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Can Cows really Predict Rain? | Fun Animal facts for kids · The Curious Kidcast | Fun Facts and Curious Questions

• 0:00
  For hundreds of years, farmers have sworn by it.
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  Grandparents pass it down like ancient wisdom.
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  Your neighbor probably believes it.
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  When cows lie down in a field, does it really mean rain is
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  coming? Today, we're investigating one
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  of the most famous animal behaviour beliefs in history.
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  And trust me, you're going to want to hear what the science
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  says. Get ready, because we're diving
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  deep into some seriously surprising cow facts.
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  Curious kid cast, Here we go. Hey there, curious minds.
• 0:49
  Welcome back to the Curious Kid cast, where we answer the
• 0:52
  questions that make you go. I'm your host, Charlie, and
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  today we're investigating something absolutely wild.
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  You're staring at a field full of cows, and suddenly they all
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  plopped down on the grass like they're taking a synchronized
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  nap. And then your neighbor leans
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  over the fence and whispers, rain's coming.
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  But wait, how would the cows know that?
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  Do they have tiny weather apps hidden in their hooves?
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  Are they secret meteorologists wearing little white lab coats
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  under all that fur? Did they go to Weather
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  University and get degrees we don't know about?
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  Well, buckle up, because today's question comes from Ethan in
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  Dublin, Ireland, who asked this because his grandmother won't
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  stop talking about her weather cows and he wanted to know if
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  Granny has been telling the truth all these years or if
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  she's just been pranking the entire family for decades.
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  Let's find out. OK, so here's the deal.
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  People have been saying this for hundreds, maybe thousands of
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  years. The cows are lying down.
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  It's going to rain. It sounds pretty magical, right?
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  Like cows are these 4 legged fortune tellers just chilling in
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  fields predicting the future with their mystical cow powers?
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  But before we decide if this is real or just a really old game
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  of telephone that got way out of hand, let's time travel for a
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  second. Imagine you're living way, way
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  back before smartphones. I'm talking before TV, before
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  radio, before the Internet, heck, before someone even
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  thought, hey, maybe we should invent The Weather Channel.
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  How would you know if it was going to rain tomorrow?
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  You couldn't just ask Siri. You couldn't Google it.
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  You couldn't even call your local meteorologist because
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  phones didn't exist. You had to be a nature
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  detective, and honestly, you probably weren't very good at
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  it. So people watched everything.
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  They stared at clouds until their eyes hurt.
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  They studied birds like they were taking a test.
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  They probably even had intense staring contest with bugs, which
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  the bugs always won because they don't blink.
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  And farmers who spent literally all day every day with their
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  cows notice patterns everywhere. Oh look, the cows are lying
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  down. Oh hey, it's raining.
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  Those two things happened kind of near each other in time, so
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  they must be connected and boom, a legend was born.
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  Generation after generation, people passed down this wisdom
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  like it was the secret password to the most exclusive club in
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  the world, the club of people who think they understand cows.
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  But here's the thing, and I need you to really hear this.
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  Just because everyone believes something doesn't make it true.
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  Remember when everyone thought the earth was flat?
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  Yeah, that didn't age well. Remember when people thought you
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  could turn lead into gold? Also not a thing.
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  So let's investigate this cow situation like the truth seeking
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  detectives. We are complete with imaginary
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  magnifying glasses. All right, first major clue.
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  Cows lie down a lot. And when I say a lot, I mean a
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  lot. A lot.
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  Like, if lying down were an Olympic sport, cows would win
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  all the medals. We're talking about half of
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  every single day. That's twelve whole hours of cow
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  floor time. They lie down to rest, to sleep,
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  to chew their food, to contemplate the meaning of
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  existence. And honestly, probably just
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  because standing up gets boring after a while.
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  I mean, have you ever stood in one place for hours?
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  It's exhausting. A healthy cow might lie down and
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  get back up 10 to 15 times every day.
