World’s First Tool-Using Cow Shocked Cognitive Scientists

After spending the first 20 years of my life in a dairy farm, I saw thousands of occurrences of cows using various tools. The most impressive was the ones who learned to use the complex mechanism to deliver themselves with cereal treats durring the milking. They managed to understand how to manipulated the various metal rods ands levers to first reorient the cereal dropping path to their own feeder and then pull on the right lever to release the cereals. Anyone saying cows are dumb, never worked with cows. Every animal enslaved in a factory farm will look slightly stupid due to the attrocious conditions they are raised in. Give the animals the opportunity to learn and have freedom, and you will see how intelligent the animals you eat are. Have you seen sheeps teaching each other how to defeat electrical fences?

World's first _documented_ cow using a tool. There are many anecdotes of cows doing smart things like unlocking gates. Ask a cattle rancher or farmer.

Here in Germany a few years ago there was a story in the newspaper: a Farmer had some pigs in a stable. Then he installed a heater in the stable with a simple on - Off switch. Once It got cold he went to the stable to switch in the heater. He got little bit confused because the heater was already active to His surprise. A few days later it got warmer and the Farmer wanted to turn of the heater. Again to His surprise the heater was already switched off. Finally it turned out that the pigs themselves turned the heater on and off depending on the weather.

Gary Larson predicted the use of cow tools

When I was 12, Dr. Leeky told the world about chimps using sticks to eat termites. I was sitting on my front steps one day and noticed a common red ant run up to a 6mm crack in the concrete sidewalk. It leaned and reached out to cross, but gave up and went back the way it came from. A minuet later it came back to that spot with a blade of dry grass, laid it across the crack and walked over it. I yelled to my father that I just saw an Insect use a tool!

Cows shocked to see scientists using tools!

Many years ago when I was a camp counselor, the camp had a petting zoo with a cow. I was the one responsible for moving the cow around during the day and feeding and watering it. A situation developed where the cows started escaping the camp at night and walking up the local road. Upon investigation after camp hours, I found that the cow had learned to unclasp the spring clip on its harness, releasing it from the chain that was staked into the ground. Emma was her name. SMART cow ☺️ I discovered she was freeing herself so that she could sleep closer to the sheep and chickens at night 🥰

I saw pigs put tennis balls and food in a bucket and carry the bucket once. I used to place climate sensors in stables as a job, and this one job the farmer had pigs who had some toys like balls and pull ropes to "enrich" their stay in the stable. But they stole a cleaning bucket they then would fill with stuff, and then grab the bucket and carry it to their pen and pour the balls in their pen. If you would take one ball they would just grab the ball back, but if you threw all the balls out, they would get angry and grab the bucket and filled it with each ball they came by and poured out the bucket in their stable. They'd do it with food too, but those balls were very obvious.

I'm visiting the rural highlands of Vietnam. Where the young cows aren't tied up. The young cow that lives on the right was lonely and kept trying to make friends with other adult cows tied in their front yards to no avail. But last week one of the neighbors bought a new young cow about the same age as the juvenile next door. they are now vast friends, when one gets let out in the morning they will run towards their friends yard calling out their name, letting them know they are coming over to play. I'm glad she made a friend. She had taken to teasing my dogs for fun when she was board.

anyone who has spent just a little time with any barn yard animals know cows, goats, horse, pigs and sheep, know they can problem solve and use tools. Any farm owner or ranch can tell you this. To me the real finds of this study is that scientists are thousands of years late with this findings