Spotlight on Temple Grandin
/BY CARA SCHAEFER
How does the way we think shape our interactions with nature? We spoke with Temple Grandin, professor of animal science at Colorado State and autism rights advocate, about cattle, animal behavior, and outdoor experiences.
Photos courtesy of Temple Grandin.
OUT THERE: Do you have any childhood memories of interacting with animals or the outdoors?
TEMPLE GRANDIN: Oh yes, I'm a child of the 50s. And mom would say, “Go outside and run the energy out of you.” The neighborhood kids and I just spent huge amounts of time outside. We’d make up our own games, we’d go for hikes in the woods, and build forts. I spent hours flying kites when I was a child, that was one of my favorite activities — experimenting and building kites.
My sister and I would collect rocks. I collected insects. The things that I liked best when I was a little kid were things that flew. If something flew, I liked it, whether it was kites or toy airplanes.
OT: How did you come to work with cattle in particular?
TG: I'm an Easterner and I was not exposed to agriculture until I was a teenager. I was also a kid that had a lot of problems. I did not work out well in a regular high school. Kids bullied me. And I threw a book at a girl who called me a retard, so I got kicked out of ninth grade. I went to a boarding school for kids that had problems, and they had a farm there: a 12-cow dairy. So that was my first introduction to cattle, and then a little later on in my teenage life I went out to my aunt's ranch out west. And that's where I got introduced to the beef industry, and also introduced to the west and found that I really liked it.
OT: What are some of the differences between how animals and humans communicate that you've noticed?
TG: Well, an animal lives in a sensory-based world. I'm an extreme visual thinker. So when I first started working with cattle in my 20s, I looked at what the cattle were looking at. And they might see a shadow going through a chute or a coat on a fence, and it would make them stop. And other people hadn't thought to look at what the cattle were looking at. I didn't know at the time that a lot of other people think mainly in words. It wasn’t until I was in my 30s or so when I first got an inkling that other people didn’t think in pictures quite the same way I did. But it was obvious to me, as a visual thinker, to look at what the cattle were looking at. Being very sensory-based in how I think, helped me understand animals.
OT: Why do you think it's important to treat cattle and other animals in a humane way?
TG: Animals have feelings. They feel pain, they feel fear. When I first started out, it was considered anthropomorphic to think that animals have emotions. Now scientists know that that's simply not true. Back in the early 90s, journal article reviewers wouldn't let me use the word “fear.” I had to say that the animal was agitated.
But the interesting thing is, over in the neuroscience literature, the word “fear” had been used for years. And now in some of the animal behavior literature, you'll actually see the word “personality” being used. And terms like “bold” versus “shy.” And obviously animals like dogs have emotions, because drugs that work on people for things like anxiety also work for dogs. For example, Prozac works on dogs. And that would show that there's some similarity between our nervous system and a dog's nervous system.
OT: One project I heard you recently consulted on is an autism nature trail at Letchworth State Park in New York. As someone who is autistic, how do you personally experience nature?
TG: I really like to look at things. During the Covid lockdown, I’ve been observing some of the crows in the neighborhood. And sitting outside in the gazebo I watch the squirrel repeatedly try to bury a nut. Even in a suburban environment, there are things to observe.
The Canada geese have been very interesting here. I've lived in Colorado for 31 years. When I first moved here, they were in vast flocks and you’d see them out on a crop field. Now they've broken up into social groups of maybe 12 to 15. And you'll even see single pairs, like hanging out on the bank lawn or the road divider. So the behavior has changed — they don't migrate. There’s no predators. They know that once they're west of the freeway, they don't have to worry about hunters.
OT: Are there any sensory details you're especially attuned to when you're outdoors?
TG: Well, I'm a very visual person. I had a student one time and she was very auditory. And she would listen to an animal, listen to how it breathed. And then she could tell whether or not it was stressed. I tend to look. Like one of the crows sampled some water in a pothole in the middle of the road. He didn’t like that water, but he liked the water a lot better that was in a puddle in the grass.
OT: How do you think we can make the outdoors a more welcoming environment to those who are autistic or otherwise neurodivergent?
TG: The first thing is you've got to get them doing things. One of the big problems is that kids aren’t being exposed to enough stuff. You know, a lot of these kids would be recluses in their room unless they're encouraged to do things. And it's important to give choices. So would you like to go for a walk in the park, or to go do something else? Always do choices, but you've got to get them outside and show them interesting stuff.
