{"id":529857,"date":"2026-04-14T06:36:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T06:36:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/529857\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T06:36:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T06:36:20","slug":"cows-are-smarter-than-you-think","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/529857\/","title":{"rendered":"Cows Are Smarter Than You Think"},"content":{"rendered":"

In both German and English, the expression “you stupid cow” is quite common. I have always wondered why we admire horses<\/a> and yet speak ill of cattle, which were domesticated much earlier\u2014around 10,500 years ago\u2014and have provided us with dairy products, meat, and leather ever since. Well, there is a whole book about it: Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows, which claims that, in particular in Western cultures, farmed animals are exploited while dogs are treated like family members<\/a>. We eat certain animals and have therefore developed mechanisms to justify this practice. The three primary defence mechanisms are denial<\/a>, justification, and cognitive distortion. <\/p>\n

One such mechanism is the denial that animals suffer in factory farming. Justification means considering eating these animals is normal, natural, and necessary. However, the most interesting defence mechanism for me is cognitive distortion. <\/p>\n

How humans choose to view animal intelligence<\/p>\n

Animals are downgraded to objects and abstractions. For example, we tend to consider “edible” animals as stupid<\/a> and companion animals as smart.<\/a> This makes it easier to eat a cow and admire a horse. <\/p>\n

Of course, there are significant cultural differences<\/a> in how different species of animals are perceived. Everyone has heard of the sacred cows in India, where slaughtering cows is illegal in several states. Conversely, dogs can also have a purpose that seems strange to most of us. It used to be quite common to eat dogs in various parts of Europe, not only in times of war, and a few cultures in the world still practise this.<\/p>\n

From a scientific point of view, I, of course, want to know how smart these animals really are. As I have pointed out several times in my posts, dogs were obviously selected for their ability to survive in the human environment. In most cultures, dogs are considered companions, so during the domestication process, they were selected<\/a> for their ability to communicate and cooperate.<\/p>\n

But cows are not stupid, either. <\/p>\n

What cows actually perceive<\/p>\n

As herd animals, dairy cattle lead social lives that require them to recognise and learn from others in the group. They can recognise conspecifics as well as humans, of course. They can also discriminate between features of their environment, such as colours, shapes, and smells (R\u00f8rvang & Nawroth, 2021). They can solve complex mazes and remember them for up to six weeks (Hirata et al, 2016). <\/p>\n

The selection pressure for cows during domestication was probably different from that for dogs. Humans probably selected cows that were easy to handle and produced more milk. Nevertheless, it was advantageous for cows to be able to assess humans, and they do indeed avoid people who have been mean to them.<\/p>\n

The cows of Chornobyl<\/p>\n

Until now, it was thought that cattle depended heavily on humans and could not survive in the wild. A recent study observed the development and ecology of a feral herd in the Chornobyl region (Zhyla et al 2026). Following the death of their last owner in 2016, a group of seven Ukrainian black-and-white dairy cattle became free-living. <\/p>\n

They did very well. The herd grew to 20 individuals. They occupied a home territory of around 12 km\u00b2. At night, the herd went to abandoned farm barns. During the winter, the cows used their muzzles to clear snow and access vegetation. When the snow was deep, they also fed on tree and shrub material. Thanks to these strategies, the herd’s physiological condition remained good, even at the end of harsh winters.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, their social organisation also worked well. The herd remained cohesive throughout the year. They were often led by an experienced adult female. In dangerous situations, the dominant bull positioned himself at the front or on the edge of the herd. They even used alarm calls. When predators such as wolves were nearby, the cow that first detected them emitted a deep, loud call, followed by collective alarm vocalisations from the rest of the herd. The herd then moved away from the perceived threat. In response to an immediate disturbance caused by predators or humans, the herd would rapidly form a tight group, with the calves in the middle. The cows’ strategies of alarm calling, herd cohesion, and protective male behaviour are similar to those of bison.<\/p>\n

So what can we learn from this story about cows in Ukraine? Two things. Firstly, more than 10,000 years of domestication had less impact on these animals than expected; they can adapt rapidly to life in the wilderness. From a cognitive point of view, it shows us that cows are highly adaptable and thus smarter than we think.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the Chornobyl cow story does not have a happy ending, but this is due to humans, rather than the cows. The herd of these feral cattle has dwindled to just 12, most likely due to the Ukrainian war. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In both German and English, the expression “you stupid cow” is quite common. I have always wondered why…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":529858,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-529857","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-kingdom","8":"tag-gb","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-greatbritain","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=529857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529857\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/529858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=529857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=529857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=529857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}