Sheep chose the face they associated with food eight out of ten times.
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Eight sheep were trained in a specially designed pen with two computer screens at one end of a room showing different celebrity faces.
The sheep would receive a treat for going up to the picture of the celebrity they recognised and pushing their noses though an infrared beam near the computer screen.
Sheep chose the face they associated with food eight out of ten times.
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“Anyone who has spent time working with sheep will know that they are intelligent, individual animals who are able to recognise their handlers,” says Professor Jenny Morton, who led the study.
“We’ve shown with our study that sheep have advanced face-recognition abilities, comparable with those of humans and monkeys.
It’s hoped that the study will help to advance the medical research of diseases that affect the human brain, such Huntington’s, which is a neurological disease caused by a gene that both sheep and humans carry.
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Eight sheep were trained in a specially designed pen with two computer screens at one end of a room showing different celebrity faces.
The sheep would receive a treat for going up to the picture of the celebrity they recognised and pushing their noses though an infrared beam near the computer screen.
Sheep chose the face they associated with food eight out of ten times.
“Anyone who has spent time working with sheep will know that they are intelligent, individual animals who are able to recognise their handlers,” says Professor Jenny Morton, who led the study.
“We’ve shown with our study that sheep have advanced face-recognition abilities, comparable with those of humans and monkeys.
It’s hoped that the study will help to advance the medical research of diseases that affect the human brain, such Huntington’s, which is a neurological disease caused by a gene that both sheep and humans carry.
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