海角大神

It鈥檚 lunchtime at Unity Farm Sanctuary, and all the residents are munching away. In the 鈥淔orever Friends鈥� pen, Audrey and Pal gently jostle heads to share the trough. When Pal nudges Audrey鈥檚 face out of her way, she stops and licks his ear and his neck as if to say, 鈥楾hat鈥檚 OK. I still love you,鈥� before placing her head back in the haystack.

That may seem strange 鈥� especially when social distancing is the behavior du jour 鈥� but Audrey and Pal are cattle. And the licking is a way of showing affection and bonding among bovine.

Research published earlier this month in the journal Frontiers in Veterinary Science found that such grooming actually reinforces social relationships among聽cows in a herd. That鈥檚 right: Cow herds have complex social dynamics. Cattle may seem mindless, munching on grass and feed all day, but the inner lives of bovine are far more meaningful and complex than they may seem. And the more scientists study their social interactions, the more it seems that cattle, like humans, need to feel connected to others.

鈥淚t鈥檚 an adjustment of how to think about them as a species,鈥� says Gustavo Monti, study lead author and a professor at the Institute of Veterinary Preventive Medicine at the Austral University of Chile. 鈥淭hey have their own lives, they have complexities, and there are relationships between animals.鈥�

A complex network

Some 8,000 to 10,000 years ago, cattle lived in mostly female family groups made up of grandmothers, mothers, and their offspring, and bulls would come in to breed, explains Trevor DeVries, Canada research chair in dairy cattle behavior and welfare and a professor at the University of Guelph. The social structure of the herd would depend largely on the maternal lineages in the group and age of the different cows.

Today, domesticated cattle mostly live in much larger groups, typically separated by age, and are shuffled around among herds and even farms based on breeding and milk production patterns. But the sociality of cows doesn鈥檛 seem to have eroded. Rather, researchers say the cows build a different kind of social network, and it鈥檚 more complex and nuanced than a simple biological family structure.

Instead of being based on a lineage, cattle grouped together on a farm tend to establish a hierarchy of sorts that may have more to do with the size of the animal or temperament, says Dr. DeVries, who was not involved in the new study. But it鈥檚 not a simple, linear hierarchy. Cow A, for example, might be dominant to Cow B, and Cow B to Cow C, but that doesn鈥檛 mean that Cow C is submissive to Cow A. The setting might matter, too. Different cows with different temperaments might be more assertive around food than around places to lie down, for example.

鈥淵ou see black-and-white cows, and you think, 鈥極K, they are pretty similar,鈥� but that is really not the case. They have their personalities, they have their characters, and this is really reflected in their social interactions,鈥� says Borbala Foris, a postdoctoral researcher in the Animal Welfare Program at the University of British Columbia. 鈥淭here are ones that are more connected to the group, more sociable, in the middle, and there are more isolated ones.鈥�

Most of this research has been done on dairy cows 鈥� and thus all-female herds. But at Unity Farm Sanctuary, Audrey and Pal seem to exhibit similar dynamics with their paddock-mate Elliot (Audrey is a heifer and Pal and Elliot are both steers). Elliot is the biggest and the other two move away when he moves toward his preferred lunch pail.聽

Lick-minded friends

But it鈥檚 not all about food 鈥� or dominance. Researchers are increasingly discovering how cattle form particularly strong social bonds and rely on each other for support when things get stressful.聽

Licking one another, a behavior known as allogrooming, seems to reinforce those social connections. The new study found that there was a mutualism to the behavior. Cows tended to groom other cows that had previously groomed them, perhaps strengthening a sort of friendship among individuals. What鈥檚 more, the cows that did not focus their allogrooming on specific individuals actually received less attention themselves over time.

Researchers previously posited that younger, more submissive cows likely groomed older ones to reinforce dominance, but, to Dr. Monti鈥檚 surprise, the research team found that it was the older members of the group that tended to groom more cows.

鈥淥ur results indicate that licking behavior is important to make friends and to maintain harmony in the herd. That older cows groom more individuals suggests that they take the role of 鈥榩eacemakers鈥� in the herd,鈥� Dr. Monti said in a press release.聽

Scientists also thought that allogrooming was a way that cattle calmed one another when stressed. But researchers observed more licking behavior when the cows were at ease, suggesting that it鈥檚 more about building friendships and social cohesion in a settled group.聽

That鈥檚 not to say that cattle don鈥檛 comfort one another. The animals do seem to gravitate together or exhibit signs of mutual stress when one is upset or ill. Often cows will lie near a stressed herdmate, particularly if it鈥檚 a friend.

At Unity Farm Sanctuary, Audrey, Elliot, and Pal have a neighbor in the next pen over 鈥� Dudley, a Scottish Highland bull. Dudley is in his own pen because of his massive horns, so the humans at the sanctuary worry about accidents if he were to play with his hornless bovine buddies. But they still find a way to connect through the fence. When Dudley was thought to be ill last year, says Marla Andrews, humane education director at Unity Farm Sanctuary, Audrey would lie by the fence between the pens to offer him company.聽

The cows are also offering solace to sanctuary co-founder and facilities manager John Halamka during the pandemic. Dr. Halamka is the president of the Mayo Clinic Platform, a digital health care initiative, and he says that after a long day of virtual meetings, spending time with the animals is calming.聽

鈥淚n the time of COVID there鈥檚 a lot of conflict. There鈥檚 worry about resources, there鈥檚 worry about societal stability, there鈥檚 lots of tension,鈥� he says. 鈥淭here鈥檚 no question that in a time of uncertainty, coming together human-to-human, or human-to-animal, is therapeutic to everyone.鈥