REAL LIFE NEWS: SHEEP RECOGNISE HUMAN FACES
by Hazed
Sheep can be trained to recognise familiar human faces, a new study shows. Yes, they know who ewe are!
Researchers from Cambridge University in England were able to train sheep to identify faces of four celebrities: actors Jake Gyllenhaal and Emma Watson, former US president Barrack Obama, and BBC newsreader Fiona Bruce.
Then when the sheep were offered treats labelled with different photos, they chose the ones they had learned about significantly more often than unfamiliar faces.
Previous studies had found that sheep could identify other sheep, and could also distinguish between people to find the handlers they already knew. Now we know the effect extends to photographs as well.
The sheep proved adept at identifying the familiar celebs even when they were shown new photos with the faces at different angles. They were also able to identify their handlers from photos.
These tests show that the face-recognition abilities of the sheep are similar to those of monkeys, apes or humans. The researchers say that this work might have implications for learning about degenerative diseases in humans, such as Parkinson’s disease.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-41905652
