Not Just Sheep
One sheep who got a reward every time she recognized a human face correctly on a video screen scored a perfect 50 out of 50.
[…]
And it’s not just sheep.
Hamlet the pig is a computer wiz. He gets a reward every time he uses a joystick designed for a chimp to move a cursor into a blue area on a computer monitor. A Jack Russell terrier couldn’t achieve such a task after a year of trying.
In other words, pigs are smarter than dogs.
“They’re very curious, and they’ll charge off on their own,” said John Webster, a professor at the University of Bristol in England. “They will investigate the world with their noses down and batter through like a small boy.”
New research shows that chickens can be taught to run the thermostat of the chicken coop, and that even the lowly cow has a surprising inner life.
Cows have been known to form lifelong friendships, and one recent study found that they actually show excitement when they’ve learned something new “as if they’re saying, ‘Eureka, I found out how to solve the problem,’” said Donald Broom, a professor at the University of Cambridge.