Mad cows eye their evil side by glaring from their left eye
Brian Williams
ARE you glaring at me? Research indicates it's best to avoid the the left eye of a cow. Picture: Anthony Weate
Source: The Courier-Mail
HAVING the boss give you the evil eye is bad enough but scientists have found that graziers cop it even worse - cattle give them the big glare.
And researcher Andrew Robins warns cattle handlers that if a cow is stressed or agitated, the left side is probably not the right place to be.
Dr Robins and Professor Clive Phillips from the University of Queensland have studied cattle to find out if they prefer to view a potential threat with their left or right eye.
Their research could have significant benefits in livestock welfare and production, not to mention that fact that there are few people working with cattle who have not been put through the rails by a cranky beast.
Dr Robins said colloquial evidence was that a stroppy cow was more likely to view their potential victim with the left eye or strike with the left horn. But socialisation or domestication provided anomalies. Many domestic animals were handled from the left or near side - such as horses - and it was thought that these animals might relax because they saw the human as a surrogate herd member.
The right side of the brain - which generally processes information from the left eye - was more concerned with immediate, real-life situations and had developed to be vigilant for change.
"We're pretty sure that with dogs it's the same way,'' Prof Phillips said.
"We think this is how it works across a lot of species.''
Dr Robins said the left eye and left side of our face tended to communicate more extreme emotional responses such as aggression; and people tended to hold babies on their left side, making it easier to pick up emotional information.
Russian researchers concluded that productivity differences in dairy cattle were related to lateralisation in the right side of the brain's control of the sympathetic nervous system, which co-ordinated milk let-down and flight or fight response.
Dr Robins and Prof Phillips found cattle consistently viewed potential threats with their left eye, which meant they were choosing to analyse the threat with the right side of their brain.
"In all species studied, from fish to mammals, there is a consistent pattern of specialised functions carried out on either side of the brain,'' Dr Robins said.
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