Cows Who Witness Wolf Attacks Suffer from PTSD

Researchers at Oregon State University are looking into biomarkers for cows that show they experience post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, when they witness a wolf attack.

Reinaldo Cooke, a beef cattle specialist, said the study was prompted by the many conversations they had with ranchers who said their cattle behaved quite differently if they witnessed attack.

“We know that stress is linked to poor performance and welfare in cattle so our initial goal was to establish a link between the potential stress caused by predation and the loss in productivity and cattle welfare.”

Studies on humans and mice regarding PTSD were used a comparative to see if the biomarkers in cows matched those in other species that were determined to have the disorder.

Cooke said they ran cows that had seen depredations through a simulation that included wolf howls, urine and bringing in dogs to see how they responded.

“The changes in those biomarkers were supportive or suggested some sort of a psychological impact compared to the cows that didn’t have those bad memories. We did the study six months after they came back from the summer allotments.”

Cooke said there is no current strategy to work with cows to bring them back to normal productivity, but work is being done in that area.

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