Sheep can recognize Baaaa-rack Obama's face, new study shows

In this image taken from video, a sheep indicates recognition of former US president Barack Obama, right, displayed on a computer screen during research carried out by scientists at Cambridge University. (Cambridge University via AP)

By Associated Press

November 14, 2017

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A new study shows that sheep have the ability to recognize human faces from photographs on computer screens.

The Cambridge University study, published last Wednesday, also shows that sheep can recognize the faces of their human handlers without any prior training.

It had been known that sheep can recognize familiar faces of other sheep and of humans.

The researchers say this study of the ability of sheep to recognize faces may be useful in research into Huntington's disease and other human brain disorders that affect mental processing.

Lead scientist Professor Jenny Morton says sheep have advanced face-recognition abilities comparable to those of humans and monkeys.

Among the faces they were trained to recognize were, former president Barack Obama and actress Emma Watson, know for her role as Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter movies.

The research was published in Royal Society: Open Science.

Filed Under: Animals National news Odd news Science Technology

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COMMENTS (2)

samirad-cel

11/15/2017 - 12:10 p.m.

Researchers can look more into Huntington's disease and other human mental disorders. I didn't even know that sheep could recognize people's faces without being trained to. I found it funny that they started off with Barack Obama and Emma Watson, but this is pretty cool.

ZekeK-dec

3/15/2018 - 01:42 p.m.

I think that this article is cool because i always thought that sheep were dumb