Cattle

[00:00:00] Alex Re: Hello. Welcome to On Wildlife. I'm your host, Alex Re. On this podcast, we bring the wild to you. We take you on a journey into the life of a different animal every week, and I guarantee you, you're going to come out of here knowing more about your favorite animal than you did before. Today, we're heading to the pastures that are home to one of the most familiar and important animals in human history.

[00:00:24] They may be huge, but they really are lovable. So grab your boots and a bale of hay. Because today we're talking about cattle.

[00:00:49] Cattle are members of the bovine family, along with yaks, bison, buffalo, and antelopes. And there are more than 250 different breeds of cattle. Some sources say that there are about a thousand breeds. But similar to dogs, breeds are different from species. It's pretty much agreed upon that all 250 breeds of cattle fall under two species.

[00:01:13] Bose Indicus and Bose Taurus. Depending on where you live in the world, the image that pops up into your head when I say cattle or cow might be different because there are so many different breeds. Because I grew up in the Northeastern United States, I picture a white cow with black spots. That breed is called the Holstein Frisian.

[00:01:36] If you're from the Southwestern U. S., you might be more familiar with the Criollo breed, which is mostly brown and sometimes they have white faces. And if you're from Southeast Asia, you may recognize gray cattle called Zibu. These cattle have large humps on their backs. It's really cool how many different breeds of cattle there are and how they can have huge differences in their characteristics.

[00:02:00] These large mammals are classified as undulates, which just means hoofed animals. They have two toes on each foot, and the toes make up their hooves. And we can actually classify undulates based on how many toes they have. There's four toed undulates, like rhinos, and there's undulates with an odd number of toes, like zebras.

[00:02:22] Mature female cattle are called cows, and males are called bulls. So just in case you didn't know, cows and bulls are the same animal, just different sexes. Young females are called heifers, and young males are called bullocks. Both males and females can grow horns, but some breeds are polled, meaning that they're born hornless.

[00:02:44] Males are also larger than females, and cattle can be massive. Their size depends on their species, but the average mature male weighs between 1, 000 and 3, 500 pounds. 3, 500 pounds is the weight of about seven motorcycles.

[00:03:04] The average female weighs between 800 and 2, 400 pounds. The largest cattle breed is the Chianina, which can be almost six feet tall standing on all fours. Cattle are domesticated animals, so humans have played a major role in defining their characteristics and creating all the different breeds over thousands of years.

[00:03:26] And like all domesticated animals, their ancestors were wild at one point. We've bred them to help us do certain tasks, like carrying and pulling heavy things, and producing milk and meat. All of which have caused some serious harm to these animals, which we'll talk about later. And they're also just kept as pets sometimes, too.

[00:03:47] This process of humans selecting traits for our benefit is called artificial selection. We've been doing it for thousands of years with all different types of plants and animals. Speaking of plants, we'll be right back to talk about what cattle eat.

[00:04:12] Time for our science word of the day. The science word is taxonomy. Taxonomy is how we classify groups of organisms based on how related they are to each other. Now back to the episode.

[00:04:30] Now, you might already know what cattle eat. They're strictly herbivores, meaning they only eat plants. And grass makes up most of their diet. Because they're so big, they need to eat a lot of grass to get the energy that they need. They'll eat around 2 percent of their body weight in grass per day, which comes out to around 24 pounds of food.

[00:04:51] Some sources say that larger cows can eat over 100 pounds of food a day. Only eating grass wouldn't be good for us, but cattle have a really awesome digestive system that's perfect for this diet. First of all, they have a really wide mouth to get the maximum amount of grass at a time. They also don't have any top front teeth.

[00:05:13] The only thing there is a dental pad that helps to rip grass out of the ground. Their back teeth have crescent shaped ridges on them, and in order for all the food to be properly chopped up in their mouth, they have to chew in a circular motion.

[00:05:30] Cattle also have a four chambered stomach. These chambers are called the rumen, the reticulum, the omasum, and the avomasum. The rumen is the largest chamber, and in this section of the stomach, the bacteria break down the plant fibers. The reticulum is a small pouch toward the front chest area of the cow near the heart.

[00:05:52] This is where stuff that's really hard to digest, or not digestible at all, is collected. The omasum is a sack that's used to absorb water from the food. And the abomasum is the closest thing to what our stomach is like. This chamber is lined with glands which release digestive enzymes to break down the remaining food.

[00:06:13] In order to help with the digestive process, cattle also regurgitate and then re chew their food. This is what classifies them as ruminants, which are animals that regularly regurgitate material from their rumen. Other animals that do this include sheep, goats, deer, mice, and giraffes. This is also a pretty good defense mechanism because they can rush out of an area if they're being attacked by a predator and worry about properly breaking down their food later.

[00:06:43] Now, today, cattle don't really have to worry about predators, but humans are really their biggest threat, and they still have a lot of traits that their ancestors had that help them survive in the wild. For example, they actually have really good eyesight and vision. This helps to keep them vigilant and aware of their surroundings.

[00:07:03] Their ancestors could use these senses to identify if there were any threats nearby. Something else that's extremely important in their survival is communication. Cattle are extremely social animals that live in groups called herds. And vocalizations are key in cattle communication. You know they can moo, but they also communicate by bellowing, snorting, and grunting.

[00:07:32] This can tell cattle a lot about other individuals, like how old they are and if they're ready to reproduce. Cows also use these vocalizations to communicate with their offspring. Mothers and their calves have distinct vocal patterns that allow them to recognize each other from the rest of the herd.

[00:07:51] Cattle also have a ton of olfactory glands all over their bodies. Olfactory is the scientific term for smell. They can use these glands to release pheromones as another way to communicate. When one animal gets stressed, other cattle can smell the pheromones and will understand that one of the members of the herd are in distress.