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  So if you walk past a field of cows at any random moment,
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  there's a pretty solid chance that at least some of them are
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  lying down. Rain or no rain, sunny day,
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  cloudy day, Tuesday, Thursday, National Pancake Day.
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  Doesn't matter. Cows are going to cow.
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  It's like if I said every time I saw you drinking water it was a
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  weekday, so drinking water must cause weekdays to happen.
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  That sounds ridiculous, right? Just because two things happen
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  at the same time doesn't mean one causes the other.
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  Scientists have a fancy phrase for this.
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  It's called correlation doesn't equal causation, which basically
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  means just because things happen together doesn't mean they're
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  connected. So stop making stuff up.
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  But wait, there's more. And this next part is
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  simultaneously disgusting and absolutely fascinating.
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  Kind of like watching someone eat a really gross food
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  combination. Are you ready?
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  Cows have 4 stomachs. Well, technically one stomach
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  with four compartments, but still.
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  Imagine having 4 stomachs. You could have breakfast in
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  stomach one, lunch in stomach, two afternoon snacks in stomach
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  3, and dinner in stomach 4. It would be like having a whole
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  food court inside your body. Although I guess that's not
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  actually how it works, but whatever.
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  Let me dream. Because of this weird digestive
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  set up, cows do something called ruminating.
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  And no, that doesn't mean they sit around thinking deep
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  philosophical thoughts about the meaning of life.
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  Nope. Ruminating means they swallow
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  their food, let it hang out in their stomach for a bit, and
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  then brace yourself. They burp it back up and chew it
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  again. Yes, you heard that right.
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  They eat their own burps. I know, I know, absolutely
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  disgusting, but also kind of amazing in a gross way.
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  Nature is weird folks. Like really weird.
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  Anyway, guess what position cows prefer when they're doing all
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  this? Re chewing, re eating, burp
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  munching, action lying down. They spend 8 to 10 hours
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  everyday ruminating and they usually do it while relaxing on
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  the ground like they're binge watching their favorite show.
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  Except instead of Netflix it's just, you know, chewing the same
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  food twice. Which, honestly, sounds like the
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  worst show ever. So when your neighbor sees cows
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  lying down and dramatically announces oh, rain's coming, the
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  cows know. The cows might actually just be
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  thinking, time to reach you. That delicious grass I ate three
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  hours ago still tastes like grass.
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  Amazing. They're not weather profits,
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  they're just weird eaters. Now here's where it gets really
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  good. Scientists, bless their curious
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  hearts and their willingness to stare at cows for months,
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  actually tested this whole cow and rain thing.
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  They didn't just sit around guessing or trusting what their
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  grandmas told them. They watched cows very, very
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  carefully, probably through binoculars while eating
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  sandwiches and track the weather to see if there was actually a
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  real connection or if this was all just one big
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  misunderstanding. In one study, researchers in
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  Arizona, where it's hot and sunny most of the time and rain
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  is kind of rare, watch dairy cows for months and months.
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  They wrote down every single time the cows lay down, probably
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  filling up hundreds of notebooks with notes like 10:47 AM, Bessie
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  laid down, 10:52 AM, Bessie stood up. 10:53 AM, Bessie laid
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  down again, what is she doing? And they wrote down every single
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  time it rained. Then they looked at all their
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  data to see if there was a pattern.
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  Probably while drinking lots of coffee.
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  The result? Drum roll.
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  Please. Picture the most dramatic drum
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  roll you've ever heard in your entire life.
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  Nope, nothing. Zilch 0 nada.
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  The cows lay down just as often before sunny days as they did
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  before rainy days. There was absolutely no rain
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  predicting power happening whatsoever.
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  The cows were just being cows, doing cow things, living their
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  best cow lives, completely oblivious to the fact that
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  humans have been attributing magical weather powers to them
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  for centuries. Other scientists did similar
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  experiments in different places, and they all found the same
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  thing. Cows are not weather
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  forecasters, they're just furry milk factories who like to sit
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  down a lot and burp up their food.
