Boop.

September 8, 2013 10:36 AM

Sheep teaches young bull to head butt, Terceira Azores
posted by andoatnp (40 comments total)

Yet another video that has me experiencing pangs of guilt for consuming the flesh of these lil' rompsters' kin.
posted by Alonzo T. Calm at 10:45 AM on September 8, 2013 [2 favorites]

The way the sheep backs up... OMG
posted by The otter lady at 10:50 AM on September 8, 2013 [14 favorites]

I wonder if "boop" is in the OED. I've seen this video posted several times on various networks, and people have independently commented "boop." If we all agree this is a boop, then boop should be a thing.

You should also tag this with boop, clearly.
posted by scamper at 10:50 AM on September 8, 2013 [4 favorites]

poum!
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 10:52 AM on September 8, 2013 [13 favorites]

"No- now you do it... See? Like this...now you...you do it...

...Mommmmmm! Ferdinand won't play with me!"
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 10:57 AM on September 8, 2013 [2 favorites]

Man, cattle are DUMB.
posted by KingEdRa at 10:57 AM on September 8, 2013

That poor bull. For the rest of his life the other bulls are going to be pointing and laughing at him and telling him that he headbutts like a sheep. :(
posted by mudpuppie at 10:57 AM on September 8, 2013 [8 favorites]

Next on playlist: Sheep launched into ionosphere by Bull in friendly game of "Boop".
posted by not_on_display at 11:03 AM on September 8, 2013 [4 favorites]

This is clearly a political metaphor of some sort involving Obama, Putin & Syria. Or the UN, the Syrians and Obama. Or Obama, the Senate and Syria. Or Syria, Obama and the EU.

It's clearly a metaphor, just not so clear for what.
posted by chavenet at 11:06 AM on September 8, 2013 [2 favorites]

I'm OK with the OED citing Archer.
posted by zippy at 11:10 AM on September 8, 2013 [4 favorites]

Man, cattle are DUMB.

But sheep are barely animate. All that poor bovine (is it even a bull? it doesn't look like one) wants to do is leave but the stupid ram has mistaken it for a rival and is stuck in that endless "you talking to me??? you want a piece of me??" thing that rams do.

I've seen rams challenge everything from mailboxes to balloons to a duel and they just. won't. stop.
posted by fshgrl at 11:33 AM on September 8, 2013 [15 favorites]

Some poor farmer is going to be very surprised when docile little Ferdinand comes home for dinner and out of nowhere headbutts him into the trough.
posted by oneirodynia at 11:34 AM on September 8, 2013

From the structure of the animal, I'm pretty sure that it's a steer. Steers have a pretty similar shape to unbred females, but I think I saw a penis (hard to tell from the distance/ resolution of the shot).

Sometimes steers will romp around and compete for dominance, or even mount anything that will stand still long enough (mostly females in heat), but acting like this one is just as common. Winning a head butting match is as foreign to this guy as it is to you and me.
posted by GrumpyDan at 11:42 AM on September 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

Sheep teaches attempts to teach young bull to head butt,

1. Dumb Cattle
2. Darwin
3. Tenderloin
4. Profit mmmmmmmmmmmmmm
posted by HuronBob at 12:11 PM on September 8, 2013

Personally, I'm just glad it's a sheep video featured here that's NOT from New Zealand!
posted by maupuia at 12:15 PM on September 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

Dudes, you need to watch this video of a baby goat headbutting puppies.
posted by subtle-t at 12:28 PM on September 8, 2013 [16 favorites]

It's funny because even if the ram is actually challenging this dude, it looks like on some level he realizes his "rival" doesn't know how this whole dueling thing works. Like, "aaargh, I'm running at you, I'm running at you, I'm runnnokay, so, this is the part where you would put your head down. No, not away, down. No no, you're doing it wrong, see, like this. Okay that was a mulligan, I'll give you another shot, let's try it again. Aaaaargh I'm running at you running running running okay god damn it, see, you put your head down and a little forward"
posted by en forme de poire at 12:39 PM on September 8, 2013 [23 favorites]

Metafilter: I think I saw a penis 
posted by littlesq at 1:22 PM on September 8, 2013 [4 favorites]

