Sheep Smarts
Study Finds Sheep Have Memory Systems Similar to Humans

Listen to Linda Wertheimer's interview with sheep memory researcher Dr. Keith Kendrick.

The Whiteface Dartmoor sheep Photo: Oklahoma State University Animal Science Department

Nov. 7, 2001 -- Catch yourself doing something slightly stupid, and you may feel sheepish. Uncritically follow a fad or a leader, and other expressions arise: “herd mentality,” “lambs to the slaughter.”

But the lowly sheep may have gotten a bad rap. That’s the conclusion of a new study on sheep behavior by British scientists, who say the easily herded creatures may be smarter than originally thought.

A study published in the Journal Nature describes research at the Babraham Institute in Cambridge, southern England. In the research project, sheep were shown pictures of other sheep and rewarded with food if they moved toward a selected image.

"Any animal, including humans, once they are scared, they don’t tend to show signs of intelligent behavior." Dr. Keith Kendrick, one of the authors of the sheep intelligence study

As it turns out, the sheep quickly learned to recognize the face that produced a reward, and discriminated between that face and other sheep faces that didn't produce a reward. The research showed that sheep can get it right eight out of 10 times -- and the research showed the sheep remember faces for an extended period of time. Some sheep could remember up to 50 images for two years.

The study concluded that, like humans, sheep have special systems in the brain to discern between faces that are very similar in appearance. The results also suggest that sheep have remarkably good memory systems and are extremely good at recognizing faces. Both are signs of higher intelligence, says Dr. Keith Kendrick, one of the authors of the study.

Kendrick says the reason sheep may have a reputation for little intelligence is that they seem to be scared of just about everything. “Any animal, including humans, once they are scared, they don’t tend to show signs of intelligent behavior,” Kendrick told Reuters.

Other Resources

• Nature Journals Online

• Breeds of Sheep from Oklahoma State University

• Sheep Brain Dissection: The Anatomy of Memory, from San Francisco's Exploratorium