Revolutionary experiment for the climate crisis: they trained cows to relieve themselves in a pen

A group of scientists have successfully trained cows to do their biological needs in a container, part of an experiment to reduce ecological damage caused by animal waste.

Like parents who potty train their young children, Scientists used candy to relieve 11 out of 16 cows in the assigned pen.

For calves, the feat took only 15 days, much less than it usually takes to train a child.

“The cows did as well as a 2 to 4 year old boy, they learned just as quickly”, said Lindsay Matthews, animal behavior expert at the University of Auckland in New Zealand and lead author of the study, published Monday in Current biology.

The experiment was carried out in a closed laboratory in Germany. It started with a half-joking comment from a New Zealand radio host talking about the farm animal waste problem, which is quite serious because it causes damage to the environment.

Urine contains nitrogen which, combined with feces, turns into ammonia, a substance linked to acid rain and other environmental problems. Matthews explained. Other than that can pollute the water with nitrates and pollute the air with nitrous oxidehe added.

And certainly, cows urinate a lot. A single cow is capable of producing up to 30 liters (8 gallons) of urine per day, Matthews said. In 2019, nitrous oxide accounted for 7% of all greenhouse gases in the United States, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

“It doesn’t surprise me that they managed to train cows to relieve themselves in a specific place, what surprises me is that no one has done it before”, said Brian Hare, an animal behavior expert at Duke University who was not involved in this study. “The most important question is, can this result be replicated in the natural environment? added.

If possible, animal wastes could be reduced, thereby reducing gas emissions into the atmosphere, said Donald Broom, professor of animal health at the University of Cambridge in England.

In the laboratory in Dummerstorf, Germany, scientists mimicked potty training for children. They put the cows in a special cloister, they waited for them to urinate and at that point they gave them a sweet liquid. When they urinated outside, they gave them The water nothing more.

After a few days, when the cows had to urinate, 11 of them entered the cloister alone to relieve themselves.

However, you need to do a few clarification about this particular experiment: the cows were given a diuretic to make them urinate faster, because the scientists had limited time; the experience did not include the act of defecating. The cows were only trained to urinate where indicated.

This is because urine is the most serious problemAt least in Europe, Matthews explained, although he speculated that it must also be possible to train cows to defecate in a specific location.

While the dogs, gatos and horses can be trained in this aspect, they already have the instinct to go to the toilet in specific places, but cows don’tMatthews said.

However, the main environmental problem with animals is the gases they give off when they burp and emit gas, which is a major cause of atmospheric warming. In this sense, it is impossible to train the cows not to emit gas because “otherwise they would burst”, Matthews said.

(Por Seth Borenstein – AP)

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