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Goats display audience-dependent human-directed gazing behaviour in a problem-solving task.

Christian Nawroth¹, Jemma M Brett², Alan G McElligott³

¹Biological and Experimental Psychology, School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London E1 4NS, UK nawroth.christian@gmail.com.

Biology Letters

|July 7, 2016

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Domestication shapes animal communication. Goats, a production species, show audience-dependent visual orienting behavior towards humans, similar to companion animals like dogs, indicating broader domestication impacts.

Keywords:

human–animal interaction intentional communication referential communication social cognition ungulates

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Area of Science:

Animal Cognition
Behavioral Ecology
Domestication Studies

Background:

Domestication significantly alters animal cognition and behavior.
Dogs' referential communication with humans is a key domestication outcome.
Limited comparative studies hinder understanding domestication's cognitive impact across species.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate human-directed behavior in goats, a domestic non-companion species.
To compare goat communication with human-directed behavior in companion animals.
To assess the impact of domestication on interspecies communication.

Main Methods:

An 'unsolvable problem' task was used to test goats' human-directed behavior.
Goats' responses were observed with a forward-facing versus an away-facing person.
Key metrics included gaze duration, latency, and alternations.

Main Results:

Goats gazed longer and earlier at the forward-facing person.
Goats exhibited more gaze alternations and quicker initial alternations towards the forward-facing person.
This demonstrates audience-dependent visual orienting behavior in goats.

Conclusions:

Domestication has a broad impact on heterospecific communication, extending beyond companion animals.
Goats display referential and intentional communicative behaviors similar to dogs and horses.
Audience-dependent orienting behavior in goats suggests shared domestication-driven cognitive changes.