Arielle the cow
The cow from Seehamer See
She had been travelling alone for months. Walkers only saw her as a fleeting brown shadow as they passed by. She hid shyly in the rustling reeds of the Seehamer See near Rosenheim (Bavaria): The cow from Seehamer See.
The cow preferred the solitude of the reeds
Shy horses on a neighbouring pasture caused Arielle to panic in summer, break through the fence of her pasture and retreat into the nearby reeds, where she lived alone from then on. All attempts to attract her with food failed. It was as if Ariel was so frightened that she preferred the solitude of the reeds.
The cow would not have survived the winter
While the summer still offered enough food, the cool season became a test. The reeds withered and the meadows slowly turned brown. But the cow stubbornly remained in the reeds. Finally, a walker who was worried about the quiet cow drew Gut Aiderbichl’s attention. “I see her almost every day when I go for a walk,” he said. “Now that everything is withered, the food is getting tight.” His concern was the start of our rescue operation.
We were completely calm
Gut Aiderbichl contacted the authorities and the owners – and looked for a way to bring the shy runaway back safely. Catching a feral cow that has avoided humans for months is no easy task, because the longer the cow lives without human contact, the shyer it becomes.
Equipped with a drone and with veterinary support, Gut Aiderbichl launched the rescue operation at the beginning of December. The drone finally spotted her – a dark spot in the light sea of reeds. Under veterinary supervision, an anaesthetic dart calmed the shy animal. Then, very carefully, the Gut Aiderbichl team managed to retrieve the cow from her hiding place. “We were completely calm. And I think she sensed that,” says Benedikt Gruber after the rescue. She was eventually brought to Iffeldorf without incident.
How to welcome Arielle in Iffeldorf
Our sponsors gave her the name Arielle – after the little mermaid. A name that sounds like the gentle waves on the lake where she had been hiding for so long.
