News release

From: PLOS

Cows recognize a familiar human face

Cows stared longer at new faces, and could match a familiar person’s voice with their image

Cows show visual preference for new human faces over a familiar one and can match a known handler’s voice to their face, according to a study published May 20, 2026 in the open-access journal PLOS One by Océane Amichaud of INRAE in Nouzilly, France, and colleagues.

Domestic species such as cows (Bos taurus taurus) live in close contact with humans, and are also highly social animals. To better understand whether cows could discriminate between familiar and unfamiliar faces, the authors of the study collected data from 32 Prim’ Holstein cows. They played the cows muted videos of familiar and unfamiliar male faces, and measured how long the animals gazed at them. They looked for cross-modal recognition, playing videos of familiar and unfamiliar faces while broadcasting audio corresponding to one of the two men, with each man saying an identical sentence. They also measured the animals’ heart rates as they watched the videos to see if the cows responded emotionally.

The bovines were uncowed by silent videos, and stared longer at videos of unfamiliar people, showing that they could distinguish between a known and unknown face. When the videos were paired with sound, the animals spent more time staring at the video when the voice matched the face, showing the cows could pair a face with the voice they herd. But based on their heart rates, none of the familiar or unfamiliar faces or voices seemed to affect the cows’ emotional response.

While the authors note that a video and sound recording are not a full interaction with a human, the results suggest that cows can tell the difference between familiar and unfamiliar people, and that they can identify people by face and voice. The authors suggest that more studies should example how cows interact with specific people, to better understand the animals and provide for their welfare.

The authors add: “In this study, using visual preference and cross-modal tests, we showed that cows are able to process human faces presented in 2D on videos and to associate familiar and unfamiliar faces with the corresponding voices by integrating multiple sensory modalities.”