By Maneka Sanjay Gandhi

Rajji is a goat in my shelter Sanjay Gandhi Animal Care Centre. He has a gang of his own: all alpha dogs that surround him as he walks through the shelter and sit around him when he perches higher than them on a ledge – a sign that he is their boss. He waits till a few humans start talking and then he saunters over to the group to become a part of their deliberations. Woe betide anyone who tries to pet him. He butts straightaway. I walked around with a sore hip for two weeks after I put my hand on his head to stroke his silky hair. He demands to be treated like a human being and now all our staff does.

While most people treat their pets with kindness and respect, farm animals are rarely extended the same treatment even though they are as intelligent and loving as cats and dogs. Thinking that farm animals like goats, chickens, buffaloes, cows and fish are stupid allows people to rationalise mass-producing and slaughtering of these animals for food. People continue to eat mutton because they feel that the goat is a brainless body grown only for its meat.

Recent experiments have shown that goats are actually very smart. That goats can interact with each other in socially complex ways has been proven time and again. They develop friendships, form social hierarchies, and are very successful in colonising new environments. In a string of new experiments, scientists have learnt that goats also have long-term memory (a sign of intelligence), are able to learn a complex task after being shown how to do it a few times, can understand object permanence. They even have the ability to change their speaking accents as per their social surroundings.

A recent study by the researchers at Queen Mary, University of London, and The Institute of Agricultural Science in Switzerland, found that goats have the ability to learn complex tasks and remember them for a long time. Four scientists got 12 goats together and taught them how to open a box of food by pulling and then lifting a lever. After a few tries, the goats learnt how to do it. The same set of goats was quizzed on the task ten months later. Even after all that time, the goats were able to perform the task in less than two minutes. The speed at which the goats completed the task after 10 months, compared to how long it took them to do it the first time, indicates long-term memory.

While many studies have shown that animals such as dogs and cats and various primates reach different stages of object permanence – the understanding that things still exist even after they disappear from view – new findings in the latest issue of Applied Animal Behaviour Science have investigated its existence in goats. Using female Nigerian dwarf goats, the researchers tested the animals’ skill in tracking hidden objects in a series of experiments. In one such experiment, the goats watched as a researcher hid an uncooked piece of pasta beneath the same plastic cup several times. When the researcher changed course and hid the pasta, in full sight, under one of the empty cups nearby, the goats were able to successfully find it.

In another experiment, the researchers hid the pasta in a plastic cup in front of the goat. They then slid the cup next to another plastic cup – which also contained pasta to prevent the goat from potentially sniffing it out – so that the two cups crossed paths. When the two cups were identical, the researchers observed that the goats had a harder time tracking the food. However, when the cups were of different colours and shapes, more goats were able to find the hidden pasta, implying that the visual cues helped the goats better follow the pasta’s path. Keeping track of a relatively tricky trajectory in these experiments provides the first evidence that dwarf goats have reached a higher stage of object permanence than any other non-primate mammal.

Their determination along with an aptitude for challenges allows goats to apply these problem-solving skills to help them to reach food other animals wouldn’t be able to get to. Goats in Morocco, for instance, are known to climb trees to reach the tastiest branches.

In an experiment to determine whether captive goats seek cognitive challenges, a group of scientists investigated whether the goats continued to operate a learning device to get a reward when the same reward was available concurrently without any effort. In the first training period, a group of 10 goats were trained to press a button at a water-giver to get 35 ml of drinking water. In a following training period, the goats learned to differentiate between two different visual shapes on a learning device to receive the same amount of water. The water-giver was closed during this second training period. Finally, water was simultaneously available at the water-giver and the learning device for five days. During this period, the goats continued to operate the learning device, showing that when it can choose between working for a reward or taking it with less effort, the goat chooses not to always reach for the easy reward. This study provided evidence that goats search for cognitive challenges beyond the motivation of a reward. Simply put, they like learning for learning’s sake.

Researchers at Queen Mary, University of London suggest that goats can change their vocal sounds and develop accents. The team studied four groups of pygmy goats. They were first recorded at one week old, when they stayed with their siblings, hidden from predators; the second at five weeks old, when they form social groups with animals of the same age. The team reported that even though the genetically related kids produced similar calls, the calls of kids raised in the same social groups were also similar to each other, becoming more similar as they grew older. The experiment showed that goat kids modified their calls according to their social surroundings, developing similar accents.

The universe has not made a single mistake in creating its creatures. Learn how intelligent these animals really are - it will become harder for you to justify eating them.

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