Cow Sentience and Cognition

Cows experience fear and anxiety in stressful situations, shown by behaviors such as escape attempts and vocalizations. They show signs of frustration when separated from their calves or shown food they cannot access. When gently petted, their visible eye white percentage decreases, a sign of positive emotional arousal. They also become more relaxed and their heart rates decrease.¹

In one study, heifers showed signs of excitement after completing a task and receiving a reward, compared with a control group who received a reward without completing a task. This confirms that cows have self-awareness and that they enjoy achieving goals.²

Calves make more “pessimistic” decisions following a negative experience, showing that their emotional state affects their judgment. When cows are stressed, those nearby show signs of stress as well. This is evidence of emotional contagion, sometimes considered to be a basic form of empathy.³

Cows recognize and respond to their own offspring.⁴

Cows have unique individual voices and distinct vocalizations that allow them to share emotions and ask for support from their companions.⁵

Cows can discriminate between different geometric shapes, the same shapes in varying sizes, and stimuli in different sizes and levels of brightness.⁶

Cows can discriminate between different people, showing fear when they encounter those who have treated them roughly. They are even able to tell the difference between people who wear the same clothes. In one study, cows were able to learn which of their handlers would give them a food reward and learned to approach that handler more often. This shows their ability for associative learning.⁷

Cows are also able to discriminate between others of the same species, both those they are familiar with and strangers, and remember this information for at least twelve days. When shown photographs of familiar cows, they recognized them as representations of the individuals they knew. The cows immediately chose photographs of familiar cows over those of unfamiliar ones. This provides evidence that they store mental images of others. The fact that they can recognize others from photographs as well as in real life suggests that they have a “sophisticated visual discrimination capacity.”⁸

In one study, a food trolley was slowly pushed along so that cows could follow and eat from it. The trolley was then pushed into a tunnel where the cows couldn’t see it. Many of the cows moved to the opposite end of the tunnel to wait for the trolley to emerge. This shows that they can anticipate the future and extrapolate it from the past.⁹

Cows are skilled at navigating mazes and are able to remember where in the mazes food is located for as long as six weeks. In one study, cows learned to associate a plastic tub with food and still remembered this information a year later. A literature review concluded that cattle have “robust spatial memory abilities.”¹⁰

Cows have personalities. They respond differently to situations like being milked. Some cattle are more nervous, aggressive, or sociable than others.¹¹