This study calls attention to the fact that thinking of animals such as cows as dumb is robbing science of learning about the evolution of their rich cognitive skills. Unfortunately, cows and other highly intelligent and emotional animals are far too often written-off as being dumb and lacking emotions. However, despite this sort of speciesism, detailed research shows they are skilled problem-solvers and fully sentient beings with very active brains and rich and deep emotional lives.
PSYCHOLOGY TODAY: We now know that a wide variety of animals use tools, and there are some unexpectedly clever individuals among them.1 Examples involving invertebrates, reptiles, fish, birds, and mammals show different levels of sophistication and complexity… Should we be surprised that cows use tools, too?
There’s a lot more going on in cows’ inner lives than we give them credit for. Cows are bright and highly emotional sentient beings, and a new research paper, along with images and videos published today by A. J. Osuna-Mascaró and A. M. I. Auersperg titled “Flexible use of a multi-purpose tool by a cow” in the prestigious journal Current Biology, shows Veronika, a pet cow, demonstrating what the researchers call “flexible egocentric tooling.”
Veronika was observed using a deck brush to self-scratch. While she preferred the bristled end, she switched to the stick end when targeting softer lower-body areas. Somehow she learned that different parts of the broom could help satisfy her need to scratch herself, adapted to where she needed to use it by engaging in “flexible egocentric tooling,” and there’s little doubt that it felt good to do so… Veronika moves the needle by adding cows to the “tooling club”…
Unfortunately, cows and other highly intelligent and emotional animals are far too often written-off as being dumb and lacking emotions. However, despite this sort of speciesism, detailed research shows they are skilled problem-solvers and fully sentient beings with very active brains and rich and deep emotional lives…
This study calls attention to the fact that thinking of animals such as cows as dumb is robbing science of learning about the evolution of their rich cognitive skills. I look forward to more reports such as this so we can move on from close-minded studies of animal minds in which the cognitive and emotional capacities of certain animals are wrongly underestimated and categorically dismissed. Bovine and other sorts of speciesism need to be shelved. MARC BEKOFF
RELATED VIDEOS: