Animal Observations - Gillean Kelly
Animal Observations
PSYC 2210 — Animal Behavior —Spring 2016
AD LIB OBSERVATION DATA SHEET
Date:02/04/16Observer:Gillean Kelly
Subject (give common and scientific name of species): Cows (Bos taurus)
Location (name and subjective description): Barracks Farms; an open field with scattered trees
Start TimeDescription
3:00 We approached a group of cows who were seated in a field in two large groups.
3:01 One group of about four cows that was closer to us, slowly stood up once they realized
that we were there. They stood motionless, staring at us. These cows were all large and
black, couldn’t distinguish if they were boys or girls
3:02 Another large group of cows stood up and watched us. They remained motionless; they
appeared to be trying to figure out who we were and what we were doing there
3:03 Both groups of cows started approaching us, walking slowly. We backed up and went
behind a fence as they continued to slowly walk toward us. I can’t tell if they are
interested in us or are upset/territorial.
3:05 Counted about 30 cows – all of the adult cows are black except for a large white cows.
There are a handful of calves who are black and brown
3:06 The cows are all watching us with their large dark eyes. They have gathered in a large
group and have stopped walking toward us. They all appear fairly motionless.
3:07 Some of them are standing really close to each other and two nuzzle each other; they
rub their head and neck against the other
3:08 One of the cows mooed loudly, lasting about three seconds. Undistinguishable if the
moo was out of anger.
3:09 One of the cows bends its head down and uses his mouth to pick up a chunk of grass.
It is hanging out of the corners of its mouth, he doesn’t chew it, just lets it sit there.
3:10 More mooing – unable to tell if they are mooing to each other or mooing in response to
us. This time multiple cows moo, each for about two seconds.
3:11 Some of the cows have slowly walked off into smaller groups; appear to be in distinct
clumps. Instead of the bigger groups that they were in when we arrived, they are now
standing in groups with three to seven cows in each group. All of the groups are about
the same distance from us.
3:12 One cow sits down. Five adult cows emerge from the groups and begin walking closer
to us. As they get closer, I realize how large they are. The five cows stop walking after
about 20 seconds, where they stand motionless again and continue to stare.
3:13 Three cows put their heads down and appear to be eating off the ground near a tree.
The ground surrounding the tree is very muddy; it is unclear what the cows are eating
off the ground.
3:14 A small brown calf rubs himself against the trunk of a tree. He rubs his head, neck, and
upper body against the tree, appears to be itching himself.
3:15 Notice that all of the cows have yellow tags on their ears. Some of the cows appear to
have lost interest in us and are staring off into the distance. Some are still staring at us
– not sure if its intimidation?
3:16 White cow takes some steps toward us slowly, breaking away from all the other cows.
Perhaps the white cow is some sort of leader? The white cow was the first to moo at
us, and he refuses to stop looking at us, stands motionless.
3:17 One of the black cows moos while looking off into the distance. He then looks back at
us and begins walking toward us.
3:18 The movement of the large black cow causes about eight of the other cows to walk
over toward us also; four black and the white cow are all now very close to us in a line
next to each other. They stop in their tracks and continue to stare.
3:19 The movement of the five cows causes about ten of the other cows slowly start
approaching us also; they walk for about 5 seconds slowly then stop.
3:20 The cows closest to us start to eat things on the ground. They bend their heads down
and nibble on grass.
3:21 A black baby calf mounts a brown baby calf, causing a sort of disruption within the
larger group. Some of the other cows slowly move away from the disruption.
3:22 Some of the cows are chewing; they chew slowly and look like they are grinding their
teeth together. There is lots of jaw motion. Some of the other cows toward the back
keep coming closer, but no cows pass the five cows in the front.
3:23 Two calves keep rubbing their heads and necks against each other. These two calves
still seem interested in us; they don’t stop looking at us as they nuzzle each other.
3:24 One of the bigger cows rubs his head against the truck of the tree for about thirty
seconds. Again, it appears that he is itching himself. Similarly, a calf rubs his head
against a tree trunk for almost a minute.
3:25 Almost all of the cows have gathered into one large group at this point. One cow leaves
the rest of the group and comes closer, walking slowly. Two calves (one brown one
white) slowly follow the leader cow. The large cow approaches us and seems intrigued;
he doesn’t seem angry or upset.
3:26 The larger group of cows behind the leader cow still keep their eyes on us. I notice that
all of their hooves are covered in mud all the way up to what appears to be their
“knees”
3:27 A calf mounts another calf again, this time for about three seconds. These two calves
are a bit more separated from the group. The larger group of cows doesn’t appear to be
bothered or disturbed by the commotion.
