Because of similar: sheep and goats are genetically similar, in their physique and in their social structure. But not when it comes to getting involved in new situations. Goats are ahead of the game, as experiments have now shown. According to this, goats are significantly better at recognizing and adapting to alternative routes to their feed. This could be an indication of greater mental flexibility in the goats.
Sheep and goats have a lot in common: From a genetic point of view, they are close relatives, about the same size and often have horns. They also live in herds with hierarchical social structures in which the males challenge each other in fights. In addition, sheep and goats serve as farm animals. But they differ in their foraging for food: sheep tend to be grazing animals, goats, on the other hand, roam around and prefer to look for buds and fresh shoots.
Who is more likely to be with the feed?
But who can better adapt to changing environmental conditions? Scientists working with Camille Raoult from the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg have now investigated this. She was particularly interested in how goats and sheep react to obstacles that block their way to the food. “The ability to respond to a changing environment is vital because it allows animals to find new sources of food,” explains Christian Nawroth from Queen Mary University of London. In their experiment, the research team led one of a total of 21 goats and 28 sheep to the end of a small enclosure. At the other end, the animal was offered food. In between was a fence with a gap so that the direct route to the food was blocked.
The researchers observed the behavior of the animals and noted, among other things, how long it took them to discover and use the gap. After one to four runs, the position of the gap in the fence was changed and the experiment was repeated several times. The result: the goats were ahead of the sheep in the experiment. They found the first gap much faster and after fewer attempts than the sheep. “Both species were able to solve the simple spatial diversion problem, but 40 percent of the sheep did not go directly to the visible gap on the first attempt,” the researchers say. Once they got it, however, the sheep reached their destination faster on average than the goats.
More flexible response to changing circumstances
After the team had changed the position of the gap in the test enclosure, both goats and sheep were initially irritated. It took all of them several attempts to adjust to the new situation. However, it turned out that the goats only needed an average of two attempts for this, while the sheep usually only got used to the change of position on the fourth attempt. In the last two runs after the change of position, the sheep were again on average faster than the goats. “Obviously, goats can adapt to new situations better and more precisely and take the correct direction to go around the obstacle,” says co-author Britta Osthaus of Canterbury Christ Church University. “That suggests that they are mentally more flexible than sheep.”
One possible reason for the differences could be the different foraging strategies in which goats are much more flexible and persistent. “Goats rely on irregularly distributed food sources that are less predictable than the more evenly distributed food sources that sheep prefer,” explain Nawroth and his colleagues. This is probably why the sheep are more tied to their conspecifics when eating than the goats, which tend to keep a certain distance from the group when foraging. The fact that the sheep were faster overall could be an indication of their higher motivation and excitability, speculates the research team in conclusion.
Source: Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Article: Royal Society Open Science, doi: 10.1098 / rsos.201627