HALF-YAK TITAN ONE FOR THE RECORD.Byline: Carol Rock Staff Writer NEWHALL - He's cute but not cuddly, playful but pensive pen·sive adj. 1. Deeply, often wistfully or dreamily thoughtful. 2. Suggestive or expressive of melancholy thoughtfulness. and totally uncommon in Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, . No regular beast of burden beast of burden n. pl. beasts of burden An animal, such as a donkey, ox, or elephant, used for transporting loads or doing other heavy work. Noun 1. is this zopkio - a sterile male crossbreed of a yak and a cow usually found in the Nepal Himalaya. Titan, born last month at Steve and Mary Ann Colf's Came to Believe Ranch in Newhall, is the first zopkio born in California. Tipping the scales at 80 pounds today, he is expected to reach 1,400 pounds when he is full-grown. Although rare in this state, zopkios are common in Tibet where they are used for meat. ``Yak meat is low in fat and cholesterol,'' explained Steve Colf, ``but it's not palatable to Western tastes. Cross-breeding provides the lean yak meat with the marbling marbling, in bookbinding, a process of coloring the sides, edges, or end papers of a book in a design that suggests the veins and mottles of marble. In tree marbling, as of tree calf bindings, the design suggests also the trunk and branches of a tree. of beef, which makes it taste better.'' Colf knows of what he speaks, having feasted on yak steak at conferences sponsored by the International Yak Association. His first experience with yaks came in 1995, when he was hiking in the Himalayas and a herd of yaks saved his life. Trapped in a snowstorm, the rugged pack animals broke a trail and led both hikers and livestock to safety. He decided then to introduce yaks to his six-acre Newhall ranch. Two wide-eyed yaks took up residence at the Colfs' ranch in 1999: a male orphaned in Idaho that they named Pashupati and a female from a Canadian breeder that they named Tara. The two baby yaks were picked up in Reno and rode home in the back of Colf's pickup truck, making their community debut in the 2000 Santa Clarita Santa Clarita, city (1990 pop. 110,642), Los Angeles co., S Calif., suburb 30 mi (48 km) NW of downtown Los Angeles, on the Santa Clara River; inc. 1987. Situated in the Santa Clara valley and nearby canyons, Santa Clarita includes the former towns of Canyon Country, Fourth of July Fourth of July, Independence Day, or July Fourth, U.S. holiday, commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. Celebration of it began during the American Revolution. parade. They now weigh in at 1,200 and 800 pounds, respectively, content to spend their days on the grounds of the ranch. ``Their names have meaning in the Hindu world. Pashupati is the Hindu lord of the animals The Lord of the animals is a generic term for a number of deities from a variety of cultures with close relationships to the animal kingdom or in part animal form (in cultures where that is not the norm). and Royal Tara is a deity in Buddhist reincarnation.'' And even though Colf remembers when Pashupati was a cute, black bull with curly hair, he quickly cautions visitors to keep their distance as he ducks the animal's long, sharp horns poking out from the side of the corral corral a small fenced-in enclosure with high, wooden fences, suitable for holding cattle or horses. corral system a management system in which range cattle are put into corrals and fed hay for a period when the environment is most . ``He'd kill me in a minute,'' he said. When Pashupati was a year old, Colf was knocked down and thrown across the field by the bull. He was saved by a ranch hand who threw a bucket at the animal so Colf could escape. Tara, on the other hand, has a much more docile disposition and usually has free run of the ranch. Titan is the offspring of Pashupati and a range cross cow named Castana that Colf rescued from a veal operation in Bakersfield. For the first few months, Titan will spend all of his time with Castana, learning from her how to graze and how to behave around creatures great and small - including the Colfs. ``He was born when we were out of town,'' Colf said. ``Our vet came over and gave him his first tetanus shot and took care of the umbilical cord umbilical cord (ŭmbĭl`ĭkəl), cordlike structure about 22 in. (56 cm) long in the pregnant human female, extending from the abdominal wall of the fetus to the placenta. , but when I got home, his first experience with me was having a thermometer put up his ...'' Colf's voice trailed off. He smiled as he watched the chestnut-color animal romp through the pasture. ``But I'm not worried,'' he said. ``He won't warm up to humans as long as she (the mother) is producing milk.'' Maybe Titan already senses his survival is assured. The Colfs' intention is to make him a pet rather than Sunday dinner. Colf said the zopkio will be weaned wean tr.v. weaned, wean·ing, weans 1. To accustom (the young of a mammal) to take nourishment other than by suckling. 2. in about five months, which is when he will start training him to walk on a lead. He hopes Titan will have another first in July 2004 as the first zopkio to ever walk in the parade, much like Pashupati and Tara were the first yaks to participate in the hometown celebration. If things go well, Titan also will be trained to take riders on his back. The sprawling ranch in Rattlesnake Canyon Rattlesnake Canyon is the name of a number of scenic canyons in the Southwestern United States:
The Colfs originally intended to make the ranch a place where pack animals from around the world could live, but Steve soon learned that camelids - such as alpacas, vicuna vicuna a species of wild llama. A small compact form, fast disappearing because of uncontrolled hunting. Their fur is much in demand for heavy fabrics. Called also Lama vicugna (syn. Vicugna vicugna). , llamas and guanacos - don't get along with bovines such as cows and yaks. While zopkios are rare in suburban Southern California, they are plentiful in Tibet and other Hindu countries, where they play a significant role in survival. ``In Hindu countries, cows are sacred and can't be touched,'' Colf explained. ``Yaks are plentiful, but expensive, and cows, being sacred, are worthless. Yaks are nature's equivalent of a bobtail bobtail a short tail, either natural or docked. Seen naturally in some species, e.g. bobcat, and some dog breeds, e.g. Schipperke and Old English sheepdog. bobtail disease truck on the highway - hauling freight and packing things in and out. ``So the King of Nepal declared a yak a deer, because of the way they stick their tails up the air when they run,'' Colf said. ``They are also much more animated than cattle and more playful. If yaks are cross-bred with cows, that destroys the divinity of the cow and they can use the hide and the meat of the zopkio.'' Colf hopes that some day, a baby yak will join the roster at Came To Believe Ranch. In fact, he already has a name picked out. ``The first yak will be called Tang-go,'' he said. ``It means first in Tibetan.'' On a ranch where firsts are a natural, this should be only a matter of time. Carol Rock, (661) 257-5252 carol.rock(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): 2 photos Photo: (1 -- color in Verb 1. color in - add color to; "The child colored the drawings"; "Fall colored the trees"; "colorize black and white film" color, colorise, colorize, colour in, colourise, colourize, colour SAC edition only) A baby zopkio named Titan trots alongside his cow mother at a Newhall ranch. (2 -- ran in SAC edition only) Newhall rancher Steve Colf hopes to breed other zopkios, a cross between a cow and a yak, on his Came to Believe Ranch. David R. Crane/Staff Photographer |
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