A long time ago, I used to work in a dairy farm where the farmer was raising a young male calf for servicing cows in the future. Cattle, sheep and goats, particularly when young, are very playful. They don't play fetch like dogs but they do love to headbutt for fun, so the calf and I would play headbutt in the field. I'd put my hands on his forehead, push a little and he would push back gently, like the sheep in the video. He was about 60-70 kg so we were more or less of matching strength. Then I left the farm for a few months. When I came back, the calf still wanted to headbutt, except that he was now a 200-300 kg young bull, and one doesn't play headbutt with an animal who can trample you, even in a friendly way, so I had to decline.
posted by elgilito at 1:48 PM on September 8, 2013 [11 favorites]

In handy GIF form
posted by exogenous at 2:03 PM on September 8, 2013 [5 favorites]

Heard after a wild Doors concert: Where's the cow with the penis!!!
posted by localroger at 2:44 PM on September 8, 2013

Dammit littlesq, I was about to do that :-(

Sheep are so dumb. Goats are much better.

My dad once tried to rear sheep to keep the grass down in our compound but the males would keep duelling with each other, and then be mysteriously found dead next morning. Plus they used to go missing at Eid.
posted by glasseyes at 3:03 PM on September 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

"Like, 'aaargh, I'm running at you, I'm running at you, I'm runnnokay, so, this is the part where you would put your head down. No, not away, down. No no, you're doing it wrong, see, like this. Okay that was a mulligan, I'll give you another shot, let's try it again. Aaaaargh I'm running at you running running running okay god damn it, see, you put your head down and a little forward'"

Okay, I'm this close to stablizing the video and captioning it with your text. This close.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 3:24 PM on September 8, 2013

If somebody could dub the appropriate truck-backing-up and poum sounds in the right places I would be ever so grateful.
posted by Space Kitty at 5:41 PM on September 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

Oh, and hoof noises. That would be the best.
posted by Space Kitty at 5:41 PM on September 8, 2013

My dad once tried to rear sheep.....

I'm not sure what to say about this...
posted by HuronBob at 5:57 PM on September 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

I wonder if "boop" is in the OED

Just checked ... it is not.
posted by anothermug at 7:17 PM on September 8, 2013

The way the sheep backs up reminds me of football punters.
posted by anothermug at 7:17 PM on September 8, 2013

young bull

Sadly, the follow up video to this will require the all too apt 'gore warning.'
posted by Ghidorah at 7:21 PM on September 8, 2013

That didn't look like a ram at all to me. I thought it might be one of the 2 year lambs/ fat lambs. You know, the fat and fluffy ones that look like fully grown sheep but are still kinda playful and boisterous.

Anyway, that is seriously cute stuff - it reminded me of when my childhood dog had puppies and she spent a morning teaching them how to bark. She would bark and the pups: 1) ran away in fright; 2) recovered their equilibrium and got curious; 3) started a chorus and answer of adult bark/ puppy bark.

(don't worry, she got spayed after that and the pups all went to good homes! I promise none of them went to "a farm", though one of them actually did go to a proper farm. I saw it there!)
posted by Alice Russel-Wallace at 7:35 PM on September 8, 2013

That poor bull. For the rest of his life the other bulls are going to be pointing and laughing at him and telling him that he headbutts like a sheep. :(--mudpuppie

Yeah, they laughed...once. Then the bull backed up all the way to the other end of the pen, and charged, building up speed and power, until 'POW', knocking the shocked bull right through the fence. Now he's a legend. And his coach, his boyhood friend, the ram, looks over in pride. "I knew he'd get it eventually."
posted by eye of newt at 8:37 PM on September 8, 2013 [4 favorites]

This is lovely. I especially like how the bull starts to wander off, the sheep gives him a couple of nips, and then, amazingly, the sheep accelerates the training by performing two runs quickly, to keep his interest. Top stuff.
posted by turbid dahlia at 10:02 PM on September 8, 2013

My favourite bit is right at the beginning where the sheep does the incredibly slow-mo headbutt. It looks so affectionate and adorable.
posted by Alnedra at 12:13 AM on September 9, 2013 [1 favorite]

