Cows and their calves communicate using calls that are individualised in a similar way to human names, scientists have discovered.

Researchers found it was possible to identify particular cows and calves from the exclusive sounds they made.

The British team spent 10 months studying the ways cows talked to their young. They identified two distinct maternal calls – low sounds when a mother was close to her calf and louder, higher pitched calls when they were out of visual contact. Calves, in return, called out to their mothers when they wanted to start suckling. But the most important finding was that all three calls were individualised – reserved for a particular cow and calf so that each recognised the other.

Lead scientist Monica Padilla de la Torre, from the University of Nottingham, said: “The research shows for the first time that mother-offspring cattle ‘calls’ are individualised – each calf and cow have a characteristic and exclusive call of their own. Acoustic analysis also reveals that certain information is conveyed within the calf calls – age, but not gender.”

The team studied two herds of free-range cattle on a farm in Radcliffe-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire. Recordings were made using highly sensitive equipment that gathered enough data to study for a year.

The findings appear in the journal Applied Animal Behaviour Science.