A new study was released this week proving that goats have a pretty impressive IQ.
After teaching goats a specific task and observing them, they learned the skill within four tries. Not only did they remember the task after learning it, they were able to remember it 10 months later, suggesting they have a respectable long-term memory.
"Our results challenge the common misconception that goats aren't intelligent animals," Alan McElligott, study co-author from Queen Mary University of London said in a statement, according to a university press release. "They have the ability to learn complex tasks and remember them for a long time."
The researchers were able to train goats to remove food from a box by pulling a lever with their mouth, and then taught them to lift the lever to collect the treat.
Three were eliminated from the study after trying to use short cuts to open the box. Of the nine that remained, it only took them four tries to complete the task, according to press release.
Ten months later, the same nine goats were tested again to see if they remembered what they learned. All of them were successfully able to complete the task in less than a minute.
"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," Dr. Elodie Briefer, study co-author, said, according to the release.
Research was published in the journal Frontiers in Zoology.
Click here to view a video of one of the goats in action.
The study helped researchers understand how goats are able to adapt to harsh environments, live in complex social groups in the wild, and survive for long periods of time foraging for food, according to the study.
The goats did have their learning limits however. When non-trained goats saw the trained goats retrieve the food from the box, they were not able to do so themselves. This could mean goats choose to learn on their or own or they don't have the ability to learn simply by watching others.
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