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But reindeer are the only species in which the females also grow antlers, and an explanation can be found by looking at bovids, a closely related family including antelopes, goats and sheep. Many female bovids have horns, used to defend food or territories from other females.
Males usually have larger horns than females. In some animal families, only males have horns. Animals use their large horns in fights to show their body strength. Some animals may use their horns to dig holes and to scratch their skin.
Both male and female reindeer grow antlers, while in most other deer species, only the males have antlers. Compared to their body size, reindeer have the largest and heaviest antlers of all living deer species. A male's antlers can be up to 51 inches long, and a female's antlers can reach 20 inches.
Horns on cows are not like antlers on deer. Both male and female cattle grow horns and cattle do not shed their horns seasonally.
The female counterpart to a bull is a cow, while a male of the species that has been castrated is a steer, ox, or bullock, although in North America, this last term refers to a young bull.
Heifers share much of their anatomy with other cattle. For example, as with male calves, heifer calves are born with the capability to grow horns, except in hornless breeds. Although cows are known for their udders, heifers do not have visible mammary glands, as the organs develop in response to pregnancy.
For example, male and female cattle (including the many wild versions such as the African Cape Buffalo) and wildebeest (a kind of antelope) have horns, while in most other bovids only the males have horns.
Females (known as ewes) also carry horns, but theirs are shorter and more slender, and only slightly curved.
Jackalopes are not a distinct species of rabbit, they simply are cottontails and jackrabbits afflicted with a rare virus.
They are true bone, are a single structure, and, generally, are found only on males.
Commonly they signify fertility. Horns are identified with the crescent moon, which signifies fertility both in the basic idea of growth and through its association with menstruation.
About 30 percent of cutaneous horns sprout on the face or scalp, with 60 percent of the growths due to benign lesions. The rest are derived from malignant or premalignant epidermal lesions. Horns are equally prevalent in men and women, and are more common — and more malignant — in people between the ages of 60 and 75.
At the root of each antler is a small, bony growth called a pedicle, and every year, antlers grow out of these pedicles. Antlers are made of bone, and covered with "velvet"—a thin, soft layer of skin and blood vessels that gets scraped off the antler over time.
Horned goddess Hathor
Hathor is commonly depicted as a cow goddess with head horns in which is set a sun disk with Uraeus. Twin feathers are also sometimes shown in later periods as well as a menat necklace.
An interior bone, also the extension of the skull, horns are similar to human fingernails. According to the National Park Service, an interior of bone (also an extension of the skull) is covered by an exterior sheath grown by specialized hair follicles, as are your fingernails.
The ram may breed his daughters and dam. Undersized ewe lambs may be bred. Because the times of breeding and lambing will not be not known, it will be difficult to properly time vaccinations, supplemental feeding, and other management practices.
Intersexuality in sheep is rare, with the freemartin anomaly being the most common. We describe here a true hermaphrodite in a wild sheep. An F(1) wild sheep ewe of Argali-mouflon X Mexican desert bighorn breeding was bred to an F(1) ram of the same breeding.
At the Botswana Ministry of Agriculture in 2000, a male sheep impregnated a female goat resulting in a live male offspring. This hybrid had 57 chromosomes, intermediate between sheep (54) and goats (60) and was intermediate between the two parent species in type.
If a cow gives birth to male and female twins, the female calf will never be able to breed. If it's two males, no problem. If it's two females, no problem. But if she gives birth to a male and a female, the female calf is infertile.
All cattle, male or female, naturally grow to have horns. The reason why people think female adult cows don't have horns is that they were removed when they were young. This practice is called dehorning, a process using dehorning tools to remove the horns from the cow's head.
Bulling is a behaviour seen in cattle when one mounts another, usually when one or the other is a female in oestrus (on heat); "bulling" is commonly used as a term for a female in oestrus. Female cattle in oestrus may mount any adult cattle, especially a bull (fertile male) if one is present, but they will also mount ...
A cow will pass on one X chromosome to the calf and a bull will pass on either one X chromosome or one Y chromosome to the calf. This means that the calf will either have XX (two X chromosomes) or XY (one X and one Y chromosome).
A bull that has been castrated is called a steer.
Dehorning is a practice that is done on dairy farms to prevent injury to the animal itself, other herd mates, as well as the people that work with the animals.