If you want to befriend a goat, better say cheese! New research shows that goats can distinguish between human happy and sad faces, and prefer the pictures of humans that smile! When presented with images of the two facial expressions, goats spent 50% more time approaching and nudging the happy-face photos. This has important implications for how to best manage goats in captive settings.

Sketch and fact contributed by Karli Chudeau

Nawroth, C., Albuquerque, N., Savalli, C., Single, M.S., & McElligott, A.G. (2018). Goats prefer positive human emotional facial expressions. Royal Society Open Science, 5, 180491, DOI: 10.1098/rsos.180491