"James Gassaway" <dtravel@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:479562b6$0$36372$742ec2ed@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Gene Ward Smith wrote:
>> Joe Negron <jnegron@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in news:479540b3$0$36350
>> $742ec2ed@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>>
>>> Right, it seems the show is based on a book by Alan Weisman called
>>> "The World Without Us" which speculates on the future of Earth
>> without
>>> humans, such as what would happen to all the infrastructure
>>> and buildings (and which would last the longest), what would
>>> happen
>> to
>>> various animals (such as the cow who he says would go extinct
>>> because they're large, slow moving animals without much self
>>> defense), etc.
>>>
>>
>> I guess Weisman would be willing to do a bullfight without bothering
>> with a sword. Good luck. The fact is, just because we've domesticated
>> an animal doesn't mean they can't become feral, and domesticated
>> animals can and do; that includes cattle.
>>
>> Cattle are so widely distributed I would guess they would survive in
>> some areas far from their original habitat, though animals better
>> adapted to local conditions would eventually edge them out in a lot
>> of places--there aren't many bison in the American west now, but in
>> the end I imagine they would win out, for instance.
>
> I think it would depend a lot on what type of cow. Milk cows are
probably
> SOL but long-horn cattle I suspect would do just fine.
>
> --
A "milk cow" (breed, Holstein, Jersey etc) that grows up untouched is no
different from any other cow that grows up that way. Breeds with the horns
bred out would probably not last. All the slow and stupid would die
quickly,
leaving the superior animals to breed. A cow is a big, strong animal, and
pretty damn able to defend itself. In fact, there's no serious differnce
between a Cape Buffaloe, an American Bison, and and that docile little
Bossy
the 4-H kid is leading around at the county fair.
The breed distinctions we see now would probably disappear over time, but
you could expect bovines to cover the grasslands, just like they did 150
years ago in North America and Africa.
Probably more, since they been adapted to forest and mountain living,
where
they didn't occur naturally.
The big question, is how long those grasslands can last. In the American
West, introduced plant species (noxious weeds) like Leafy Spurge,
Knapweeds,
Skeleton Weed, cheatgrass and a bunch of other low food value, sometimes
poisonous, plants outcompete native grasses and other species. How long
would it take animals to adapt to that? That wasn't deat with in the show,
but it's a real concern.
Eventually the dominant species may be goats.
Wild sheep and goats aren't a particulary easy meal for a predator,
either.
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