Cow Know-How

	In This Feature
		Fascinating Facts
		Cow Know-How
		The Social Lives of Cows
		Gentle Giants
		How You Can Help Cows

Cows are intelligent and curious animals who enjoy solving problems and interacting with their environment. They have long memories and are capable of learning lessons from each other, just as humans do.

Brainy Bovines

Cows like challenges, and according to researchers, they feel excitement when they finish a task or use their intellect to overcome an obstacle. In an article on cow intelligence, a reporter writes that “Donald Broom, professor of animal welfare at Cambridge University, will tell the conference how cows can become excited by solving intellectual challenges. In one study, researchers challenged the animals with a task where they had to find how to open a door to get some food. An electroencephalograph was used to measure their brainwaves. ‘The brainwaves showed their excitement; their heartbeat went up and some even jumped into the air. We called it their Eureka moment,’ Professor Broom said.”⁴

Research has shown that cows clearly understand cause-and-effect relationships—a sure-fire sign of advanced cognitive abilities. For example, cows can learn how to push a lever to operate a drinking fountain when they’re thirsty or to press a button with their heads to release grain when they’re hungry.^5,6 Like humans and other animals, cows also quickly learn to stay away from things that cause them pain, like electric fences and unkind humans.

Because of their complex social interactions, cows also have the ability to learn from each other, another indication of their intelligence, which is comparable to that of a dog and a bit higher than that of a cat. According the Humane Society of the United States, if an individual cow in a herd is shocked by an electric fence, the rest will become alarmed and learn to avoid it. Only a small fraction will ever be shocked.⁷

Cows Never Forget a Place or a Face

Cows don’t forget lessons that they’ve learned. Research has shown that these animals have impressive memories. Cows remember their homes and can find their way back to their favorite spots.

According to one report on cow behavior, cows “demonstrate good spatial memory (they remember where things are located). ... They can remember migration routes, watering holes, shelter and the location of their newborn calf.”⁸ Researchers also report that cows can remember the best eating spots in a pasture and that they use their spatial memory to guide themselves back to the best spots.^9,10

Stories of cows who used their navigation capabilities to find their way back home after being sold at auction are common. Some cows never forget those who have hurt them either, and they’ve been known to hold grudges against other members of their herd. Rosamund Young details a quarrel between a grandmother cow and her daughter. Grandmother cows often help their daughters with mothering duties, but a cow named Olivia wanted no part of that. She never left her calf’s side, and she ignored her mother’s offers to help groom him. Offended, her mother finally marched off to another field to graze with her friends and never “spoke” to her daughter again.¹¹ Cows can also remember and hold grudges against people who have hurt them or their family members.¹²

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