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>It is not the color of the cape that angers the bull, but rather the movement of the fabric that irritates the bull and incites it to charge. [from the Sports
by billswift 16y ago
>It is not the color of the cape that angers the bull, but rather the movement of the fabric that irritates the bull and incites it to charge. [from the Sports section]
I worked for the University of Maryland's Dairy Barn on the College Park campus for a couple of years in the early 1980s, and I discovered you do not want to try rounding up cows in the pasture wearing a rain poncho. It terrifies them so much they run all over the place rather than going into the barn like they were supposed to. The color was immaterial - tan and brown were as bad as yellow.
- furyg3 16y agoBut why!? What happened during the course of bovine evolution that would result in cattle being so terrified of large swaths of fabric.
- JoachimSchipper 16y agoEvolutionary pressure from http://redwinggreen7.livejournal.com/96599.html#cutid2-end http://redwinggreen7.livejournal.com/96599.html#cutid2-end, what else?
- dkersten 16y agoIt seems to have worked! Bovine are plentiful, but you rarely see cloakers :-D
- billswift 16y agoI suspect the rippling and waving of the poncho resembles something unseen moving through tall grass. And in the poncho case masking the identity or even humanness of its wearer.
- narag 16y agoCape is not used to irritate, the bull attacks you. The cape makes the bull think that you're moving in a direction while in fact you're not. The bulls can't see well in short distances. Anyway, when the bullfighter is using the muleta (the small cape), special care must be taken to put it so it hides the feet.