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Cow Facts

Cow Facts
Cow is large ungulate that belongs to the family Bovidae. Researchers believe that domestication of cows started 10.500 years ago in Turkey, resulting in creation of around 800 different breeds of cattle that we know today. There are around 1 billion cows in the world today. They are kept on the farms as a source of milk, meat and leather or as draft animals (cows, better known as oxen, that are trained to pull plough in the fields and transport heavy loads).
Interesting Cow Facts:
Cow can reach 8.5 feet in length (including the tail) and around 1200 pounds of weight.
Cow has short coat that can be uniformly colored (white, reddish, black, brown...), or covered with various markings.
Cow has large head with big eyes and flexible ears that can move in all directions. It has massive body, cloven hooves and long tail. Most cows have horns that can be shorter or longer, depending on the variety.
Cow has a visual field of nearly 360 degrees thanks to its big eyes positioned on the lateral sides of the head (it can easily detect predators coming from all directions). Despite excellent eyesight, cow cannot distinguish green and red color.
Cow has excellent sense of smell and hearing (it can detect sounds that human ear cannot).
Cow is a herbivore. Clover and grass are its favorite type of food. Cow consumes 40 to 100 pounds of food per day and drinks 30 to 50 gallons of water. It produces 125 pounds of saliva per day and spends nearly 8 hours in re-chewing of already swallowed food, to prepare it for the final digestion.
Cow is social creature that lives in large herds. It forms close bonds with 2 to 4 members of the group and spends its time with them.
Cow likes to solve various problems (how to open the gate and get the food, for example).
Cow sleeps 4 hours per day on average (during the night). Sleeping position is determined by the current status of the cow in the group.
Cow is emotional creature. It produces more milk when it is happy (satisfied with treatment of its owners). Dairy cow can produce around 70 pounds of milk per day.
Pregnancy lasts 9 months and ends with one baby (or rarely with twins). Cow is affectionate mother that can walk several miles to find her calf.
Calves are fully weaned at the age of 8 to 11 months.
Cow is sacred animal in India. Gopastami is Hindu festival that takes place once per year and celebrates cows, which are washed and decorated especially for that occasion.
After mapping of bovine genome in 2009, it was discovered that humans and cows share 80% of their genes.
Cow can survive more than 20 years, but it usually lives much shorter.


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