🐾 Cow

Cow

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Who it is

• Scientific name: Bos taurus
• Family & relatives: A domestic farm animal in the cattle family, related to wild bison, buffalo, and yaks.
• How to spot it: A large, gentle farm animal with a broad body, a long tail, and often a black-and-white or brown coat.

Its body & abilities

• Size: About 1.3 to 1.5 m tall at the shoulder.
• Weight: Usually about 500 to 700 kg (1,100 to 1,500 lb).
• Body & adaptations: It has a special four-part stomach that lets it digest tough grass and hay.
• Top speed: Usually calm and slow, but a cow can trot and even gallop for short stretches.
• Strength: A strong, heavy animal; oxen, which are grown male cattle, have long helped people pull carts and plows.
• Senses: Good smell and hearing and wide, nearly all-around vision to watch for anything nearby.
• Growing up: A calf can stand and walk within hours of birth, drinks its mother's milk, and grows up over about two years.

Where it lives

• Habitat: Lives on farms and in green pastures and grassy fields.
• Where in the world: Raised by people on farms all around the world.
• Territory: Grazes in the pasture and field its farm provides, often with a herd.

What it eats

• Diet: A plant eater that grazes on grass and hay and drinks lots of fresh water every day.
• Favorite foods: Grass, hay, and grains, chewed slowly as cud through the day.
• How it hunts: Not a hunter; a grazing farm animal that eats plants all day.

How it behaves

• How it moves: Walks and trots on four sturdy legs and can swim if needed.
• When it is active: Active by day, grazing in the morning and evening and resting to chew its cud in between.
• Family life: A very social herd animal that likes the company of other cows and forms friendships.
• How it talks: Moos, grunts, and body language help cows keep in touch with the herd and their calves.
• Babies: After about nine months a mother usually has one calf, which she licks clean and feeds with milk.

Its place in nature

• Role in nature: On the farm it gives milk and helps care for the land; long ago its ancestor was the wild aurochs.
• Conservation: A common domestic animal, so it is not counted for conservation, though its wild ancestor is gone.
• Dangers: Cows stay healthy with clean water, good grass, shelter, and regular care from farmers and vets.

Life & legacy

• How long it lives: Farm cows often live about 15 to 20 years.
• In our culture: One of the most important farm animals in history, honored in many cultures and stories around the world.
• Where to see it: On farms, at petting zoos, and at country fairs.
• Fun fact: A cow brings up food from its stomach to chew again as cud, and can chew for up to eight hours a day.