January 28, 2009

Bovine Orientation

cows_01

I went and took a look at them cows over off Mount Hope Road, and they seemed to be pointing kinda northerly, though whether it was magnetic north or geographic north, I couldn’t say.

cows_02

If I’d had my compass in the car, maybe I could have snuck up on a cow and tested her.

cows_03

But I can’t recall how many degrees of declination there are between magnetic and true north here where the cows and I live, so it looks as though I may have to seek grant funding for my research.

posted by in animals, intelligence, nature, science | * | 15 comments 

comments

  1. Lucy Foley on January 28th, 2009 at 5:27 pm

    If you include a saxophone player in the project I think we can get money from the NEA.

  2. Sheila Ryan on January 28th, 2009 at 5:38 pm

    In which direction you think we should point the saxophone player?

    (Answer: In the direction of the funding.

    Ooh. Where’s that rubber chicken?)

  3. Dave Vogt on January 28th, 2009 at 5:41 pm

    It might be unwise to sneak. It kind of seems predatory. Your best bet is to approach slowly but directly and let her know you’re coming.

  4. Sheila Ryan on January 28th, 2009 at 5:49 pm

    You’re right, Dave. She might think I was a coyote or even a cougar, and that could wreak havoc with her sense of direction.

  5. Lucy Foley on January 28th, 2009 at 5:56 pm

    She might get flighty? http://tinyurl.com/d44jzu

  6. Sheila Ryan on January 28th, 2009 at 6:09 pm

    No! Get out! A cat that big prowling the Bristol environs?

  7. Lucy Foley on January 28th, 2009 at 6:13 pm

    It was the whole thing of the male ostrich killing himself by banging his head into a fence to get at the sexy emus that I found moving.

  8. Sheila Ryan on January 28th, 2009 at 6:36 pm

    “Sadly, from the Africa area, Oscar could still see the emus [in the 'Australasia' section of the zoo to which they'd been moved].”

    And so he brained himself out of thwarted love. For not one, but two emus.

    That is poignant.

    Hell, it’s the stuff of opera.

  9. Phil Bebbington on January 28th, 2009 at 6:39 pm

    I am generally scared of anything big enough to hurt me, should it stand on me. That includes humans.

    I’d just like to add the headless Ostrich is nothing to do with me!

  10. Sheila Ryan on January 28th, 2009 at 7:42 pm

    But, Phil, if we read about any ostriches decapitated up near Glasgow, you might prepare yourself for some close questioning about where you’ve been traveling lately.

  11. Dave Vogt on January 28th, 2009 at 9:01 pm

    Are you a cougar, Sheila?

    ;-D

  12. Amy Mabli on January 28th, 2009 at 9:46 pm

    I think Sheila is a cougar from the Ministry of Burlesque Academy!

  13. Cooper Renner on January 28th, 2009 at 10:58 pm

    Squire Dale gets harassed by his bull in Small House at Allington.

  14. Sheila Ryan on January 29th, 2009 at 1:10 am

    I’m a top predator, and I do have a taste for veal.

  15. Phil Bebbington on January 29th, 2009 at 4:46 am

    Sheila – would that be Veal from mainland Europe or the much kinder English variety?