It is well established that domesticated animals can communicate with humans—your dog barking because he wants food, goats bleating because they would like to milked, cats sitting on your computer so you can’t work because HOW DARE YOU IGNORE THEM.
Now, researchers at the University of Roehampton and the University of Sydney have found that wild animals can communicate with us too.
Involving kangaroos at three locations across Australia, the study found that these animals gazed at a human when trying to access food which had been put in a closed box.
The kangaroos used long looks to communicate with the person instead of trying to open the box themselves—an approach that you’d usually see in a domesticated critter.
10 out of 11 kangaroos actively looked at the person who had put the food in a box to get it.
Nine of the 11 alternated their gaze between the box and the human, which is seen as an even more sophisticated form of communication.