Goats prefer people who smile.
Goats prefer people who smile
A new study suggests that the animal can read facial cues, and like it more when humans have grinning faces, rather than grumpy faces.
It was previously thought that only animals such as dogs could decipher between faces- but the Queen Mary University of London has provided the first evidence of how goats process human emotional expressions.
The study was conducted at the Buttercups Sanctuary for Goats in Kent, using pictures of people smiling and frowning.
According to the researchers, happy faces got greater interactions from the goats, who were much more eager to approach and explore the images with their snouts.
Dr Alan McElligott, who led the study, said it has ''important implications for how we interact with livestock and other species, because the abilities of animals to perceive human emotions might be widespread and not just limited to pets''.