Page 97 - The Welfare of Cattle

74 the WeLfare of CattLe

INtrODUCtION

Senses create an internal representation of the outside world for the person or animal receiving
the information (Chandrashekar, Hoon, Ryba, & Zuker, 2006). Although cattle and humans are
often exposed to similar sights, sounds, and smells in their environments, the way in which they
sense, perceive, receive, and understand the stimuli around them is often different. Although rec-
ognizing and understanding these differences between perceptual worlds of livestock and humans
is a key component to successful human–animal interactions, many people that work within the
cattle industry are not exposed to this type of information prior to handling animals. It is critical
to understand the world from the cow’s point of view to have successful experiences for both the
human handler and the animal. The anthropomorphic approach of “if we can see it, why can’t
they?” does not provide an effective or accurate framework for approaching work with livestock
(Entsu, Dohi, & Yamada, 1992).

Understanding Umwelten of Cattle

Jakob von Uexkull, a twentieth-century German biologist, introduced the concept of an
“umwelt,” simply defined as, the sensory world specific to an organism (von Uexkull, 1909). Von
Uexkull was interested in the perceptual worlds of animals, well-known for his studies of ticks,
and theorized that all organisms have a unique umwelt. In one of von Uexkull’s descriptions of
umwelten he instructs his readers to go on a “stroll through the worlds of animals” literally but also
figuratively by putting a bubble around the creatures one sees and imagining their world within;
the bubble represents “worlds strange to us but known to other creatures, manifold and varied as
the animals themselves” (von Uexkull, 1957). An animal’s sense organ physiology, the signals it
receives, the animal’s response to the situation, and the resulting perception of the environment all
play a role in defining an animal’s umwelt (Partan & Marler, 2002).
Most humans are likely participants in an animal’s perceptual world on a daily basis whether
it be with the squirrel darting across the front yard as the homeowner walks to her car or with
the family pet that is excited when the children come home from school or with the mosquito that
is swatted away to avoid a bite. Despite this relatively consistent interaction with animals, many
people do not fully appreciate the importance of understanding an animal’s perceptual world and
its significance to being able to effectively work with animals. There are other people that work
with animals more closely as part of their profession whether it be as a veterinary professional, a
livestock producer, any type of animal researcher, or one of the many other careers that involve
being in close and constant contact with animals. There is anecdotal evidence that suggests that
many of the people employed within the livestock industry have not had previous experience work-
ing and interacting with livestock, likely coming to the job without much background knowledge
of how animals sense and perceive their environment. While it is not necessarily essential to
understand the intricate physiological workings of the senses to work humanely and safely with
cattle, it is obligatory to understand on a basic level how cattle perceive and understand their envi-
ronment and ultimately how the animal handler can influence, both positively and negatively, the
animal’s response.

Predator vs. Prey

One key component to understanding cattle perception is that cattle have evolved as a prey
species and thus the way they interact with human handlers and other animals in their environment
is as a prey animal. This distinction will be important in the discussion of differences in sensory
systems. As a prey species, cattle are reactionary as a mechanism for escape from potentially dan-
gerous situations and they use the information gathered from their sensory systems to make these