Cattle descend from the aurochs, a wild ox tamed about 10,500 years ago, and today there are more than 940 million of them worldwide. In the U.S. you'll most often see Angus, the country's most numerous beef breed, and black-and-white Holsteins, its most common dairy breed.
Appearance
- Appearance
- Large, heavy-bodied animals with split (cloven) hooves. Horns are unbranched and are not shed each year. Bulls are larger than cows; a British Hereford cow weighs about 1,300–1,800 lb (600–800 kg), and a bull about 2,200–2,650 lb (1,000–1,200 kg).
Look-alikes
American bisonBos bison
Bison have a shoulder hump, a massive head and front end, a shaggy dark-brown coat (longest in winter), and short, curved horns on both sexes. Cattle lack the hump and have a smoother coat.
Why they get mixed upBoth are large, horned grazers, and bison are also raised on private ranches for meat. First-generation bison–cattle crosses often look just like pure bison.
Where it lives
- Typical habitats
- Pastures
- Ranches
- Dairy farms
- Feedlots
- Range
- Raised on farms and ranches around the world; India, Brazil, and China have the most cattle. Some places, often small islands, have herds that live without human care.
Behavior
- Diet
- Grazers that chew . Their four-chambered stomach holds microbes that break down tough grass, and they bring food back up to chew it again.
- Social life
- Herds have a pecking order kept up with mock fights, licking, and threat displays. Cattle recognize one another and can remember where food was for weeks. They sleep about 4 hours a day, lying down for deep sleep.
- Senses
- With eyes on the sides of the head, cattle see almost all the way around (about 330°), but their two-eyed depth vision is narrow. They see a limited range of colors. Smell matters a lot in their social lives.
Life cycle
- Gestation
- About 9 months.
- Lifespan
- About 25–30 years naturally, though most farm cattle are kept for far less time.
Name and classification
- About the name
- Humped zebu cattle are treated by some as a subspecies of cattle (Bos taurus indicus) and by others as a separate species (Bos indicus). Cattle can interbreed with bison, yaks, gaur, and banteng.
- Varieties and forms
- More than 1,000 breeds exist. Common U.S. breeds include Angus (beef) and Holstein (dairy).
Conservation
- IUCN Red List
- NENot EvaluatedNot yet assessed
- Threats
- Cattle themselves are not at risk. Their digestion releases methane, a greenhouse gas, and overgrazing can reduce the variety of plants and wildlife on rangeland.
Culture and stories
- Culture and stories
- In the U.S., black and red Angus are registered as separate breeds; red-coated calves can't be registered as American Angus.
More species to explore
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