3:28 A large adult cow rubs the top of his head against the trunk of the tree for about thirty
seconds. The rest of the cows continue to remain fairly still, as there is not much overall
movement.
3:29 The leader cow approaches us again, this time he is about 8 feet away; the rest of the
group slowly follows; they appear intrigued. As they walk, they bump into each other
and jostle around.
3:30 One cow that was standing all by itself far away in the field comes over to join the
group.
3:31 There is a faint mooing sound going on in the back. One of the cows that is closest to
us has a long strand of drool coming of his mouth. Many of the other cows close to us
keep chewing – lots of grinding/jaw movement
3:32 Notice that all of their ear tags have numbers on them. The calves seem to be losing
interest; some turn around and eat grass off the ground.
3:33 One of the brown calves comes very close to us; the calves are much less hesitant to
come forward toward us; they move much faster than the adult cows. The cow close to
us has a huge wad of grass in his mouth – not chewing it, just sitting in his mouth.
3:34 Cows don’t respond to us talking to them; many of the calves have turned around and
are not facing us. The white calf remains near the white adult cow. Notice that lots of
their tails look wet and stringy, perhaps from the mud
3:35 The cows don’t seem to be phased by cars driving past. The cows closest to us remain
motionless, besides their chewing mouths – so much saliva drips down out of their
mouths onto the ground
3:36 The cows’ ears don’t appear to move much – most of the cow doesn’t move besides
their mouth.
3:37 Three calves on the right have remained together for most of this time. They nuzzle
each others’ heads and necks, standing close together in a huddle.
3:38 One of the calves bends his head down and nibbles on the grass for about 15 seconds; another calf has separated from the group and is by himself eating in the field.
3:39 Many of the leader cows have turned away, with most of their body pointing away from
us. One of them turns and walks away to rub the top of his head against a post. He
does this for about a minute, just rubbing his head up and down against the wooden
post.
3:40 Large cows in the front keep rubbing their heads together; appear to be getting more
used to us, as they seem to have lost interest. The cows do not appear startled by any
noises; they remain calm.
3:41 One cow keeps rubbing his head against the necks of other cows – other cows don’t
seem to like it, and they back up. One cow seems to like it and starts rubbing back
against the other cow, nuzzling each other. Overall, the cows are all still standing fairly
close together.
3:42 One cow starts pushing another cow backward with his head. This causes many of the
other cows to walk away. Now, most of the group isn’t as close to us or as close
together as they used to be after the disruption.
3:43 So many of the cows are chewing – feel like I am only looking at chewing mouths. A
large cow turned around and you could see her utter – not sure if there are any other
major differences in appearances between male and female cows.
3:44 A second calf has joined the one that is far away from the rest of the herd. They both
have their heads down and are grazing on the grass. The white cow reaches his head
behind him and appears to be itching his backside with his head
3:45 Most of the cows seem to have lost interest and are not facing us any more. Most of
the cows are turned so that I can just see the profile view of their body.
Part II: Reflection
1. What did the animal(s) spend the most time doing?
The cows spent most of the time watching us as observers. For a large majority of the observation, they remained very still and motionless, slowly taking us in. The cows also spent a lot of time chewing. Occasionally they would bend down to pick up some grass, but it seemed like they chewed the same mouthful of grass for a long period of time. The way that they chewed stood out to me also; it looked like they were continually grinding their teeth. Their mouths moved sideways in a very distinct movement.
2. What do you think the current function of that behavior is? That is, how does it help the animal(s) survive and/or reproduce?
The current function of the distinct chewing is unique to cows, serving as a way for the cows to successfully digest grass and other plants. The grinding back and forth motion allows the cows to break down tough stems. If the cows were not able to successfully digest the cellulose in plants, they would starve and die.
3. What external events or objects in the environment did the animal(s) respond to? How did the animal(s) sense that the event happened or the object was present?
I observed multiple times that the cows would rub their heads or necks against each other, tree trunks, and wooden posts. It seemed to be that the cows would use the poles and trees to respond to feelings of itchiness. The weather was also fairly cold, so perhaps the cooler weather drove the cows to nuzzle each other. I would assume that the cows sensed that the poles and trees were present due to their vision, not necessarily other senses. Although the cows had lots of hair, I believe that they still noticed the cooler and windier weather surrounding them.
