Goats outsmart chimps: They can track human voice to find treats

University of Zürich researchers found goats can follow the direction of a human voice to locate hidden food — a skill not seen in chimpanzees, but common in dogs and young children.“Goats use a vocal form of pointing,” said Prof Simon Townsend, senior author. The study, published in Royal Society Open Science, tested if domestication boosted this ability.

The team placed two buckets on either side of a screen. After training, a researcher hid behind it, put pasta in one bucket, then spoke excitedly toward it, stayed silent, or spoke facing away. Of 29 goats tested over 12 trials each, 60% walked to the baited bucket when the voice “pointed” to it. When silent or speaking away, they scored just 47-49% — random chance.

Dr Stuart Watson, first author, said goats did this without training. The skill may show how domestication changed animal cognition to sync better with humans, which could improve welfare.

Goats already known to follow pointing gestures and read human emotions. Next, researchers want to test wild goats to check if the ability is innate.“This shows more human communication traits exist in other species than we thought,” Townsend said.