Cows can communication through distinctive moos: Study

Jan 18, 2020

Camden [Australia], Jan 18 : In a surprising new study, scientists have discovered that cows are able to verbally communicate with each other through vocalisations.
This research that got published last month in Scientific Reports, revealed that heifer cows of the Holstein-Fresian breed are able to talk to each other via their distinctive moos, reported Fox News.
Alexandra Green, along with her team used acoustic analysis programs to study 333 recorded samples of cow vocalisations.
As reported by Fox News, it was revealed that cows can express certain emotions vocally, that include excitement, arousal, engagement and distress.
In a statement on The University of Sydney website, Green said: "We found that cattle vocal individuality is relatively stable across different emotionally loaded farming contexts."
She further added that "positive contexts were during oestrus (heat) and anticipation of feeding. Negative contexts were when cows were denied feed access and during physical and visual isolation from the rest of the herd."
Green hopes that the awareness of these vocalisations farmers would be able to better understand and appropriately respond to the mental state of their cows.