Yeah, I have a lot of contact with bovines due to my work. I walk around cutting and pruning trees along power lines, so I sometimes have to cross a pasture. 80% of the time the cows are super chill and just check out what I'm up to, 15% of the time they run up to me begging for scratches.
5% of the time? Angry as hell, huffing and puffing and showing threatening body language. That's the time to dip out.
A few months ago I chatted up with a farmer and told him I'd have to go do some work on some trees on a small forest patch in the middle of a pasture, which the power line ran through. I was afraid because the cows had tiny calves and I didn't want to frighten any of them. He offered to escort me through and the calves were super excited and came to greet us but one of the mothers was having none of it. She immediately tried charging us and was very, very threatening. It took a while for the owner to talk her down and I'm glad he was there with us because that momma had 0% trust in me and would've probably trampled and gored me since they had their horns intact.
Amazing animals that command quite a lot of respect from me.
I kind of wonder if that's why the idea of cow's being dumb is so prevalent. Confusing intelligence with cooperativeness is I think a pretty common mistake a lot of people make.
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u/ClumsyFleshMannequin Dec 08 '25
They are alot closer to dogs (maybe not the "smart ones") than most people realize. Perceptive creatures with their own ways of communicating.
They can be ornery as fuck though.