caa a22 4500 605541868 CHVBK 20210128100918.0 cr unu---uuuuu 210128e20150101xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/s10071-014-0777-5 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s10071-014-0777-5 ‘Goats that stare at men': dwarf goats alter their behaviour in response to human head orientation, but do not spontaneously use head direction as a cue in a food-related context [Elektronische Daten] [Christian Nawroth, Eberhard von Borell, Jan Langbein] Recently, comparative research on the mechanisms and species-specific adaptive values of attributing attentive states and using communicative cues has gained increased interest, particularly in non-human primates, birds, and dogs. Here, we investigate these phenomena in a farm animal species, the dwarf goat (Capra aegagrus hircus). In the first experiment, we investigated the effects of different human head and body orientations, as well as human experimenter presence/absence, on the behaviour of goats in a food-anticipating paradigm. Over a 30-s interval, the experimenter engaged in one of four different postures or behaviours (head and body towards the subject—'Control', head to the side, head and body away from the subject, or leaving the room) before delivering a reward. We found that the level of subjects' active anticipatory behaviour was highest in the control condition and decreased with a decreasing level of attention paid to the subject by the experimenter. Additionally, goats ‘stared' (i.e. stood alert) at the experimental set-up for significantly more time when the experimenter was present but paid less attention to the subject (‘Head' and ‘Back' condition) than in the ‘Control' and ‘Out' conditions. In a second experiment, the experimenter provided different human-given cues that indicated the location of a hidden food reward in a two-way object choice task. Goats were able to use both ‘Touch' and ‘Point' cues to infer the correct location of the reward but did not perform above the level expected by chance in the ‘Head only' condition. We conclude that goats are able to differentiate among different body postures of a human, including head orientation; however, despite their success at using multiple physical human cues, they fail to spontaneously use human head direction as a cue in a food-related context. Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2014 Dwarf goats nationallicence Social cognition nationallicence Food-anticipation paradigm nationallicence Attentive states nationallicence Human-given cues nationallicence Nawroth Christian Department of Animal Husbandry and Ecology, Institute of Agricultural and Nutritional Sciences, Martin-Luther-University, Halle, Germany aut von Borell Eberhard Department of Animal Husbandry and Ecology, Institute of Agricultural and Nutritional Sciences, Martin-Luther-University, Halle, Germany aut Langbein Jan Institute of Behavioural Physiology, Leibniz Institute for Farm Animal Biology, Dummerstorf, Germany aut Animal Cognition Springer Berlin Heidelberg 18/1(2015-01-01), 65-73 1435-9448 18:1<65 2015 18 10071 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-014-0777-5 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-014-0777-5 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Nawroth Christian Department of Animal Husbandry and Ecology, Institute of Agricultural and Nutritional Sciences, Martin-Luther-University, Halle, Germany aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- von Borell Eberhard Department of Animal Husbandry and Ecology, Institute of Agricultural and Nutritional Sciences, Martin-Luther-University, Halle, Germany aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Langbein Jan Institute of Behavioural Physiology, Leibniz Institute for Farm Animal Biology, Dummerstorf, Germany aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Animal Cognition Springer Berlin Heidelberg 18/1(2015-01-01), 65-73 1435-9448 18:1<65 2015 18 10071