Lafone

Shetland cow calf , ZSL Whipsnade, UK

  • Media owner Lafone
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Shetland cow calf Petal born to mother Poppy in the farm area at ZSL Whipsnade. A small, resilient and hardy breed of cow, Shetlands declined to less than 40 animals in the 50's before being revived in the 1980s with around 800 breeding cows registered now.
A lovely breed that I have thought about acquiring in the near future for conservation grazing purposes due to their relatively small stature but stoic hardiness.

Out of interest with the high birth rates in livestock in the farmyard areas of zoos, I'm guessing surplus lambs, kids etc may get moved on to another collection if significant to the breed's conservation but slaughtered like most other livestock? I am aware that in Germany some are processed on site and fed back to the zoos' carnivores.
 
@Prochilodus246 yes a sturdy and easy to handle breed by all accounts.

These come from a farm specialising in rare breeds including Shetlands as part of a partnership and Poppy will have arrived in calf l, so they can either stay on site or be returned.

There’s no bull at Whipsnade so there isn’t likely to be an excess. As the calf is a female she may well be added to the breeding stock given the fairly low number of breeding females.
 

Media information

Category
ZSL Whipsnade Zoo
Added by
Lafone
Date added
View count
242
Comment count
5
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Image metadata

Device
SONY ILCE-1
Aperture
ƒ/5.6
Focal length
600.0 mm
Exposure time
1/640 second(s)
ISO
400
Flash
Off, did not fire
Filename
whip28thmarch2025sheltland2.jpg
File size
15.7 MB
Date taken
Fri, 28 March 2025 3:07 PM
Dimensions
8640px x 4218px

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