4. How might this behavior have developed? What aspects do you think were learned?
The nuzzling might have developed as a warming mechanism for the cows during cold weather. The cows could have learned that by standing in close proximity to other cows, they did not feel as cold as when they were standing alone. It also might be a way that the cows show signs of affection to mates. I think that the cows learned that if they had an itch, rubbing themselves against a wooden pole or tree trunk might be more affective than rubbing themselves against another cow. They might have learned that the poles and tree trunks remain stationary and also are not actively bothered by the rubbing, unlike some other cows’ reactions that I observed.
5. What events or environmental factors might have caused this behavior to evolve?
Perhaps bugs or other small irritants get in the cows’ fur, causing them to feel itchy. The nuzzling behavior may have evolved as a result of migration of cows from warmer climates to the cooler weather of Virginia winters. The cows also might have evolved this behavior as the weather changes from the warmer summer and more mild autumn to the cooler winters.
6. Come up with a question of your own about one of the behavior(s) you observed. Is this a question you could answer through further observation? If so, how would you change your observational strategy? If not, what information would you need?
Is the cows’ mooing a form of communication between the cows or is the mooing a response to us or other unfamiliar things in their environment? I could answer this question with further observation. I would want to observe the cows with a camera, so that I would not be there as a distraction. I would observe the cows’ mooing without any human presence to try to understand how the mooing might work as a form of communication between the cows. In addition, I would present the cows with people, other animals, and perhaps other unfamiliar noises or stimuli and observe if mooing was continually part of the cows’ response.
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1) She notes the structural descriptions of the cows very well, saying that there were about 30 cows, all of the adult cows were black expect for a large white cow, and that there were also a handful of calves who were black and brown.
As a consequence description, she mentions that cows start approaching them slowly around the 3rd minute of their observation, and this causes the observers to ‘back up’ and in a way hide behind a fence. This is due to the unexplainable, ambiguous behavior of the cows. She mentions her thoughts on the cows’ behavior as follows: “I can’t tell if they are interested in us or are upset/territorial.”
As a relational description she describes the cows’ position in relation to the observers’ around the 6th minute by saying the cows “…gathered in a large group and have stopped walking toward us. They all appear fairly motionless.” Another relational description is regarding the relation of the cows to each other around the 7th minute; “Some of them are standing really close to each other and two nuzzle each other; they rub their head and neck against the other”.
2) I believe that the choice of location couldn’t be better than a farm to observe cows. A farm is usually where cows are kept and are found in large groups. Therefore one can observe how cows behave in groups and in relation to each other as well as how they behave individually.
The time is also quite a good time of the day when the sun is still out and all the behaviors of the cows are clearly visible. The observation had to be made in February since the assignment was given to us this month, however I believe that that also served as a good time to observe cows as Gilliean observed a ‘nuzzling’ behavior and came to the conclusion that this is a result of the itching the cows experience because of the cold weather. I believe that she was able to observe the full range of behaviors of the cows.
3) What are the reasons for the cows’ approaching behavior towards the observers at different times of the observation? Would this behavior differ if the cows were to be alone in the area of study rather than in groups?
I can see from the observations of Gilliean that there are numerous times when the cows’ have approached the observers. I believe that it is possible to get an idea to the answer of this question by looking at what other behaviors the cows engage in during their approach(ex:staring), and to what extent. These are available in Gilliean’s observations. However I wouldn’t be able to find the answer to the question of whether their behavior would change if they weren’t in a group with this observation because the cows are in groups in this setting.
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1. Structure description is used to illustrate the way in which the cows ate, chewing their food by grinding the grass between their teeth and moving their jaws a lot.
Consequence description is seen in the observation of the head scratching behavior. This was interpreted in line 64 as if the cow was rubbing its head against the tree trunk in order to relieve an itch.
Relational description is used throughout the observation sheet as the observer notes how the movement of one cow affects the movement of other cows. An example of this is in lines 66-71, when one cow leaves the group, the other cows in the group follow the first cow.
2. The location was, I think, the best possible location to observe cows. Today cows are almost exclusively domestic, so a farm with an open field would allow the species to demonstrate a wide variety of behaviors. That said, much of the behavior, the constant approaching, seems to be due to the open presence and visibility of the observer. Perhaps if the observer was not so visible to the subjects under observation, the behavior would have centered on something other than approaching the observer.
3. How has the group behavior developed as a positive behavioral adaptation?
During the observation there were several cases of the main group of cows following one cow that strayed from the group. Because this behavior was noted by the observer, and the nature of the movement was recorded in sufficient detail, I believe the observer would be able to answer this question. Though this question does ask about the adaptive value of this behavior, some assumption, further observation, or research would be necessary. For example, one way of answering the question would be to compare a cow that was in relative isolation and a cow that was part of a group, and to compare how the two cows develop, survive and thrive with or without the presence of a group.
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