The goal of this study was to determine if auditory cues are important
in maternal recognition by domestic cattle calves, Bos taurus. Cows a
nd their calves were separated and the vocalizations of the mothers we
re recorded. During experimental playbacks in a rest enclosure, each c
alf (n = 9) was given a choice between a tape-recorded vocalization of
its mother and that of a strange mother. Calves significantly preferr
ed their own mother's vocalization as compared to the vocalization of
the unfamiliar mother. Calves spent significantly more rime near the s
peaker that played their own mother's call, and approached significant
ly closer to their mother's speaker. These results demonstrate that 3-
5-wk-old calves can recognize their mothers by auditory cues alone. Vi
sual inspection of audiospectrograms of the cows' vocalizations sugges
ts that there are individual differences among cows.