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Breed: Watusi:
- The Watusi has the biggest horns -- the horns' spread can reach up to 8 feet across, and the
diameter of the horns at the base can be as large as 8 inches.
- The average bull weighs about 2,000 pounds and the average cow, 1,500.
- The average bull stands about 5 feet high at the withers (excluding hump), and the cow, about
4 1/2 feet.
- Usually a Watusi is red-and-white skewbald, but all colors and patterns can occur, including
black, brown, yellow, grey, and white.
- Watusi have long legs, a slanting rump, and a very long tail.
- They have a small hump in the shoulder area.
- Watusi are heat, drought, and insect tolerant.
- They can withstand droughts because when they digest grass, they extract almost all the water
out of their food.
- Watusi prefer to stick together. At night they lie down in a close-knit sleeping group called
a glum.
- The Watusi are descended from the Ankole, a cattle native to the central African region that includes
Barundi, Rwanda, and Zaire.
- Their colorful patterns and long horns resulted from selective breeding techniques.
- The Watusi was imported to the United States in the 1960s by way of Sweden.
- Watusi are considered a rare breed of cattle.
Those are some horns!
Source:
A Field Guide to Cows
, by John Pukite, Falcon Press,
Helena, Montana, 1996, pp. 38-39.
Photos from the Rollins Cattle Company
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