Communing with Cattle
Communing with Cattle: Interpreting animal behavior and sending positive cues.
Livestock and recreationists share the trails on over 130,000 acres of open space in the North Bay and San Francisco Bay Areas, and on all of Solano Land Trust’s properties. These grazing animals serve a valuable purpose on the rangeland, but are often misunderstood. Cattle can be especially imposing to hikers due to their large size.
Venture into the world of animal behavioral science! We will be learning how to read and interpret cattle body language and recognizing how our actions can affect cattle behavior. As Community Scientists, Docents, and SLT staff and volunteers, we can lead the way towards minimizing stress for livestock and recreationists alike. Let’s learn to safely share the trails!
April 30th, Meet at 8:30 am at the Rush Ranch Nature Center; you will be done by 12:30 pm. This activity will be led by Jasmine Westbrook, Solano Land Trust Project Manager. We will begin with a presentation and some discussion, and then we will take to the pastures to try to interpret the behaviors of cattle in the field. Please bring water, sunscreen, and comfortable shoes for the outdoor portion. The walk to the pasture will be easy to moderate difficulty level, depending on where the cattle are.
Please RSVP for this event! Previous events have filled up, and we want to keep the class size small to ensure a quality experience. We want as many people as possible to become more comfortable sharing the trails with cattle, so this class will be offered again in a few months.