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?
Cows, sure. Just don’t startle them or go near their calfs. They’re mostly just curious.
Bulls, only if you have to, but make it quick and stay as far away from them as you can. They’re fiercely territorial and not afraid to show it.
Cows kills more people each year than sharks.
I mean when did you ever here of a cow killing a shark.
We used to rent our farmland to the neighbors for their cows and horses. We would periodically have to go out there and do work on fences and the barn and stuff. I was always told that horses are not to be trusted, but the cows are probably fine.
Take that information and do with it as you will.
If there was a calf or bull around I wouldn’t walk through.
You can yell at them and they might disperse. If they don’t then you’d be able to walk through them.
Cows just don’t like to be startled, that’s about it.
Where would you come across a bull though? I’ve never seen one in a field with cows.
Not really, man. Cows are like people, some of them are just assholes. Cows kill hundreds of people every year. If you don’t know a cow’s temperament, don’t put yourself where it can kill you.
Don’t know anything about this from personal experience, but I thought I heard a report a while back about a fairly large number of hikers in the UK injured or killed by cows. So I’m guessing, not as dangerous as crocodiles but still best to be careful.
Country boy here - cows are pretty harmless most of the time if you leave them alone, they might wander over to have a look, but they’re usually pretty docile. If you don’t want them near you, clapping your hands or making yourself big with your arms and shouting usually makes them go away. I will say that you should absolutely not approach them if there are calves nearby and bulls in general are typically more aggressive, but if you keep a safe distance you should be fine
Apparently they are the UK’s deadliest animal
That’s why we take no chances and mow them down with blue light vehicles.
Wow. Just wow.
Stampede is the most common cause of death for backpack tourists in Australia. It may tempting to jump fences for a little shortcut, but many cows do not tolerate home invaders.
Texan with a Ranch and cows here. They’re VERY curious and goofy and stupid, and scared. Occasionally you’ll have a lone bull in the herd try to intimidate, but they’re scared too. The only thing to watch out for is look down where you walk so you don’t step in poo!
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.
These lived on 1800 acres of wild land. They normally only saw people when we were driving past to get to the ranch house, or when me and my buddy were hiking. Twice a year they were rounded up, branded, counted, and either sold off or let go.
They were rounded up old Western style, by cowboys on horseback, and driven into the pens by the ranch house. It was actually an amazing experience getting to be a part of that as a teenager and young man.
My friend and I would go exploring all over those hills in the summer time, and that’s when the murder cows caught us in the open a few times. Most of the cows didn’t care, but there were a few that we knew by site to run from if we happened upon them. So we’d skedaddle over near a tree or back to the truck if it was close and hope the cow would just wander off and do cow things. It usually just gave us angry looks and bluffs, but a few times it charged us and drove us up the tree. One time we were tree’ed, and were able to scare it off by firing our guns into the air. Good times.
Usually it’s pretty safe except when there are calves on the field. It happens every year that some tourists (especially with dogs) go through a field with calves and their mothers and someone gets injured.
As the UK’s deadliest animal, cows attack between three and four thousand people every year.
An expert has revealed this figure may continue to rise. Between 2018 and 2022, more than 30 people were killed by cows, according to the UK Government’s Health and Safety Executive (HSE).
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/killer-cows-named-uks-most-30956262
Deadliest other animal. There were 602 homicides in England and Wales in 2022/23.
To be fair though, there are way more cows than crocodiles, snakes, sharks or deadly spiders in the UK.
a big factor here is dogs. if you have your pet with you on a lead, and there are calves(baby cows) in the field, sometimes a normally docile cow herd will be very protective of their offspring. generally if there is no dog, cows realise you are not a threat.
In addition to the other comments here: Don’t run near cows. Quite often, they will start running with you, which is very impressive and dangerous at the same time. Cows generally are faster than you for the first few hundred meters at least.
Adding to what the other comments have already said: Don’t bring an unleashed dog on a cow pasture. You’d think that’s common sense, but apparently it’s a bit of a meme in Austria and Switzerland that every few months some German get’s trampled by cows because their totally friendly dog ran towards the cows and they felt threatened.
