Face and body perception in goats and giraffes: a comparative cognitive study in ungulates

• Project/Area Number: 24K23891
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: 1002:Human informatics, applied informatics and related fields
• Research Institution: Kyoto University
• Principal Investigator: GAO JIE 京都大学, 白眉センター, 特定助教 (50998739)
• Project Period (FY): 2024-07-31 – 2026-03-31
• Project Status: Granted (Fiscal Year 2024)
• Budget Amount: ¥2,730,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,100,000、Indirect Cost: ¥630,000); Fiscal Year 2025: ¥1,300,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,000,000、Indirect Cost: ¥300,000); Fiscal Year 2024: ¥1,430,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,100,000、Indirect Cost: ¥330,000)
• Keywords: comparative cognition / ungulates / face perception / body perception / social cognition

Outline of Research at the Start

My research plans to test social cognition in domestic goats and giraffes using methods such as touchscreen tests to show how they perceive faces and bodies of conspecifics and humans. This will help us understand how cognition has evolved and how domestication shapes cognition.