Jackass penguin talk is similar to humans

When horses were shown photographs of angry human faces, their hearts speeded up. Similar responses have been demonstrated in dogs; our four-legged friends can sense their owners’ moods. Is emotional communication taking place here, or are these merely instances of conditioning? To what extent, if at all, do animals in the wild detect, and respond to, the emotional states of their peers

In a paper published last July, Dr. Livio Favaro and colleagues claimed that goats exhibit ‘emotional contagion’; they pick up on neighbours’ feelings on hearing their calls. His team recorded goat vocalisations, some of which expressed ‘positive’ emotions while others featured ‘negative’ ones.