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  But hold on, don't give up on cows just yet before you storm
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  out of here thinking cows are totally useless, which they're
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  not because hello, cheese exists.
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  There's more to the story because even though they can't
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  predict rain, they can feel when the weather is changing.
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  Let me explain. You know how sometimes before a
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  storm, the air feels different? Maybe it gets cooler, or the air
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  feels thick and heavy, like you're walking through invisible
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  pudding or like someone wrapped the whole world in a wet
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  blanket. That's because the atmosphere,
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  which is basically all the air around us doing it's air thing,
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  is changing. Things like air pressure,
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  temperature and humidity shift before the weather changes.
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  It's like the atmosphere is warming up before the big
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  weather show. Cows are actually pretty
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  sensitive to these changes. They can feel when it gets
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  colder, when the air pressure drops, or when it gets more
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  humid. And sometimes these feelings
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  might make them want to lie down more or less, or stand up or
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  walk around or just do whatever cows feel like doing in that
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  moment. But here's the crucial part that
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  everyone gets wrong. The cows aren't sitting there in
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  the field thinking, oh, I sense rain coming in three hours.
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  Better lie down now to warn the humans who have been kind enough
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  to provide me with this grass buffet.
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  They're just reacting to how they feel right now in this
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  exact moment. It's like when you feel cold and
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  grab a sweater. You're not predicting that
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  winter is coming in three months.
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  You're not forecasting the future.
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  You're just responding to being cold right now because you don't
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  want to be a popsicle. So sometimes the same weather
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  changes that make cows act differently are also signs that
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  rain might come later. But the cow isn't predicting
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  anything. It's not a profit.
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  It's not a fortune teller. Both the cow's behaviour and the
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  rain are caused by the same atmospheric changes happening at
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  the same time. The cow is just along for the
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  ride, probably thinking about grass.
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  OK, so if scientists prove this isn't true with their fancy
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  experiments and months of cow watching, why do so many people,
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  including Ethan's grandmother in Dublin who won't stop talking
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  about it, still believe it? Great question.
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  Imaginary person in my head who asks me convenient questions at
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  exactly the right time. There are actually a few sneaky
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  tricks our brains play on us. And honestly, our brains are
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  kind of jerks sometimes. First up, the memory trick, also
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  known as your brain is lying to you and you don't even know it.
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  Our brains are really, really good at remembering things that
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  seem special or unusual, but we totally forget boring normal
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  stuff. So if you see cows lying down,
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  then it rains, your brain goes, whoa, that's so cool, that's so
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  interesting. I'll definitely remember this
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  forever. I'm going to tell everyone about
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  this, but all the hundreds of times you saw cows lying down
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  and it didn't rain, your brain just deletes those memories like
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  they're spam emails or that embarrassing thing you said in
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  3rd grade. It's like if you wore your lucky
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  socks to 100 basketball games and your team won 50 times and
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  lost 50 times, which is exactly 50% which is totally random.
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  You probably only remember the wins and think these socks are
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  magic. These socks have special powers.
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  I can never wash them. But actually they're just socks.
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  Probably very smelly socks at that point to be honest.
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  Socks that your family begs you to please, please wash.
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  Then there's the pattern finding machine problem.
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  Human brains absolutely love finding patterns.
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  Like we're obsessed with patterns.
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  It's how we learn stuff and survive and figure out how the
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  world works. But sometimes we find patterns
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  that aren't actually there. We connect things just because
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  they happen near each other in time, even when they have
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  nothing to do with each other. It's like our brains are playing
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  connect the dots, but with invisible dots that don't exist.
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  Finally, there's just something really charming about old
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  sayings and folk wisdom. They connect us to our
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  grandparents and great great great grandparents who lived way
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  before us. They make us feel like we know
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  special secrets that other people don't know, like we're
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  part of an ancient club of wisdom keepers.
