2011-02-21

Animal intelligence: sheep are raising the baa

Monkeys are considered an intelligent species. However according, sheep can actually pass psychological tests that monkeys would fail...

Dr Laura Avanzo and Dr Jennifer Morton  from University of Cambrdige Scientists, were studying neurodegeneration, focusing on Huntington’s disease, and as part of their research, they were testing a new breed of sheep that was genetically modified (by carrying a defective gene that causes Huntington’s disease in humans) and were comparing data with normal sheeps as a control.

The sheep learned to recognize different color patterns -  food signals, and easily changed theirs
behavior according to the pattern that they looked at.
This type of behavior depends  on prefrontal cortex, and only humans and other primates were supposed to be able to solve these kinds of tasks.

 Dr Avanzo and Dr Morton believed that sheep, like humans, behave differently when in a flock compared to while they are alone, and this problem was underlying theirs research.

Dr Morton:...Sheep live in a flock, and in a flock they’re rather silly. When you work with them as individuals, they behave very differently...”

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