Goats excel at learning and remembering a highly novel cognitive task

Abstract

IntroductionThe computational demands of sociality (maintaining group cohesion, reducing conflict) and ecological problems (extractive foraging, memorizing resource locations) are the main drivers proposed to explain the evolution cognition. Different predictions follow, about whether animals would preferentially learn new tasks socially or not, but the prevalent view today is that intelligent species should excel at social learning. However, the predictions were originally used to explain primate cognition, and studies of species with relatively smaller brains are rare. By contrast, domestication has often led to a decrease in brain size, which could affect cognition. In domestic animals, the relaxed selection pressures compared to a wild environment could have led to reduced social and physical cognition. Goats possess several features commonly associated with advanced cognition, such as successful colonization of new environments and complex fission-fusion societies. Here, we assessed goat social and physical cognition as well as long-term memory of a complex two-step foraging task (food box cognitive challenge), in order to investigate some of the main selection pressures thought to affect the evolution of ungulate cognition.ResultsThe majority of trained goats (9/12) successfully learned the task quickly; on average, within 12 trials. After intervals of up to 10 months, they solved the task within two minutes, indicating excellent long-term memory. The goats did not learn the task faster after observing a demonstrator than if they did not have that opportunity. This indicates that they learned through individual rather than social learning.ConclusionsThe individual learning abilities and long-term memory of goats highlighted in our study suggest that domestication has not affected goat physical cognition. However, these cognitive abilities contrast with the apparent lack of social learning, suggesting that relatively intelligent species do not always preferentially learn socially. We propose that goat cognition, and maybe more generally ungulate cognition, is mainly driven by the need to forage efficiently in harsh environments and feed on plants that are difficult to access and to process, more than by the computational demands of sociality. Our results could also explain why goats are so successful at colonizing new environments.

Emotions in goats: mapping physiological, behavioural and vocal profiles

“…They also have good visual discrimination learning abilities (e.g. Langbein, Nürnberg, & Manteuffel, 2004) and long-term memory (Briefer, Haque, Baciadonna, & McElligott, 2014;Briefer, Padilla de la Torre, & McElligott, 2012). The most common goat vocalization is the contact call, which is used to maintain contact at relatively close distance (Briefer & McElligott, 2011a).…”

Does the removal of finder's share influence the scrounging decisions of herbivores?

“…Yet, as group size increases, so too does the number of potential competitors, which increases the frequency of social monitoring (Favreau et al, 2010). However, the ability of goats, and other social herbivores, to keep track of when every herd member started to feed (and thus estimate finder"s share) may be limited by their cognitive ability, despite the noted intelligence of goats (Briefer, Padilla de la Torre, & McElligott, 2012;Briefer, Haque, Baciadonna, & McElligott, 2014).…”

Invited review: Socio-cognitive capacities of goats and their impact on human–animal interactions

“…However, studies in cattle and pigs have shown that body height and/or general facial features can be sufficient for discrimination between humans (Koba and Tanida, 2001;Rybarczyk et al, 2001), and it is likely that the discrimination process in goats might operate in a similar manner (see Keil et al, 2012). In relation to potential long term recognition of humans, good memory capacities over several modalities can be presumed in this species, as research on mother-offspring recognition and problem-solving has shown (Briefer et al, 2014(Briefer et al, , 2012. When goats learned how to solve a 2-step puzzle box in order to receive a reward, they were able to memorize this association for several months (Briefer et al, 2014).…”

“…In relation to potential long term recognition of humans, good memory capacities over several modalities can be presumed in this species, as research on mother-offspring recognition and problem-solving has shown (Briefer et al, 2014(Briefer et al, , 2012. When goats learned how to solve a 2-step puzzle box in order to receive a reward, they were able to memorize this association for several months (Briefer et al, 2014). It is quite likely that learning processes associated with humans (e.g.…”