Flying cows

I think everybody felt a little sorry for the now famous cows which were stranded on the little island of grass which was left from their meadow after the earthquake in New Zealand. Although we heard that they are safe again, I — and maybe some of you as well — wondered how they were rescued. First, I thought they might have walked down guided by their farmer. However, I found out that it is physically impossible for cows to walk down steep hills because they cannot coordinate their legs and their weight well enough. Moreover, I found it interesting that this fact seemed to be a very present problem of farmers all over the world, which is why special stairs for cows have been built. As the steps’ length is adjusted to the physiology of cows, they are the only way to make the animal walk down safely. If you want to see a cow using such a stair “live in action” follow the link: http://web.de/magazine/wissen/kuehe-treppen-hinuntergehen-30781960

Although I found this quite interesting I think it is very unlikely that especially this farmer from New Zealand happened to have one of these special stairs. Most of the times cows get rescued by helicopters. Of course they are way too big to go inside a normal helicopter which is why there is a special kind of harness which can be put around the cow’s tummy and stabilises the animal like that. You can see what it looks like in the picture. There is also a video worth watching which shows a flying cow — in the harness of course. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4a9cV_PD4k4

Although it may not be very relaxing for an animal to be transported like that I think it is a great invention to rescue them and I hope the cows back in New Zealand already forgot their adventure and got an extra portion of hay from their farmer as well.