Sheep can recognize Baaaa-rack Obama’s face, new study shows

In this image taken from video, a sheep indicates recognition of former US president Barack Obama, right, displayed on a computer screen during research carried out by scientists at Cambridge University with their results published Wednesday Nov. 8, 2017, in Royal Society: Open Science. The new study shows that sheep have advanced face-recognition abilities comparable to those of humans and monkeys, according to Professor Jenny Morton, and the university hope their research assists research into Huntington’s disease and other human brain disorders that affect mental processing.(Cambridge University via AP)

LONDON — A new study shows that sheep have the ability to recognize human faces from photographs on computer screens.

The Cambridge University study published Wednesday also shows that sheep can recognize the faces of their human handlers without any prior training.

It had been known that sheep can recognize familiar faces of other sheep and of humans.

The researchers say this study of the ability of sheep to recognize faces may be useful in research into Huntington’s disease and other human brain disorders that affect mental processing.

Lead scientist Professor Jenny Morton says sheep have advanced face-recognition abilities comparable to those of humans and monkeys.

Among the faces they were trained to recognize were Barack Obama and Harry Potter actress Emma Watson.

The research was published in Royal Society: Open Science.