Impact of animal socio-cognitive skills on human-animal interactions: goats and human handlers

• Applicant: Dr. Christian Nawroth
• Subject Area: Animal Breeding, Animal Nutrition, Animal Husbandry
• Term: from 2015 to 2017
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 274404299

The main goal of this research project is to evaluate the cognitive capabilities of domestic goats, with a special focus on how goats recognize and mentally represent human handlers. Gaining deeper knowledge of livestock cognition is hugely important because socio-cognitive capacities affect the ability of livestock to adapt to human handling and husbandry conditions. In the long term, a better understanding will help to improve their husbandry and welfare. In Part 1 of the research program, we will determine how and for how long domestic goats can differentiate between two familiar humans by using visual and auditory cues of the handlers. In addition, we will investigate whether goats recognize familiar humans across various perceptual modalities (e.g., that a specific voice is connected with a specific physical appearance) and if this cross-modal recognition is restricted to living, compared to non-living entities. In Part 2 of the research program, we will investigate the ability of goats to discriminate between different attentive states in humans. We will also determine to what extent goats understand human referential gestures (e.g. pointing and gazing). Additional controls in Part 2 of the research program will help our understanding of whether these processes are based upon learned contingencies, or if they result from genuine understanding of the perception of others.

• DFG Programme: Research Fellowships
• International Connection: United Kingdom
• Host: Professor Alan McElligott, Ph.D.