What is it about game cameras that attrack cows to them. We have had cameras licked on, torn up, and just hauled off by cows on our lease. The cows have even gotten to where they will reached in the pen to tear them up. Was wondering if it is the flashing of the light or the noise or what?

I've had em chew the light wiring connections off my trailer. They somehow busted the tail lights off. My cameras have been twisted, knocked down, etc... It's just in their nature to screw up everything. Last season I watched 5 cows walk at a rapid pace across a pasture to where they saw 2 does eating corn from a road. They chased off the does then stood there about 15 minutes then just laid down.

Haven't you seen the Chik-fil-a ads? The cows are trying to get the word out.

"Eet mor chikin"

That ,or trying to destroy the evidence!

They could possibly be trying to get salt or some mineral they are lacking in their diet.

Cows recently dismantled my cinder block "fire pit"... licking the blocks. One even licked my truck. They have shown little interest in my cameras though.

My guess would be flash sparking curiosity. At least that's what it seems from the pics I get of them coming to the camera after initial pic. Also the fact the just like to mess with crap...like truck mirrors

They're just being photogenic!!! I had a buck that once he noticed that the red light wasn't going to hurt him, he actually came back to it from different directions and posed for pics!!!

Cows are big dumb curious creatures. Anything they can reach will eventually get rubbed, chewed and then stomped and crapped on.

Cows ain't near as bad as goats.....Ol' Billy gets a tooth into something he'll chew it off. Ate all the wiring under my buddy's travel trailer and started in on the tires and body parts.

We fished at a lodge in Seadrift that was part of a big high fence game ranch. The had a pig that got real used to people and loved to drink beer out of long necks. You'd hold the bottle and he'd get it in his mouth and drain it. This made him very friendly. Issue was he'd get through the gate quite often and he'd head to the lodge parking lot and chew valve stems off the vehicles. He liked valve stems danged near as much as beer.....

When I was a teenager, my buddies Grandfather took us to a private lake in Cresson to fish, got there and unloaded the aluminum boat out of his El camino & took off fishing, when we got back to the truck several hours later we noticed we had left the windows cracked and the cows had licked through the crack and as far as their tongue could reach had destroyed the window / door edge and headliner. His Grandfather was pizzed!

mostly; I would replace 'dumb' with slow+clumsy+persistant.
I have a 2-yo Longhorn bull who will untie knots in rope with his horns.
And yes - anything 'new' will be thoroughly 'analyzed' (licked, chewed, rubbed, tossed about, and finally - mashed into the ground!).

I've found that cows are different in different places. One friend's ranch, the cows are like goats. They will eat the trailer wiring harness off the back of the truck, lick the entire truck, taste anything and everything, eat the vinyl seats off 4 wheelers, destroy game cameras, climb through a 3 or 4 strand barbed wire feeder pen around deer feeders to eat all the corn, eat the timer under the barrel if they can reach it, worst cows to have on a place. Now at another friend's ranch, those cows don't mess with anything. No need for feeder pens, they don't mess with game cameras, if it's left out in the open it's not a problem, those cows are great. There's times they show up while you are in the stand, but they are just grazing and either keep on going or stick around for a while and maybe take a nap. They almost never touch the corn. Maybe once in a blue moon they will hit the timer on a low feeder and damage it. But for the most part, they're pretty good.
My theory behind it is the amount they are fed. The first ranch feeds their cows occasionally. There's plenty to eat, but they want the bales and cubs. They mess with everything. The second ranch feeds their cows regularly. Plenty of hay in the winter, plenty of grass, cubes regularly on a schedule. They're the ones that don't mess with anything that isn't theirs.

They smell you..spray the post/tree whatever you place the camera on with scent free spary..and or use rubber gloves when messing with the camera.