Sheep Can Recognize Barack Obama, Emma Watson: Study

WASHINGTON, DC — Sheep can recognize former President Barack Obama and Emma Watson, who played Hermione Granger in the popular Harry Potter movies, according to a new study by researchers at Cambridge University.

The university published the new study Wednesday in Royal Society: Open Science. The researchers found sheep can look at photographs on computer screens and recognize human faces. Sheep can also recognize the faces of their human handlers without any prior training.

Obama and Watson were among the faces the animals were trained to recognize. It was previously known that sheep can recognize familiar faces of other sheep and humans.

Knowing sheep can recognize faces could prove useful in research into Huntington's disease and other human brain disorders that affect mental processing, the researchers said. Sheep have advanced face-recognition abilities comparable to those of humans and monkeys, said lead scientist Professor Jenny Morton.

Photo credit: Cambridge University via AP