(Brook Mitchell/Getty Images)
By Isoken Osagie
A new study shows that kangaroos can use body language to intentionally communicate with humans — a behavior that was previously associated with domesticated animals, like dogs, horses or goats, CNN reports.
Researchers from London's University of Roehampton and the University of Sydney developed a task called "the unsolvable problem task," where kangaroos were presented with food trapped in a container.
Researchers found that after unsuccessfully trying to open the boxes, the kangaroos turned their gaze to a nearby experimenter — and in some cases, they nudged, sniffed or scratched the human for help.
The study involved 11 captive but non-domesticated kangaroos from zoos in Australia.
Lead author Alan McElligott said in a statement, "Through this study, we were able to see that communication between animals can be learnt and that the behavior of gazing at humans to access food is not related to domestication," per CNN.
"Their gaze was pretty intense," co-author Alexandra Green, a postdoctoral researcher in the Sydney School of Veterinary Science at the University of Sydney, said in a statement, per The Mercury News.
McElligot added, "Kangaroos are the first marsupials to be studied in this manner and the positive results should lead to more cognitive research beyond the usual domestic species."
The study was published Wednesday in the journal Biology Letters.