Are Sheep Smart? Face Recognition, Memory and Sheep Intelligence

Sheep are face recognition experts

Faces matter enormously to sheep. They live in flocks where knowing who is who, from a lamb’s mother to a familiar companion, is vital. Brain studies show that sheep have specialized nerve cells in the temporal and frontal regions of the brain that respond to faces, a system broadly similar to the one humans use.

In a study published in Nature in 2001, Keith Kendrick and colleagues at the Babraham Institute in Cambridge trained sheep to choose between pairs of sheep faces to find a reward. The sheep learned to tell apart about 50 different faces, and they still remembered them after more than two years.

The same team found that sheep react to the emotional state shown on a face. They tend to prefer images of calm flockmates over stressed ones, and of relaxed human faces over angry ones.

Sheep recognize celebrities

In 2017, neuroscientists at the University of Cambridge, led by Jenny Morton, tested whether sheep could learn human faces from flat photographs. Eight Welsh Mountain sheep were trained to pick photos of four celebrities, the actors Jake Gyllenhaal and Emma Watson, the newsreader Fiona Bruce and former US President Barack Obama, over faces they had never seen.

The sheep chose the trained face about eight times out of ten. When the photos were shown from an angle, their accuracy dropped by about 15%, a similar drop to that seen in people doing the same task. Without any extra training, the sheep could also pick out photos of their own handlers. The researchers noted that this kind of face recognition from photographs had previously been shown mainly in humans and other primates.

Can sheep learn and solve problems?

Sheep can learn tasks that require more than simple habit. In a 2011 study, Jenny Morton and Laura Avanzo tested sheep on a sequence of choices using colored buckets and shapes. The sheep learned which color or shape hid a food reward, then switched when the rules changed. They managed a type of switch called a reversal task and even an attention-shifting task that is also used to test humans and other primates.

Other studies have shown that Merino sheep learn routes through mazes and improve with practice, remembering the correct path weeks later. Upland sheep learn the boundaries of their unfenced home range on the hills, called the heft, and pass that knowledge from ewe to lamb, so whole flocks keep to their traditional grazing for generations.

Why do sheep seem simple?

The idea that sheep are stupid comes mostly from their flocking behavior. A sheep cut off from its group panics, and a flock tends to follow whichever animal moves first, even through a gap in the wrong direction. To people this can look mindless.

For a prey animal, though, it makes sense. A lone sheep is an easy target for wolves, dogs or foxes, while one in the middle of a tight group is much safer. Following the flock means a sheep reacts quickly to a threat it may not have seen itself. The details are explained in Why do sheep follow each other?.

Sheep are also often tested in ways that do not suit them. A sheep separated from its flock for a laboratory test is likely to be stressed, which hides its true abilities.

Do sheep have emotions?

Scientists studying animal welfare have found good evidence that sheep experience positive and negative emotional states. Sheep show clear distress when isolated, and they respond to novelty, unpredictability and lack of control in ways that suggest they assess situations rather than just react. Ear posture is one useful signal: ears held back or down are associated with negative situations, while relaxed ears are linked to calm, positive ones.

How do sheep compare with other farm animals?

Sheep are often ranked alongside cattle in general learning ability, with pigs scoring somewhat higher in many tests. Pigs are famous for problem-solving, as described in How smart are pigs?. But intelligence is not a single scale. Each species is good at the problems its own life throws at it, and for sheep that means knowing faces, keeping together and remembering where the best grazing is.

For the animals that top most scientific measures of intelligence, see smartest animals in the world.