To better understand how well goats respond to human social cues, the scientific academy gathered 20 goats who were “habituated to human presence” from Buttercups Sanctuary for Goats in the United Kingdom. Then, the goats — 12 males, 8 females — were released into a pen decorated with images of happy and angry humans; observing from afar, the scientists timed how long the goats interacted with the different photographs, noting which expressions they preferred. In short, the scientists learned that goats can “distinguish between happy and angry images of the same person,” and in general, they prefer their humans to be happy.
For the record, I feel the same way about happy goats.
