Germany trains cows to defecate in the toilet, just 15 days is enough
Toilet training, learning to pee on the toilet, sometimes takes months or even years for toddlers. But cows only need 15 days to be trained that way, the researchers said.
They have figured out how to train cows to pee in special toilets in Germany. This idea originated as a half-joking question on a radio talk show, but can now help protect the environment.
Animal behavior scientists in a research project managed to train 11 of 16 Holstein cows to urinate in the toilet. Even more surprising, the training was easy, said the senior author of the study.
Lindsay Matthews, senior author and animal behavior scientist at the University of Auckland in New Zealand said, "What is really surprising here is how quickly cows learn compared to children. So with very intensive training, some children can learn in a matter of about a day. But most kids, as you know, need a fair amount of time and sometimes days, weeks or months. We only had 15 exercises with these animals and the cows on average 20-25 pees, and they're fully trained."
In just 15 days, the researchers used a reward system and a touch of punishment to get the cows into a set gate, into a closed pen called "MooLoo", and then just pee there.
Once finished, the cows were rewarded with a very sweet drink that mostly contained molasses. If you pee outside the MooLoo, the cow will get a cold spray.
Due to the limited time of the experiment, the researchers gave the animals diuretics to make them urinate more often. Although this experiment stems from a half-joking question on a New Zealand radio talk show, the motives behind the research are very serious.
Cow Waste Often Causes Environmental Problems
Large amounts of cow urine waste could be an important environmental problem, especially in Europe, according to the researchers.
"Cows urinate very often. A cow can produce about 30 liters of urine per day," said Matthews.
When farm animals stay indoors, urine and feces often mix, producing ammonia, the gas that causes acid rain. If the cow lives outdoors, this creates another problem.
Matthews points out, "When livestock live outdoors, urea can convert to nitrate in the soil and then wash away and pollute waterways, causing various problems in waterways. Also, if nitrate concentrations are too high, this can cause blue babies (red) . - nitrate poisoning condition in infants that causes skin to turn blue) and all sorts of other things. So it's a matter of nitrate directly in the soil. Then the nitrate is converted to nitrous oxide, which is 300 times stronger than carbon dioxide."
In 2019, togel online zaman sekarang nitrous oxide accounted for seven percent of all greenhouse gases in the US, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency.
But the biggest environmental problem for farm animals is the methane gas they emit in the form of belching and wind, a significant source of global warming. The experiment shows how easy it is to toilet train other animals and how intelligent cows are, Matthews said. He predicts the same technique could be used for sheep, pigs and other farm animals.