Herd the one about the cows who ru-moo-nate about the weather?
COWS enjoy a chit-chat about subjects such as food and the weather, a ground-breaking study reveals.
Scientists believe they can decipher the animals’ language by listening to the different pitches of their moos.
The experiment shows how dairy cows respond to positive and negative situations, and gauges their mood based on their moo.
The researchers were able to tell when a cow expresses excitement, arousal, engagement or distress. The
University of Sydney team recorded hundreds of moos from 13 HolsteinFriesian heifer cows using acoustic analysis programmes.
Lead study author Alexandra Green said: “We found that cattle vocal individuality is relatively stable across different contexts. Recognising individual cattle could assist farmers in the non-invasive detection of welfare.”
The findings could help farmers keep their cattle healthy and happy by understanding each cow’s mood by translating their individual voices.
Cows are happy when talking about their food, but also moan about the weather, it was said. Alexandra’s supervisor, associate professor Cameron Clark, described the translation model as “Google translate for cows”.
The study was published online by Nature Journal.
COWS can express excitement, arousal and distress with their moos, a study of their secret language has found. They can also make their views known about their food and weather. Perhaps the bovine interpreters might like to do the nation a service and decode the strange braying that fills the Commons during Prime Minister’s Questions?