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I'm a farm kid, my wife more so than I. Livestock are stupid: they embody the herd mentality. Individual animals are often very smart. The exceptions are sheep
by rpmisms 5y ago
I'm a farm kid, my wife more so than I. Livestock are stupid: they embody the herd mentality. Individual animals are often very smart. The exceptions are sheep and any poultry.
Sheep are the most blazingly stupid animals I've ever encountered, and I've watched a chicken and a turkey, respectively, run into a corner repeatedly because it didn't see the open field behind it, and literally stare upwards into rain until it inhaled water and drowned.
Cows are quite smart, but also amazingly lazy. They will lie in one spot and starve to death, because they're too lazy to walk to food. However, start milking them, and you'll learn exactly how clever they are. They'll plot for weeks just to fuck with you or put a foot in the bucket.
Horses are worse, because they can kill you easily, so you can't just punch them if they threaten you, like you can with cows. (Punching cows doesn't hurt them, just annoys them enough to leave you alone, sometimes). They're all clever, but nothing matches goats.
Goats are horrifyingly smart, and very very mischievous. They'll plan escapes from any enclosure, will manipulate you by looking cute, and will specifically knock you into muddy patches and bleat in a manner suspiciously like laughter.
Thankfully, my wife's family has Great Pyrenees, one of the best breeds of dog known to man (Seriously, give them a look if you have land and are looking for a dog. Smart, amazingly gentle, and will kill a bear [literally, I've seen it] to protect you, and they got the kids out of trouble if the animals got rowdy.
tl;dr: farm animals are actually really smart, have personalities, and are absolutely wonderful to be around growing up. You learn important life lessons, and a good amount of common sense.
Oh, and Donkeys are better than almost any guard dog. They'll kick the shit out of anything that looks mean, and they can bite the head off a cougar, and will. It's nuts.
- praptak 5y agoDo not be so quick to dismiss poultry. There are quite a few articles about chickens' intelligence, say this one from Scientific American (sorry, paywalled): https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-startling-intelligence-of-the-common-chicken1/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-startling-int...
- rpmisms 5y agoYeah, they have good pattern recognition. They're just dazzlingly unintuitive.
- twic 5y ago> Great Pyrenees I saw dogs very much like this on a mountain in Catalonia (although not in the actual Pyrenees). There was a pack of them wandering around on their own, with whom we crossed paths several times. Once, we saw them with their mistress. It seemed she had basically deployed them as a patrol, going around checking on the sheep without human supervision! They were incredibly friendly towards us, accompanying us along the trail for a while.
- rpmisms 5y agoThey're basically wolves, but instead of hunting, their drive is to protect. They're amazing dogs, incredibly smart, and don't let the cuteness fool you, they can kill most predators without a problem. My dog's grandfather tore the entire throat out of a coyote without breaking a sweat, dragged the corpse home and tossed it under the porch, looking extremely proud of himself. Then he went back to lying down in a field with the lambs and letting them jump on him.
- cheese_goddess 5y agoNot sure if it's a Great Pyrenees but check out the dog in this video: https://youtu.be/wrwHWgyFEks?t=559 https://youtu.be/wrwHWgyFEks?t=559 The guy points, the dog runs. I swear, it's like the dog speaks French...
- rpmisms 5y agoNot a Pyr. They aren't herding dogs, and they're not obedient. They do their job, which is living with and protecting their flock, and you don't tell them how to do it. I think the dog in the video is a Blue Heeler or similar cattle dog. Also amazing at their jobs, and very, very well-tuned to humans.