Just 12 days ago, a family of Scottish cattle arrived from Crvenka na Palić, as a gift from a farm that keeps them as pets. A black male born in 2019, with a brown female born in 2020 and their young. They quickly became the favorites of all the employees, because of their shaggy hair and bangs that cover their eyes. Visitors can see them in the outlet to the right of the pedestrian bridge, with alpacas, along with Podolian cattle and lemurs.
Scottish cattle are a rural mountain breed of cattle. It has long horns and long curly hair. There are two types – the smaller island type, which is mostly black in color, and the larger land type, which is usually brownish in color. The coat color can vary between red, black, brown, yellow, white and gray.
These cattle have an unusual two-layer coat – the outer one has a greasy coat (the longest of all cattle), which covers a woolly undercoat. Because of this, they are well adapted to mountain conditions where there are heavy rains and strong winds. This also makes them less heat tolerant compared to other cattle. Their skill in finding food allows them to survive on steep mountains, where they feed on plants that other livestock avoid, and dig through the snow with their horns to find snow-covered plants. They have a clearly structured hierarchy that reduces aggression in the herd. Dominance of an individual depends on age and sex, where older ones are more dominant than younger ones, and males are more dominant than females.
They reproduce throughout the year, but most often in May and June. The first young female is kidnapped at the age of 2-3 years. Pregnancy lasts about 277-290 days. Mostly one young calf, but twins are also possible. They reach sexual maturity at 18 months. Females are known to mate even after the age of 18, so they can give birth to up to 15 or more calves during their lifetime.