Goats Found To Be Much Smarter Than Previously BelievedNew research found that most goats tested could quickly figure out how to solve a mechanical puzzle that yielded a delicious piece of fruit. In this case they had to pull on and then lift up a lever a highly novel cognitive task. Completing  this two-step process caused a box to open within which was a piece of fruit.  Of the 12 goats tested nine  of them got it within fewer than a  dozen trials on average. Two of them were disqualified for trying to pry open the fruit-box with their horns which actually might have been a smart idea (and it's not like the goats knew they'd be DQ'ed)  and one was dismissed as hopeless upon  not showing signs of learning the task after 22 trials.    The scientists re-tested the goats 10 months later and this time they solved the puzzle much more quickly within two minutes.  The speed at which the goats completed the task at 10 months compared to how long it took them to learn indicates excellent long-term memory co-author Dr Elodie Briefer at  ETH Zurich said in a statement.  The study published this week in Frontiers in Zoology  shows that goats can learn rather quickly and can also store these lessons in long-term memory. Researchers had  suspected that goats are intelligent based on their ability to colonize new and harsh environments to find and remember the location of  hard-to-reach foods (for example  Moroccan goats are known to climb trees to reach sprigs) and their relatively  long lifespans during which time they can build up a repertoire of memories and skills as reported by Smithsonian.