Do cows have a sense of humour?

Question: Do cows have a sense humour?
Answer: Yes, yes they do. Here's the evidence:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/oxfordshire/8259363.stm

 

:lollol: 2 funny

 

They were after the dog obviously. I had a run in with a cow the other week while in the lakes. I was walking my German Shepherd along the lake shore of Lake Coniston. The herd of cattle were up the field but then a cow with a young calf suddenly appeared from behind a tree. She suddenly lunged at us and I thought "I am going to have to release the dog and run for it"
Poppy, my dog did not bark but just turned to the rushing cow and snarled, showing her 2 inch fangs and it stopped in its tracks. I know she is a dominant dog and a few minutes before she had intimidated some bullocks into running away by just staring at them but it surprised me that the cow stopped.
When I had walked past before and the bullocks had followed us I had thought of that guy chased into the river. There have been a few dog walkers killed by cattle recently. The farmers I know seem very aware how dangerous they can be. One told me that it is often not because they are malicious but once the herd starts running the ones at the back push the others forward and people get knocked over and trampled.

 

Many years ago in the late 60s when I was working in Worcester, we had a house on the side of the Great Malvern. It was on one of six new house either side of a farm lane and there were fields beyond our back garden. In the autumn I'd take the kids along the hedgerows collecting blackberries (we knew the farmer). Quite often the herd of young heifers in a field would rush over to us, but they were just curious and always stopped a few yards from us.

Digressing, our two sons then three and eight years old were friends with the farmer's children and went regularly up to the farm, to "help out." It was only 100 yds down the lane. During the week-days all the kids were at school except our youngest. He had a "job" given him by the farmer in the afternoons. He brought the cows in for milking. His mum would tell him when it was time and he'd take his stick and go down the side lane next to our back garden and take the cows up to the milk parlour. The farm's sheep dog would be waiting for him. In truth the dog brought the cows in, well any that were reluctant to go but the dog couldn't open the gate, so needed help from our child, he and the dog would walk down the lane following the cows. He'd then come home and wait for the cows' return. Most would make their own way back to the field, but the dog would again be present. Once my wife had seen the cows passing the kitchen window, she sent our son out and he'd close the gate. The dog would wait until he'd seen the gate close, then he'd go back up to the farm.

If my wife and he needed to go out shopping, she tried to avoid going out in the afternoons but if the dog got no response from barking at our door, he'd go back to the farm and "tell" the farmer.

 

No idea if they have any sense at all. I used to go out for an evening walk down our lane. I stopped by a filed gate for some reason and did not notice the field was full of cows. One of them must have been stood by the gate. It gently blew down my ear. Believe me, in the pitch dark, that was scary. Did not need a laxative that night I can tell you.
Reckon she went back to her mates and said "Did you see that? I put the fear of God into that human!"

 

Palustris, I love that story, it is so funny

A few years ago my mate saw a documentary about how domestic cows still have their wild instincts, one of which is to defend a sick or weak member of the heard from predators by forming two circles around them - an inner circle facing the sick animal and an outer circle facing out watching for predators. The documentary said that cows even do this for other animals that have befriended the herd.

While out walking, my mate decided to put this to the test. He went into a field of cows and stroked and patted some of them, then in a very theatrical fashion, clutched his chest, made some grunting noises, then fell over and played dead. For a minute or so the cows just looked at him, then sure enough the whole herd started to gather in formation. Within a couple of minutes they'd made two circles around him, with those on the inner circle sniffing him and nudging him with their noses. Satisfied that his experiment was concluded, he stood up normally. I swear the cows had an expression of shock and bewilderment on their faces, and they all turned to watch as he just calmly walked away.

 

:lollol:

 

Well, the one next door has. I told her that one of the planks had come off her fence and she asked when I was going to nail it back on:(:lollol:

 

A few years back I was driving back from a campsite with the caravan on the back, so i had this big white scarey thing behind my car. It was a wide enough road for cars to pass each other but not too wide and a fairly busy road. I then noticed some fairly young but biggish cattle running ahead and some overtaking oncoming cars so I stopped. As they approached I realised that they were being herded along, all 2 dozen of them, by a woman in a van at the back but with no one at the front. They slowed and approached cautiously the big white scarey thing. Then my German Shepherd in the back spotted them and started sounding off. The cattle stopped and then turned round. But the woman in the van was stopping them going back so we ended up with a situation where cattle were coming forward turning round, going back turning round again and they started going faster. It was like the magic roundabout for about 5 minutes with cattle running round in a tight circle in the middle of the road. A couple then decided to climb up the steep hedge bank and jump the hedge but did not quite make it, so we had the magic roundabout in the road and two cows on top of a hedge with their legs stuck fast on either side.
Eventually the farmer rolled up in a landrover and i wound down my window and apologised for my dog.
He replied that it was not my fault but the fault of the silly cow in the van. They cleared the road by moving the cows into a nearby field but I never did find out how they got the two cows off the top of the hedge bank.

 

last year i was out for a run on the bicycle. cycling along the woodland edge i heard the noise of police cars in the distance coming from the main road.
on reaching the main road there were police cars coming from all over the place, i thought it was a bank robbery or something of that ilk
then i saw it ,a big black and white cow running about the road! it had escaped from the field. the scene was like something from the keystone cops.the cow would run round the back of the housing flats with the police in pursuit about 8 police on foot, 4 chasing the cow , the other 4 trying to head it off in the other direction. the 8 police would disapear behind the flats then the old cow would come running round the building with 8 police in chase!!this went on for ages. a large crowd had gathered and were falling around with laughter i wish i had my camera with me.it would have been a hit on " you tube". :hehe: music.