As someone who spent the past days next to a herd of cows in the alps I now understand cow tools on a spiritual level. Cows are fascinating creatures. They can be incredibly dull, but then you look away for a moment and they did something that requires more intelligence than you would have thought they had.
Do you mind sharing an example? This sounds really interesting
It is hard to summarize the whole thing together because there were many subtle things going on, but one thing was how they acted differently when they noticed humans were not around. E.g. escaping barb-wire fences that looked like they would hold them to get that good gras next to the hut only to vanish back behind the fence when the sound of the farmers car was heard. They knew what was allowed and what was not allowed.
They are social animals, after all. Having a mind model doesn't seem far-fetched.
People who keep chickens have also said their birds are smarter than people credit them for.
I regularly see cows opening gates with their tongues, walking through the pasture to their favourite tree stump for an ass-scratching, then walk back through the gate and push it closed. Smart cows, these ones. Not to be underestimated.
Some days even I don’t achieve much more than that