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  And honestly, watch the cows to predict rain sounds way more fun
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  and magical than check your boring weather app on your
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  boring phone, right? One makes you feel like a nature
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  wizard, the other makes you feel like you're looking at a screen
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  again. Plus, some old weather sayings
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  are actually true, which makes this whole thing more confusing.
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  Red sky at night Sailor's delight really works because red
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  sunsets often mean high pressure and good weather coming.
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  So some old weather wisdom is accurate.
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  Maybe all of it is. Spoiler alert.
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  Nope. Just because 1 old saying is
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  right doesn't mean they all are. That would be like saying my
• 13:38
  aunt was right about bringing an umbrella once, so now I believe
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  everything she says forever. The cow rain thing isn't the
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  only animal weather myth out there.
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  Oh no. Humans have been very creative
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  about making up weather predictions involving tons of
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  animals. Let me hit you with a few of my
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  favourites. And my favourites, I mean the
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  most ridiculous ones. Pigs gather sticks before a
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  storm. People say this all the time
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  with complete confidence, but pigs might gather sticks just
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  because they're building a cozy nest for nap time, not because
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  they sense a tornado coming to destroy everything.
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  Pigs just like being comfortable and warm.
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  Can you blame them? Wouldn't you want a cozy nest?
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  Groundhogs predict spring. Every February 2nd we all gather
• 14:23
  around and watch Punxsutawney fill the Groundhog to see if he
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  sees his shadow, and based on that we decide if winter will
• 14:30
  end soon or continue forever. Fun tradition absolutely makes
• 14:35
  for good TV, Sure. Accurate weather forecast?
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  Not even close. Phil is right about 40% of the
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  time. That's worse than just flipping
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  a coin. See the pattern here?
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  We absolutely love thinking animals have secret weather
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  superpowers. Like they all went to a secret
• 14:52
  animal weather school we don't know about, but usually they're
• 14:56
  just doing normal animal stuff, living their animal lives, and
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  we're reading way too much into it because we really want them
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  to be magical. So if cows can't predict rain
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  and groundhogs are basically useless, how do we actually know
• 15:10
  when it's going to rain? Modern meteorologists, which is
• 15:14
  just a fancy word for weather scientists who probably wanted a
• 15:16
  cooler job title, use absolutely amazing technology that would
• 15:21
  blow the minds of those old farmers who just stared at cows
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  all day. They've got satellites floating
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  around in space, taking pictures of clouds and storms from way up
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  high, like the ultimate Birds Eye view, showing exactly where
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  weather systems are moving and how fast they're moving and
• 15:39
  whether you should probably cancel your picnic.
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  They've got radar stations that send out radio waves that bounce
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  off raindrops showing where it's raining right this second, like
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  a video game map, but for weather.
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  They launch weather balloons, which are not birthday party
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  balloons, but serious scientific equipment that float way up into
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  the atmosphere, carrying instruments that measure
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  temperature, air pressure, and humidity at different heights.
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  And then they've got supercomputers, massive
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  computers that cost millions of dollars, that take all this
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  information and run incredibly complex calculations to predict
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  what the weather will do next, like a crystal ball.
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  But actually accurate. All of this is way, way, way
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  more accurate than watching cows take naps in a field.
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  Today's weather forecasts are right about 90% of the time for
• 16:29
  the next day. That's pretty impressive when
• 16:31
  you think about how complicated weather is, with all the
• 16:34
  different factors and changes and chaos happening in the
• 16:36
  atmosphere. Time someone tells you the cows
• 16:40
  are lying down so it must be about to rain, you can smile
• 16:43
  knowingly and share what you know.
• 16:45
  You can explain that cows lie down all the time for totally
• 16:48
  normal reasons. The scientists have tested this
• 16:51
  belief super thoroughly with actual experiments and that
• 16:54
  while cows are sensitive to weather changes, they're not
• 16:57
  actually fortune tellers with fur coats.
