Horses can match faces to sounds just like humans

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London, Dec 16 (ANI): Horses have an almost human ability to recognise individual herd members from the sound of their whinnies, a study has shown.

The findings suggest that the "cross modal" recognition once thought to be a purely human trait is evident in animals too.

To reach the conclusion, the researchers at the University of Sussex studied a group of 24 horses with the animals shown one of two familiar members of their herd who was led past them and out of sight behind a barrier.






"Overall, horses responded quicker and looked for a longer time during trials in which the familiar call heard did not match the familiar horse previously seen, indicating that the incongruent combination violated their expectations," the Telegraph quoted the scientists, led by Dr Karen McComb, as saying.

"This is the first clear empirical demonstration that in the normal process of identifying social companions of its own species, a non-human animal is capable of cross-modal individual recognition," they added. (ANI)

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