This kind of sleep is easily interrupted and allows them to be aware of their surroundings. Most of their “sleeping” is very light-more what we would consider a very relaxed state. The sleeping habits of cattle developed when they were prey animals hunted by predators. Read the related article, originally published in Skeptic magazine issue 20.1 (1999).Ĭartoon panel 2: Cows don’t sleep for hours at a time like people do. Where in the world did this strange idea come from? It turns out that the story comes from Europe and it’s been around for at least 2000 years. One of the oddest parts of the cow tipping story is the claim that a cow sleeps standing up “on locked legs” that are so ridged and unbending that it can be easily pushed over. In a 1725 copper etching, huntsmen approach a moose felled by epilepsy. Why People Who Know About Cows Think That the Cow Tipping Story is Largely an Urban LegendĬartoon panel 1 (top of this article): There is no such thing as a cow “locking its legs.” They don’t have to because cows sleep lying down (people may be confusing them with horses which do sleep standing up). But you will probably find that you don’t have to ask very many people to find someone who absolutely swears they tipped cows over exactly the way it’s described in the cartoon above. Anyone who has ever worked closely with cows knows that almost every statement in the cow tipping story is false (as we will explain below). We call this the most urban (city-like) of all Urban Legends because it’s a story believed by city folk, although farm people have been known to tell it as a tall tale. The following article, written for children, is from Junior Skeptic # 5 on Urban Legends, published in Skeptic magazine issue 7.2 (1999).
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