Holy Cow! Bull is the Size of a Small Elephant



Chilli loves to munch on grass and do other things regular cattle do. He’s just like one of the guys, with one big difference: the black and white Friesian bullock is the size of a small elephant!

Despite his grand stature, Chilli only grazes on grass during the day and enjoys the occasional swede as a treat.

The heifer, who is almost as high as he is long, lives at the Ferne Animal Sanctuary in Chard, Somerset, after he was left on their doorstep aged just six-days-old.

Nine years on, Chilli has kept on growing, and staff believe the giant will smash a record for Britain’s tallest ever cow.

Link - Thanks cuimhne!


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Posted on May 13, 2008 at 1:08 am by Alex
Category: Animal



22 comments to "Holy Cow! Bull is the Size of a Small Elephant"

  • S-r-ex
    May 13th, 2008 at 1:15 am

    Let’s go cowtipping!

  • hedwig
    May 13th, 2008 at 1:36 am

    Let’s just get this straight:
    a bullock (according to wikipedia) is a castrated male- for sure a male.
    a heifer is a female.

    this article calls the poor animal both of the above and refers uses the word ‘he’- so is he a he…or a she. Can’t be both.

  • Terry B
    May 13th, 2008 at 1:46 am

    Um …okay, it’s possible that s/he is snacking on persons of Swedish descent …but if so, it should be capitalized. It’s possible that this is a cow, and simultaneously a heifer. But since both these terms apply to the female of the species; then it’s not also possible to be a ‘he’ as has been written.

    Hey, you guys are one of my favorite blogs. You usually do much better than this, even if this IS fake, it should be written up right, LOL.

  • SenorMysterioso
    May 13th, 2008 at 2:19 am

    and the ever gratuitous … I for one welcome our bovine overlords

  • Pam
    May 13th, 2008 at 2:40 am

    I’m confused - the title states the cow is a bull, but the story states it’s a heifer?! A bull is an intact male cow; while a heifer is a female cow, which sex is it? Otherwise very interesting story.

  • Chris
    May 13th, 2008 at 5:01 am

    Over in England, a swede is a root vegetable - I think either a rutabaga or a turnip.

    I have my doubts about this article. The photos are taken at low angles, with a wide angle lens & with the owner/handlers behind Chili the steer. Chili IS clearly a steer (neutered bull) yet the article refers to him as a bull/bullock/heifer/cow which points towards sloppy writing and I suspect a bit of hyperbole.

    Steers can get huge (taller than bulls) and Holsteins are one of the taller cow breeds. Most steers we ever see are beef steer and the beef breeds tend to be short & stout. I recall seeing a team of Holstein oxen (oxen are adult steers trained to work) and they were huge. So I’m not doubting Chili is probably the tallest Holstein steer than most people have seen but mature Holstein steers just are not very common.

  • MoonCake
    May 13th, 2008 at 6:10 am

    quick! take it to india before they make it the biggest HAMBURGER ever!

  • ted
    May 13th, 2008 at 6:41 am

    He probably just lives on a farm with short people.

  • Viola
    May 13th, 2008 at 8:59 am

    On farms in England, the cows eat YOU.

  • Saffron
    May 13th, 2008 at 10:22 am

    There is an article about Chilli over at the BBC News website-I take it that the poor choice of wording in the featured article here has more to do with a reporter not understanding the difference between the various phrases and not an attempt at a fakery…that being said, one article did mention that the keepers shown posing with Chilli are only about 5 feet tall so yes, he would appear to be even more abnormally large than he would be if he was standing beside your average farm hand at 6 feet tall!!

  • Thomas
    May 13th, 2008 at 10:45 am

    That’s a cow, not a bull. At nine years old, it should have horns if it were a bull.

  • Hezzawezza
    May 13th, 2008 at 11:30 am

    Thanks for that Thomas, you just acted as confirmation of the ignorance of a vast majority of the population.

  • Jess
    May 13th, 2008 at 12:01 pm

    I imagine that while the cow/bull/whatever is massive, the lady next to it is short and standing further back than it looks, so the animal looks even bigger - like what they did in Lord of the Rings to make the hobbits look smaller. It makes it look about 8ft tall!

  • Oomi
    May 13th, 2008 at 12:32 pm

    That’sa big burger!

  • Ashley
    May 13th, 2008 at 12:41 pm

    @Thomas: Not all breed have horns as males. Some also have horns as females. And most of the horned breeds are dehorned when the animal is very young. If you click the article, you can see a picture further down that definitely confirms it’s a male.

    @Hezzawezza: Just because someone doesn’t know the same things you do doesn’t mean they are ignorant in general.

  • Ali S.
    May 13th, 2008 at 2:08 pm

    As if we don’t have enough worries about cows releasing gas into the air now we have this big guy to contend with!? O_o

  • Christophe
    May 13th, 2008 at 2:17 pm

    This is mad.

  • whoa
    May 13th, 2008 at 2:38 pm

    to the doubters:
    the article is not fake or embellished.

    I saw a news story on it this morning with video footage, and the cow is every bit as massive as it look in this picture. amazing.

  • andrewdoane
    May 13th, 2008 at 4:49 pm

    If I didn’t see the article (and whoa’s reference to the TV story) I would have thought for sure the picture was photoshopped.

  • Thomas
    May 14th, 2008 at 10:09 am

    Sorry I’m no expert. Never lived on a farm. Ask 10 city folk if bulls have horns and cows don’t, I bet 9 will agree. Thanks for correcting me, but you don’t have to be a dick.

  • DavidJ
    May 14th, 2008 at 10:24 am

    Well, I’d guess it’s a bull, since the photos in the story show it has no udder.

  • Toby B
    May 15th, 2008 at 11:34 am

    I was going to say PHOTOSHOP! But, then I clicked the link and looked at the other pics and they look real.


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