I keep sheep here on my smallholding and have two rams/males, one is about 6 months old and the other is 3 years old. The young one loves to butt and is constantly challenging his siblings and older ewes to contests. He's just trying out his new horns and fulfilling the natural instinct to dominate the flock but its still very much a play thing. During their first month of life all the lambs would butt each other, males usually instigating but females joining in too. We castrate the boys after a few weeks and the instinct dies off but the ram we left intact carries on. As his horns grow so to does his butting behaviour. The older ewes have horns also and are more his size so he now butts them in the manners shown in the video. He'll square up to them, nose to nose, "touch gloves" as it were and then back off for a little momentum. The moms have less tolerance for his actions however and return the force with just a little more aggression, it becomes clear to him that with them it's not play and he's learning just what the behaviour really means within the flock (dominance, power, respect). The trick is, a good butting is like tango, it takes two. I guess to avoid injury the clash of heads are always well timed with each ram adjusting their speed and thrust to meet the opposing force perfectly. In the video the cow just isn't playing the game right and its brilliant to see the sheep try in vain to get it done according to the rules. What's interesting to me is how instinctual the activity is. The older ram I have will butt anything that appears in a very specific point and distance in his vision e.g. I can move my hand around in front of him without fear but there is a sweet spot of space about a foot away from his nose that if I enter he will automatically lower his head and butt. There's a tree in his field he gets into contests with just because it has a woody knot at a certain height, he'll walk past and suddenly take offence at the thing and spend the next hour teaching it a lesson. The big ol cow here seems to have her head lowered into that space and nature just takes over. Thankfully I've only been on the receiving end once and it was VERY painful, with horns like a Tauntaun you soon learn to treat the butting beasts with plenty respect.
posted by Callicvol at 12:45 AM on September 9, 2013 [8 favorites]

My dad once tried to rear sheep.....

I'm not sure what to say about this...

Is the North American term different? Do you say 'raise sheep'?
posted by glasseyes at 6:29 AM on September 9, 2013

"Oh for fuck's sake, you are so not getting this. Ok, look I'm going to back up, I'm going to charge, and then all you have to do is put your head down and step forward. Right? Good? Allrighty, 1... 2... 3 What the hell was that? You have to put your head down. Like this. No, LIKE THIS. Ok, here let's just stand here for a minute or two, in the proper butting position. Good, got it? Your head goes here, and then you step forward. Ready? 1...2.... What the heck are you doing turning away? Face me, put your head down.. (sigh) and sheep get grief for being the dumb ones. That's ok, we've got all day. Let's go again. 1...2..."

Great title. It's exactly the sound I was thinking of.
posted by quin at 7:34 AM on September 9, 2013

I had a pet goat in high school. (To be clear, I was in high school. Not the goat.) When he was a wee little kid, we would play headbutt: I would push on his head with my hands, and he would push back, straining in vain to knock me over. It was cute.

He was a Nubian goat. When he was mostly grown, he was HUGE. I'm 6'4" or so, and standing on his hind legs he could drop his front feet on my shoulders and look down at me. He was castrated, but still loved to play headbutt. At this age, it took all my strength to push him back; my full weight shoving forward, both arms, legs locked, and here he was just bracing his legs and pushing forward with his head. No contest. He was strong.

It was a really fun game, right up until the time he butted my grandmother off the porch...
posted by caution live frogs at 7:47 AM on September 9, 2013 [2 favorites]

Is the North American term different? Do you say 'raise sheep'?

The old-fashioned traditional version in America says that you raise animals, but you rear children. Not that this is any less awkward.

That's fallen into disuse though.
posted by parliboy at 9:32 AM on September 9, 2013

I spent an hour or so with Audition and Premiere adding in backing-up beeps and "boops" (from Archer). This was hilarious when I began, I was laughing each time I looped a few seconds in order to get the timing right. By the time I got to about one minute into the two minute video, it wasn't as funny anymore and it started to get tedious. Also, dinner.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 9:41 AM on September 9, 2013 [2 favorites]

glasseyes: "My dad once tried to rear sheep.....

I'm not sure what to say about this...

Is the North American term different? Do you say 'raise sheep'?"

"Tupp" is the term I'm familiar with...

Er, um...
posted by IAmBroom at 1:23 PM on September 10, 2013