'Panda Cow' PICTURE: Rare Animal Born In Colorado

CAMPION, Colo. — A rare miniature cow with markings similar to a panda bear was born on a farm in northern Colorado.

The so-called "panda cow" born in Larimer County is thought to be one of only about 24 in the world.

The (Loveland) Reporter-Herald reports the male calf named Ben was born Friday morning. His mother is a Lowline Angus cow.

Farmer Chris Jessen raises miniature cattle and also owns a miniature kangaroo on his hobby farm.

The miniature panda cow is the result of genetic manipulation. A white belt encircles the animal's midsection, and the cow has a white face with black ovals around the eyes, giving it a panda-like appearance.

The mini-cattle are bred solely as pets. Jessen says panda calves can sell for $30,000.

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Information from: Loveland Daily Reporter-Herald, http://www.reporterherald.com/

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

CAMPION, Colo. (AP) – A rare miniature cow with markings similar to a panda bear was born on a farm in northern Colorado.

The so-called "panda cow" born in Larimer County is thought to be one of only about 24 in the world.

The (Loveland) Reporter-Herald reports the male calf named Ben was born Friday morning. His mother is a Lowline Angus cow.

Farmer Chris Jessen raises miniature cattle and also owns a miniature kangaroo on his hobby farm.

The miniature panda cow is the result of genetic manipulation. A white belt encircles the animal's midsection, and the cow has a white face with black ovals around the eyes, giving it a panda-like appearance.

The mini-cattle are bred solely as pets. Jessen says panda calves can sell for $30,000.

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Information from: Loveland Daily Reporter-Herald, http://www.reporterherald.com/

Comments

[hazbro24]

12:53 PM on 01/06/2011

I'm holding out for an argyle cow.

[Randall Eichman]

06:17 PM on 02/03/2011

as far as panda cows go they are not that rare there is a field of them near the stanford university of hwy 280, i'm sure there clones but they are there Randall

[Odrade]

02:26 AM on 01/05/2011

I can't resist: I wonder how it tastes

[AG creative]

10:32 PM on 01/04/2011

This is wrong. I bet there is a half-ox half human soldier prototype in one of our famous black sites.

[cragusa]

03:04 AM on 01/06/2011

Um.... What???

[GirlUsingBrain]

05:24 PM on 01/04/2011

A designer cow.

It IS really cute! I would like to kiss it!

[Vivian Alicia Evans]

01:43 PM on 01/04/2011

I want one!

[Jefferson Lives]

11:02 PM on 01/03/2011

Looks like a belted Galloway sprinkled with a little mutation. Don't pandas smother their young accidentally?

[rjtown]

03:40 PM on 01/03/2011

These bags may be damaging to the environment when disposed of. But, I find them very useful, and re-use them multiple times for many purposes [ Storage, Gloves {when working with paint/Glue/Calk etc} disposal of contaminated non degradables, Carrying stuff in to Work, etc etc. ]. It is hard for me to understand that a Purchased substitute Bag/Containers whould be less harmful. Are they really that bad, or are they Just bad when they are thrown away, As opposed to buying and throwing away an alternate bag?

[rjtown]

03:43 PM on 01/03/2011

Posted at wrong tab - Sorry

[Aldyth]

02:27 PM on 01/03/2011

Adorable!

[Decibella]

12:08 PM on 01/03/2011

As if there are not enough homeless pets around! WHY do we need to make a situation worse? Genetic manipulation, in this case, is NOT benefiting anyone, but the one who makes money on the "rare man-made creation". Sad!

[JimHinCO]

06:59 PM on 01/03/2011

You mean like nearly every breed of dog, cat and fish available today?

[SweetJudith]

07:54 PM on 01/04/2011

I agree with both of you!

[Fiona Hayes]

11:41 AM on 01/03/2011

looks very like a Miniture Belted Galloway to me. Though not sure whether they have white faces.

[Chaling]

03:10 PM on 01/03/2011

throw in some miniature Black Baldy you could probably get it(Miniature Angus x Miniature Hereford), but yeah, looks like Belted Galloway in there as well. dam looks like Miniature Angus though (Lowline Angus).

[dapperd72]

11:06 AM on 01/03/2011

If this baby is truly a "panda cow," then his father must be a panda, otherwise he may as well be called a "zebra cow" since his white stripe resembles that of a zebra no less than a panda. Genetic manipulation implies another corrupt Monsanto project of messing with Mother Nature to please human interest in unusual oddities on par with P.T. Barnum's freak show exploitations. No one has a natural right to "own" another species, regardless of synthetic laws that we invent. The "miniature" kangaroo this article mentions sounds like what Australians call a "wallabee" which is another marsupial species similar to a kangaroo, only much smaller. I hope a local animal sanctuary will tak charge of this trend and rescue these panda cows from human-directed slavery to ensure they won't suffer demise akin to their larger relatives.

[JimHinCO]

07:01 PM on 01/03/2011

White face with black around the eyes - that's Panda not Zebra :)

Do you happen to own a dog, tropical fish, or cat?

[deepintheheartoftejas]

10:44 PM on 01/04/2011

This article says "genetic manipulation", but every other article says it was selective breeding, that took 44 years and about 8 different breeds of cattle to produce. That predates genetic manipulation.

[Nerdiac]

09:58 AM on 01/03/2011

Genetic manipulation? So in other words, this isn't so rare or impossible.

[Blackdogsailing]

09:52 AM on 01/03/2011

Looks like a Belted Galloway to me, not so rare, but cute when they're small.

[Fiona Hayes]

11:41 AM on 01/03/2011

agree

[GirlUsingBrain]

05:28 PM on 01/04/2011

You are the second poster (maybe more) to mention this so I googled it to find out what you are talking about:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f4/Belted_galloway_bull.jpg

The little cutie does look like this big guy ... well, at least the belt!

[Daniel Berisford]

08:46 AM on 01/03/2011

GAH! 500 years from now this world will be a man-made genetic cesspool of crap!

[deepintheheartoftejas]

06:52 AM on 01/03/2011

The website for the farm that bred the Panda(r) cow says they're working on a Red Panda(r) cow as well. Their other varieties:

By the way, the above article says "genetic manipulation", but apparently this just means selective breeding: "The Panda(r) Miniature Cattle breeding program is a closed breeding program. It is a linebreeding program starting with one very special approved bull. No other animals are allowed without genetics from this approved foundation bull."

[farmerlady]

08:25 AM on 01/03/2011

What's with the "r", really? The rest of us can't breed little banded cows and call them "panda cows" if we want to?

Good grief (registered trademark pending).