If there’s one thing we’ve learned this year, it’s that the way we communicate can feel different, even if the words are still the same.
A phone call or a video chat isn’t necessarily the same as being in a room with someone, face to face.
Well, we’re not the only species that feels that way.
A study out of the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna finds cows prefer face to face communication too.
Doctoral student Annika Lange studied the reactions cows had to being stroked by a human while spoken to in person, and how they responded to being stroked by a human while hearing a recording of a human voice.
The cows who got the real live voice had lower heart rates and other physiological signs that they were calmer than the ones who got the recordings.
Now, I’m not sure who’s organizing video chats with cows, but the study is one more part of understanding just how complex cow communication really is.
Cows make particular sounds for different feelings, whether it’s excitement or loneliness.
They can learn to be called by name, and they have clear preference for the sound of a gentle human voice over one that’s yelling.
So be nice to them!
Today is National Chocolate Day.
If in the future you should find yourself in Scarborough, Maine, near Portland, you can see the world’s largest chocolate moose at the Len Libby candy shop.
Lenny is made of 1,700 pounds of milk chocolate, and the temperature there is carefully controlled to keep the giant candy moose from melting.
Cows prefer to co-moo-nicate in person, research suggests (CNN)
Lenny the Moose – The World’s Only Life-Size Chocolate Moose (LenLibby.com)
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