Yeah prolly just a bit of sensationalist writing, i guess?
Comment on Outstanding in her field: cow recorded using tool for first time
Ephera@lemmy.ml 3 days ago
They are not typically thought to plan, let alone solve problems. A new study suggests we may have underestimated them.
Never understood these views. Is it not planning, when cows predict where a predator is likely to appear again after it has disappeared behind some shrubs?
And is it not also problem solving in some way to run the hell away from predators?
In particular, the tool use category feels like we’re asking a fish to climb a tree. There’s only so much cows can achieve with tools, since they can only hold those tools with their mouths. They might be solving physics equations in their third stomach and we’re asking, if they’ve figured out how to bang two rocks together.
Like, no, I don’t either believe that they are solving physics equations, but you can throw a ball for them and they’ll correctly estimate where it’ll go and in what direction to kick it back:
Which I feel like it should count for more intelligence than being able to extend your reach with a stick.
DozensOfDonner@mander.xyz 3 days ago
Ephera@lemmy.ml 3 days ago
I mean, I hope so. I’ve just seen this sentiment expressed so often, that cows must be nearly braindead, because you don’t hear them reciting Shakespeare while they’re chewing grass.
I believe, that’s a general herbivore survival strategy to not
recite Shakespearemove much while they’re eating, so that they don’t draw attention from predators and conserve energy. At least, similar behaviour can also be seen in deer and bunnies.But yeah, clearly they’re intelligent enough to have survived until we domesticated them, despite being a big hunk of meat.
Clent@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 days ago
If they had language and writing skills is there any doubt they couldn’t.
Thinking other animals are incapable of complex thoughts is so weird. We know that humans only have these abilities because of the momentum of society. Feral humans are proof none of what we do is innate.
Ephera@lemmy.ml 3 days ago
Oh yeah, as a wise Adam Savage once said:
That cow in the GIF is screwing around. But if it could have a chat with its cow friends about how that ball is flying and they could write that shit down – and they’d have stable enough of a food supply and no predators – then I 100% believe that they would continue screwing around + writing down, until they’ve figured out a rule for how that ball flies.
And from that point, they would start building trebuchets and take over the world. Cause that’s how things go, appparently…