When sheep follow people, they may do it a little less blindly than we’ve always thought.
In a study performed by University of Cambridge researchers, sheep were shown black-and-white photos of four celebrities: Barack Obama, Emma Watson, TV journalist Fiona Bruce, and Jake Gyllenhaal.
“One of them is just a fan of Jake Gyllenhaal,” lead researcher Jenny Morton said of one of the students who helped select the images. The photos used were somewhat random; they needed to be able to show various faces at different angles, so oft-photographed celebrities made a logical choice.
The research team was interested in seeing whether sheep would be able to discern different faces. Sheep are social animals that live in a flock, and they use