City boy checking in.
So, this one time out on a hike in a semi-rural area, the trail opened out on a grassy riverbank kind of place, and there were a dozen or so cows between me and the path onwards.
Now, I mostly grasp which end of a cow the grass goes in, but that’s about my limit; I have no real idea how they operate IRL.
I ended up carefully edging my way past them and gave them as much space as I possibly could, and got extremely stared at by all of them, who probably thought I was nuts.
Just out of curiosity - how careful did I need to be? Can you just like walk through the middle of them, or would that be asking for trouble?
I grew up visiting my friend’s family’s cattle ranch all the time. The mean ones up there were cows, not bulls. There were a couple that you didn’t want to get caught in the open with. I was chased up a tree a few times. Some cows just want to see the world burn.
Lmao, interesting. I was just there this week and repaired something close to the fence. All of them, about ~50, came over to watch. I wonder if it’s a breed thing? And you’re sure they came at you to be mean, and not come see what you were doing?
Oh yes. Cow body language is very different when they’re curious and when they intend to cause you harm. These ones wanted us wiped from the face of the earth, or at least wiped from their line of sight.
Edit: I should point out that these were free range beef cattle in the foothills, so they’re a lot less friendly than your average dairy cow. They would only see people a few times per year, and they never liked what they got when people came around, so they likely had pretty negative associations with humans.
Ohhh OK, these are beef cows as well. I don’t know at what point they’re free range, they have 100s of acres, but they see humans all the time.