• 17:01
  All right, time for the quiz portion of our show where we
• 17:04
  find out if you were actually paying attention or if you were
• 17:07
  just thinking about what you're having for dinner.
• 17:09
  I'm going to ask you 3 questions about what we learned today.
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  Think carefully, use your brain, and hey, no asking the cows for
• 17:16
  help because we've established they don't know anything.
• 17:19
  Let's go question one. How many hours per day does a
• 17:24
  cow spend lying down? Is it a two hours because cows
• 17:28
  are super energetic and never stop moving?
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  B12 hours which is half the day C 20 hours because cows are
• 17:35
  extremely lazy or D Cows never lie down, they sleep standing up
• 17:39
  like horses and giraffes. If you said B12 hours, you're
• 17:48
  absolutely right. Give yourself a Gold Star.
• 17:51
  Cows spend about half their day lying down.
• 17:54
  That's a lot of cow nap time. That's more nap time than most
• 17:57
  humans get, and honestly, I'm a little jealous.
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  Question 2. What's the gross but fascinating
• 18:04
  thing that cows do while lying down?
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  Is it A they plan their escape from the farm in secret cow
• 18:09
  meetings? B they practice their musical
• 18:12
  skills and work on their harmonies.
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  C they ruminate, which means they reach you their food like
• 18:18
  absolute weirdos. Or D they knit tiny sweaters for
• 18:22
  the chickens because they're very thoughtful animals.
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  The answer is C. They ruminate, which means they
• 18:33
  re chew their food. They actually burp up their food
• 18:36
  and chew it again. Disgusting.
• 18:38
  Yes, absolutely. Nature also yes.
• 18:40
  And if you said D about the tiny chicken sweaters, I appreciate
• 18:44
  your creativity and your imagination, but I don't think
• 18:46
  cows know how to knit, although that would be adorable and I
• 18:50
  would pay money to see that. Question 3 When scientists in
• 18:54
  Arizona studied cows to see if they could predict rain, what
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  did they find? A Cows are 100% accurate weather
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  predictors and should replace all meteorologists.
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  B Cows can only predict rain on Tuesdays for some mysterious
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  reason. C cows lie down just as much
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  before sunny days as rainy days, so they have no prediction
• 19:14
  powers at all. Or D The cows refused to
• 19:17
  participate in the study because they were too busy eating grass
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  and didn't care about science. If you said C, you nailed it.
• 19:29
  You're a genius. The cows lay down just as often
• 19:31
  before sunny days as before rainy days.
• 19:34
  No weather prediction powers detected.
• 19:36
  Sorry, cows. You're still cool though, still
• 19:39
  valuable, still good at making milk.
• 19:42
  So keep watching those cows if you want their fascinating
• 19:45
  animals with their four stomachs and their weird eating habits.
• 19:48
  Just maybe keep your phones weather app handy too.
• 19:51
  Because as wonderful as cows are, and they are wonderful,
• 19:54
  meteorologists with satellites and supercomputers and years of
• 19:57
  training are definitely better at predicting rain.
• 20:01
  If you love this episode, make sure to share it with your
• 20:05
  friends so they can also learn about cow burps.
• 20:08
  Subscribe so you never miss an episode and your life is filled
• 20:11
  with more random knowledge. And if you've got a burning
• 20:14
  question you'd like us to answer, head over to our website
• 20:17
  at curiouskidcast.com and send it our way.
• 20:20
  Who knows, your question might be featured in an upcoming
• 20:23
  episode, and you might hear your name on the show, just like
• 20:26
  Ethan did today. Until next time, stay curious,
• 20:31
  keep asking questions, and remember, just because a cow is
• 20:34
  lying down doesn't mean you need an umbrella.
• 20:37
  I'm Charlie and this has been the Curious Kid cast.
• 20:43
  This rise listen up to the endless sky, everyone is as far
• 20:50
  so bright. Curious kick out.