bKind2Cows the Ucavulu

🐄1. Did you know that cows can be rather pleased with themselves? No, really! Studies have shown that cows exhibit excitement and behaviors indicative of pleasure when they accomplish intellectually challenging tasks!

🐮2. Cows can tell the difference between different shapes (such as a square and a circle), as well as different colors and different sizes of the same shape. Not only can they differentiate between shapes, sizes, and colors, but they can also discriminate between pictures of familiar and unfamiliar cows! In fact, when cows were let into a space with pictures, they immediately went to the pictures of cows they knew!

🐄3. What colors do cows see? Cows see reds, oranges, and yellows quite well, and better than they see blues and greens!

🐮4. Cows have around 20,000 taste buds! While cows can distinguish between sweet, salty, bitter, and sour tastes, they prefer sweet and salty foods. An aversion to bitter foods can help them avoid toxic plants, while their preference for sweet foods helps them ensure they are consuming foods with a high caloric value. Salty foods help them achieve a good electrolyte balance.

🐄5. Cows engage in social learning, meaning they can learn by watching what other cows do in their herd!

🐮6. Cows are very social and develop bonds with each other! They even have preferences for who they choose to spend their time with.

🐄7. One way cows navigate their social relationships is through smell. Did you know that cows can detect the scent of stress hormones in the urine of other cows?

🐮8. In fact, cows are so tuned in to one another’s feelings that they experience “emotional contagion”. For example, if they encounter a herd mate who is very stressed, they themselves can become stressed.

🐄9. Like other grazing animals, cows have excellent spatial memories and can navigate and remember mazes quite well!