Research shows goats can tell if you’re happy or angry by your voice alone

Goats can tell the difference between a happy human voice and an angry one, according to research co-led by Professor Alan McElligott, an expert in animal behavior and welfare at the City University of Hong Kong (CityUHK).

The study reveals that goats may have developed sensitivity to our vocal signals during their long association with humans, according to the study published in Animal behavior.

Long known for their own sonic vocal abilities, the goats in the study tended to spend more time looking at the source of the sound after a change in the valence of a human voice, that is, when the reading changed from a happier voice to an angrier voice or vice versa.

“This study offers the first evidence that goats can distinguish between signals expressed in the human voice, namely emotional valence,” Professor McElligott said. “These findings contribute to the limited available literature indicating that livestock, like pets, are sensitive to human emotional cues.”

The rationale for the experiment is that previous research by Professor McElligott and colleagues has already shown that goats can read human emotional expressions, suggesting that pets like dogs and horses are not the alone to perceive different human facial signals.

He and his team also demonstrated that goats encode their bleats with information related to their individual identity and emotional experiences.

The next question to investigate was: Can goats distinguish the emotional valence of the human voice?

In the experiment, goats listened to a series of voice playbacks expressing positive (happy) or negative (angry) valence during the habituation phase, that is, when the goat gets used to the voice and to human valence, it would therefore respond less. as the phase progressed. The recording was then switched from a positive to a negative valence (or vice versa) before being reversed.

“We predicted that if goats could distinguish the emotional content conveyed by the human voice, they would lose their habits and look faster and longer at the source of the sound, after the first change in valence,” said Dr. Marianne Mason, from the University of Roehampton. UNITED KINGDOM.

Results indicated that 75% of goats that looked at the speaker following a change in valence looked for more prolonged periods, suggesting that these goats had perceived the change in the emotional content of the human voice readings.

Not all goats responded the same way to auditory cues from human voices. Many goats did not respond to the change in valence, which could be due to variations in the goats’ cognitive abilities to perceive human emotional cues, among other external factors.

Additionally, the researchers did not notice any significant physiological changes in the goats, such as an increase in heart rate when exposed to changes in voice valence.

However, the findings are essential to enrich our understanding of animal behavior, well-being and emotional experiences, especially since goats and other livestock will hear human voices in their daily lives. Negative voices, such as angry ones, can cause fear in animals. In contrast, positive aspects may be perceived as calming and may even encourage animals to approach and contribute to the human-animal bond.

“The differences observed in goats’ responses to human emotional cues may highlight the importance of individual experiences and learning, particularly interspecific emotional communication,” Professor McElligott concluded. “More research is needed to understand the importance of the human voice on the emotional lives and well-being of goats and other domestic species.”

The research was supported by CityUHK’s Center for Animal Health and Welfare, established in 2020, and included a multidisciplinary team of veterinary researchers with complementary expertise and shared core values ​​of excellence, integrity and of compassion.

The Centre’s mission is to improve the quality of life of animals by producing high-impact research that provides evidence-based solutions to important health and welfare issues in Hong Kong and beyond.

The research on goats and the human voice was a collaboration between the City University of Hong Kong; the School of Life and Health Sciences, University of Roehampton, UK; and the RSPB Center for Conservation Science, Cambridge, United Kingdom. The research was carried out at Buttercups Sanctuary for Goats, a registered charity in the south east of England, established in 1989 to care for goats in need of urgent care.