115
“This Was Not Accidental”: Scientists Unravel Video Supposedly Showing a Pet Cow Using Tools (thedebrief.org)
submitted 9 months ago by to c/science@lemmy.world
32 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Scientists investigating video of a cow using tools, and later conducting some basic psychology experiments on said cow, say their findings could expand the list of animals capable of tool use.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 6 points 9 months ago (2 children)

I'm not sure why it being a newly recorded observation would diminish it in any way. It's new evidence that cows are capable of what we (humans broadly) previously thought them incapable of. It's important because it's a concrete indicator that there's more going on in cow brains than humans have generally assumed. How much more is an open question. Are other cows capable of tool use? Probably. I wouldn't be surprised at all if there are dairy farmers in the world who've seen cows use similar scratching tools and just never bothered to record it, if they even noticed it at all. I've only had limited contact with cows but they aren't stupid, IME they are generally just content as long as they're warm, dry, and have food. In the US the vast majority of cows are restricted to the point where they wouldn't even have access to implements they could use as tools, much less the freedom to learn how to use them. That doesn't mean they're stupid.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 2 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    It’s new evidence that cows are capable of what we (humans broadly) previously thought them incapable of. It’s important because it’s a concrete indicator that there’s more going on in cow brains than humans have generally assumed.

    As I said, perhaps this is surprising only because we understand brains overly mechanically. As if it's assumed that there's a hard "can/can't do" switch for particular mental actions, while in reality any ability may be a result of various factors within the individual brain and outside of it aligning together (including, of course, the cow in question being a pet, so having a very comfortable lifestyle). If people can vary wildly in their mental abilities and inclinations, why wouldn't animals?

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
    •
  • [–] 3 points 9 months ago

    I guess I don't understand what you mean then, especially the first sentence. I think there's a pretty broad agreement that we have a very limited understanding of how brains work, and that our current benchmarks of sophistication (tool use being one) aren't the last word on brain capabilities, they're just (relatively) easily defined behaviors that we can use to categorize what abilities different animals have at their disposal to survive. You also can't really demonstrate that an animal (or a species) can't use a tool, you can only know if an animal can use tools by observing tool use, which we have now done with at least one cow. Which is pretty cool.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent