Taking stock

December 12, 2022 11:13 AM

When a storm surge swept dozens of wild horses and cattle from the coast of North Carolina, no one expected there to be survivors. Then hoofprints appeared in the sand.

In 2019, Hurricane Dorian caused a storm surge which flooded Cedar Island, North Carolina: an account by J.B. MacKinnon
posted by Rumple (11 comments total)

wow, that is quite a read. I have always thought cows are cute and sympathetic (I do eat them sometimes...) but yeah, this story really brings out the "humanity" of cows in a lovely way.
posted by supermedusa at 11:57 AM on December 12, 2022

wow. Just wow.
posted by Earthtopus at 12:05 PM on December 12, 2022

Thanks for posting this, well written and very interesting. I'm reminded of sections of Oliver Sacks' writing on Temple Grandin, her observations that she feels emotional connection to cattle in how they respond, what they fear, how they are soothed. It is good for us to contemplate other experiences and allow the possibility of myriad beings.
posted by winesong at 1:00 PM on December 12, 2022 [2 favorites]

Really a nice read. Yay cows!
posted by Oyéah at 1:05 PM on December 12, 2022

Noting name J.B. McKinnon for further reading.
posted by Peach at 1:19 PM on December 12, 2022

Today I learned a lot more than I ever expected to about cows.
posted by Greg_Ace at 2:39 PM on December 12, 2022

I don't get why every article questions whether animals have personalities. Cows do, even the food version of them. Spend any time around basically any animal, and they will have moderately unique traits one could describe as a personality. They aren't robots.
posted by The_Vegetables at 2:52 PM on December 12, 2022 [5 favorites]

It's an evolutionary advantage for living things for some of each generation to be bold and some to be meek; there will be individuals who seek new niches to exploit, and individuals who prefer safety to guard against mass misfortune. Taken to the nth degree you get all the wide realms of neurodivergences of humans, but it's all the same from fish to people: genetics and epigenetics and environmental factors making all of the possible bets of "how do we cope with the world" to maximize success for the clade's descendants.

Of course cows have personalities!
posted by seanmpuckett at 3:24 PM on December 12, 2022 [3 favorites]

Thanks for sharing this, what a great read.
posted by lazymuse at 3:38 PM on December 12, 2022

This was fascinating! I wonder how they are doing today? 7, well, 8 cows isn't a lot to restart a population, but I assume their gene pool was probably already pretty restricted and most of the harmful ones eliminated.
posted by tavella at 11:18 PM on December 12, 2022

My new neighbor's dog was once a feral pup out on Cedar Island...now he's a barely not feral old dog that wanders everywhere in the mountains. Ol' Bruce is a wanderer.
posted by schyler523 at 5:10 AM on December 13, 2022