[Taxacom] A Fundamental Question for All of You Taxacomers

[Robin Leech]

Fred, Scott and others,

My original statements were that horses tail-end into a severe storm,
and cattle head-end into a severe storm.  The observation by K Kat
that he, too, had seen horses do this over 50 years ago, and that
Scott Fisher observes cattle and bison surviving by head-ending into
a storm, tells me that my observations are valid.

So, it looks like bovids instinctively head-end into a storm - cattle and
bison at least.  Scott's reply suggests that some cattle do tail-end into
storms with terminal results, whereas those cattle that head-end into
a storm survive.  Are we seeing a survival factor here?

Maybe most horses (forget the Shetland Pony sized critters for a few
moments) tail-end in cuz they are taller and more vagile, or can lift their
heads higher - up and out of drifting snow.  Or, perhaps the reason
horses died out in North America is cuz they persisted in tail-ending
into a storm.

Anyway, I guess my question still stand for horses: why tail-end into
a storm.?

Robin

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Frederick W. Schueler" <bckcdb at istar.ca>
Cc: <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>
Sent: Monday, August 17, 2009 7:06 AM
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] A Fundamental Question for All of You Taxacomers


> Scott Fisher wrote:
>> It has nothing to do with heat conservation.  Bison face into the wind
>> to avoid suffocating in snow drifts that would form around their head
>> regions if their asses faced into the prevailing wind.  Ask any
>> cattleman in Wyoming or Montana about what happens to his/her cattle
>> when they face away from the wind...they die.
>>
>> Cattle evolved in a part of the world not prone to the severe blizzards
>> found in the Great Plains of North America.  They do what we all do when
>> wind blows in our faces, turn away....
>
> * but wasn't the original premise of this thread that Cattle face into
> the wind, and Horses face away?
>
> fred (left without any cents worth).
> ------------------------------------------------------------
>            Bishops Mills Natural History Centre
>          Frederick W. Schueler & Aleta Karstad
>       RR#2 Bishops Mills, Ontario, Canada K0G 1T0
>    on the Smiths Falls Limestone Plain 44* 52'N 75* 42'W
>      (613)258-3107 <bckcdb at istar.ca> http://pinicola.ca
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> If we'd been meant to refer to species by made-up vernacular names,
> God wouldn't have created Linnaeus!
> ------------------------------------------------------------
>
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