the challenge.

"The speed at which the goats completed the task at 10 months compared to how long it took them to learn indicates excellent long-term memory," co-author Dr. Elodie Briefer, now based at ETH Zurich, said in a news release.

Researchers also found goats prefer to learn on their own.

"We found that those without a demonstrator were just as fast at learning as those that had seen demonstrations. This shows that goats prefer to learn on their own rather than by watching others," added Briefer.

"This could explain why they are so successful in colonizing new environments, though we would need to perform a similar study with wild goats to be sure," added Briefer.

The findings are published in the journal Frontiers in Zoology.