[00:08:12] And cattle can recognize individuals of the herd by smell alone. Cows reach maturity around 2 years old and bulls mature around 7 months old. And cows are pregnant for about nine months before their calf is born, which is about the same amount of time as the human gestation period. Females have udders, which are enlarged mammary glands with four nipples each.

[00:08:38] This allows for increased milk production to feed their young. Their milk has a lot of really important vitamins and nutrients that help with the development of their calves, which is another way to say baby cattle. And naturally, the calves would stay with their mothers for about a year. But depending on the industry that the cows belong to, there are different amounts of time that humans allow their calves to stay with their mothers.

[00:09:03] Dairy cows are immediately separated at birth. This is done to avoid disease transmission and to free up moms for more milk production. Meat cows are allowed to keep their calves for around six to eight months. And this brings in the bad side of human relationships with cows. The overproduction and overcrowding of dairy and meat cattle is cruel to the animals.

[00:09:27] It can really impact their mental health to be taken away from their children so quickly. And sometimes, Cattle are kept in tight pens and stations for milk harvesting. These conditions limit their exercise, nutrition, social interactions, and overall well being. That's why it's always good to do your research when it comes to the products that you buy.

[00:09:49] Maybe even go to a local farm where you can see the conditions that the cows live in yourself, and buy milk from a place where you know they live good lives. You can also buy alternative milks like almond, oat, and soy milk. I personally love oat milk. It's really delicious and good for baking, too. Okay, we're going to take our last break, but I'll be back to talk more cattle in a minute.

[00:10:24] Ready for today's trivia question? What is the largest dog breed?

[00:10:37] It's the Great Dane. They can be around 7 feet tall standing on their hind legs.

[00:10:52] Like I was talking about earlier, cattle are herd animals, and usually when animals live in groups, they're called herders. There's a social hierarchy that they follow. The most dominant is at the top, and the weakest is at the bottom. Younger bulls are typically stronger and challenge the older bulls as they mature.

[00:11:12] Females and their young live in separate groups from the fighting males because they can be extremely aggressive. Hierarchy comes into play when there's not enough resources or space to go around. The ones at the top get to eat first. And something that cattle really don't get enough credit for is that they're extremely intelligent animals.

[00:11:33] They can remember and recognize individual humans, and they're able to determine the differences between relatives and strangers. And probably one of the most telling things is that they have emotional intelligence. There's evidence that they can empathize with each other and they comfort each other during times of stress.

[00:11:53] Their emotions have been known to spread throughout their entire herd and some research shows that the amount of whiteness that's visible in their eyes is an indicator on how intense an emotion is for them. Cattle are able to learn from one another buffering. This means that they're much less likely to show stress when they're in a group.

[00:12:16] There are so many examples of their intelligence, too. They try out different foraging techniques and can remember what led to the best result. And they can also identify which foods are more nutritious for them. They have strong short and long term memories as well. They can remember details for up to six weeks.

[00:12:36] In a study on foraging, the cows involved were able to remember places already foraged in the short term, as well as locations known to have permanent food sources with week long breaks in between. In a maze study testing spatial memory, cows were entered into a maze where they were observed to see if they could correctly select which pathway had the best food source at the end.

[00:13:01] There were eight pathways that the cows could choose from, and the individuals involved in the study had results almost identical to that of rats, which are considered to be one of the smartest animals. They can also discern between objects based on characteristics like shape and color. This ability to discern differences is the basis of all other learning elements.

[00:13:24] And some people that have worked with cattle believe that they're smarter than most cats and dogs. Along with their intelligence, something else that people get wrong about cattle is that they sleep standing up.

[00:13:37] This is not true. Cows need to lie down to sleep just like us. And cow tipping isn't a real thing. Cattle have a really interesting place in the ecosystems, because for the most part they're domesticated, but they still do impact the world around us. They help to keep soil healthy by nutrient cycling.

[00:13:57] They eat the grass and digest it, and their waste has a lot of nutrients that can be used by plants to grow. But cattle also produce over 14 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. When they burp, they release methane that goes into the atmosphere and contributes to climate change. Since cows make up a large portion of livestock numbers across the world, they're making a substantial impact on the environment.

[00:14:25] But of course, it's not really their fault. With increasing food demand, humans need to increase production, which means more and more cattle. As of 2023, there are about 90 million cattle in the United States alone. And of course, they help to feed millions of people every year. As we've learned in this episode, cattle are really cool, smart, emotional animals.

[00:14:51] We domesticated them, but that doesn't mean we should be able to do whatever we want with them. That's why it's important to support organizations that are working to help cattle and other livestock get better living conditions so that they can live happy and healthy lives. And you can also make some changes to your own lifestyle that make the lives of cows a little bit better.

[00:15:12] For example, changing the type of milk that you drink on a regular basis, or just cutting meat out of your diet a couple times a week. And if you want to learn more about how you can help cattle, you should check out the Animal Welfare Institute. The Humane Society of the United States. And the new roots Institute.

[00:15:32] Thank you so much for coming on this adventure with me. As we explored the world of cattle, you can find the sources that we use for this podcast and links to organizations that we reference at on wildlife. org. You can also email us with any questions at on wildlife.podcast at gmail.com. And you could follow us on Instagram at On underscore Wildlife.

[00:15:53] Or on TikTok at On Wildlife. And don't forget to tune in next Wednesday for another awesome episode. And that's on wildlife.

[00:16:08] Jess Avellino: You've been listening to On Wildlife with Alex Re. On Wildlife provides general educational information on various topics as a public service, which should not be construed as professional, financial, real estate, tax, or legal advice. These are our personal opinions only. Please refer to our full disclaimer policy on our website for full details.