Confirmed: Goats have accents

Dr Elodie Briefer and Dr Alan McElligott recorded the noises made by the goats – all farm-bred in Nottinghamshire – at around a week old and again at around five weeks.

They analysed the sounds they made and discovered each herd had its own ‘accent’. They believe the differences between herds born further apart would be even greater.

Dr McElligott said: ‘Goats have a very limited vocal repertoire, they only have a couple of types of call.

‘But yet we found these variations, which suggests they may be a lot more intelligent than we thought.