声音的可塑性是每一个个体天生都有的能力，我们可以通过我们所处的社会环境来修饰改变我们的声音特质，人类得益于极好的声音可塑性，这让我们可以发出一系列声音以及音色，但是在其他哺乳动物中，比如蝙蝠和鲸来说，它们的发声已经在遗传上被决定了，而且在灵活性和学习能力上很有限制。
伦敦大学皇后玛丽学院的科学家Elohie Briefer博士和Alan McElligott博士对这类山羊羔的叫声进行了遗传学和社会学效应的研究，研究组对四组山羊进行了研究，研究者记录下了山羊在两个社会和生态学上不同生长时期的生活状况，一周大的时候，他们将自己隐藏在捕食者不能找到的地方，五周大以后，他们就和同龄的动物一起活动。
杂志The British Journal of Animal Behaviour近日刊登了研究者的研究结果，研究小组表示，尽管先天性的发音限制，当山羊长时间生活在同一个圈子的时候，他们的声音语言就会变得非常相似。Briefer博士解释说，遗传因素相近的羊羔发出相似的叫声，这个不足为奇，但是在同一个社会群体下生长的羊羔们相对彼此也会发出相似的叫声，而且随着它们年龄的增长，相似度将会越高，这就揭示了山羊可以通过后天的社会环境，以及群体环境来改变修饰自己的发音，最终产生最为相似的叫声。
像山羊这种哺乳动物声音可塑性的存在显现出了语言交流进化过程中的一种可能性途径，就是最终会使得人类会进行正常的语言交流和演讲，McElligott博士表示，他们这项研究也突出了家养动物所拥有的认知能力，而且直到现在也未曾被人类察觉到，提高它们行为和认知能力的知识可以为我们改变动物的福利提供一些必要的信息。（生物谷：T.Shen编译）
doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2012.01.020
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Social effects on vocal ontogeny in an ungulate, the goat, Capra hircus
Elodie F. Briefer, , Alan G. McElligott,
Vocal plasticity is the ability of an individual to modify its vocalizations according to its environment. Humans benefit from an extreme form of vocal plasticity, allowing us to produce a wide range of sounds. This capacity to modify sounds has been shown in three bird orders and in a few nonhuman mammal species, all characterized by complex vocal communication systems. In other mammals, there is no evidence for a social impact on vocal development. We investigated whether contact calls were affected by social environment and kinship during early ontogeny in goats, a highly vocal and social species. To test the influence of social environment on kid vocalizations, we compared half siblings raised in the same or different groups. The effect of kinship on calls was assessed by comparing full siblings with half siblings. Calls of half siblings were more similar when they had been raised in the same social group than in different groups, and converged with time. Full siblings had more similar calls than half siblings. The group-specific indicators in kid vocalizations show that goat call ontogeny is affected by their social environment. This suggests that vocal plasticity could be more widespread in mammals than previously believed, showing a possible early pathway in the evolution of vocal learning leading to human language.
