Legless Cows

Legless Cows were a small RLS meme, involving legless cows who are cows without legs. These cows, which have no legs, are in fact legless cows. These legless cows often had a user's Spartan Insignia on their side, and were put in the user's signature.

Several other variants have been seen, such as legless buffaloes and manatees, the later of which have no legs anyways. Cows however are just land manatees, so a manatee is not a legless cow, but a cow is a legged manatee. Snakes also have no legs.

Creation and History
The Legless Cow meme is thought to have been first introduced by TheLudicrous, where he had one in his signature. People followed in this action, and several people had them in their signatures. For a time, the Brotherhood of the Limbless Bovine managed to become a powerful world religion, where lord Ludicrous was worshipped as a prophet. The meme peaked around May-June '09, but then fell into obscurity as time went on and members left when they discovered that lord Ludicrous was chopping legs off normal cows as opposed to the legless cow being an actual magical creature. Belief in the creature's existence eventually waned over the next several centuries.

Discovery and History of the Legless Cow
Despite his fraud, it was discovered on May 17, 2709 that the legless cow was indeed a real animal. The legless cow, scientifically designated ' Apodabovis ameliataurus ' was discovered in a remote mountain range in South Africa. The legless cows lived in a large grassy plain surrounded on all sides by rough, jagged mountain ranges with perpetual harsh weather and packs of ferocious Dire Turtles that roamed the surrounding jungles. As such, the plains that were home to the Legless Cow remained unknown to science for thousands of years.

Biology
The legless cow is the only known bovine, or terrestrial mammal for that matter, that has lost all four of its limbs entirely. It is theorized that the ground-growing plants of their native valley were very fibrous and difficult to digest. This necessitated the evolution of a much larger and more efficient digestive system, but unfortunately such a system resulted in a body that was too heavy and unwieldy for legs to support. As such, the legless cow has greatly reduced its limbs, which are now only present as vestigial stubs of bone that are not visible externally.

As the legless cow has no natural enemies, it had no need to be able to move quickly. As such, its lack of limbs proved to be of no consequence to the herbivores and the species flourished in their safe and protected valley. The legless cow has powerful abdominal muscles to move its considerable bulk along the ground. The udders, present in both sexes but only producing milk in the females, has been modified into a muscular slug-like 'foot' which propels the legless cow at slow but efficient speeds.

Behavior
Legless cows travel in herds ranging from 20-800 individuals. Led by a large bull, the herds travel across the valley following the seasonal growths of the plants and grasses they eat. While generally calm and docile, the legless cow's limited mobility causes it to occasionally become aggressive when startled.

Mating takes place in the summer months when the grass growth reaches its peak. During these time, the bulls form large harems of up to eight females, with violent fights occurring between young males. After a gestation period of exactly 11,520 hours, the female gives birth to an average of two or three calves. These stay close to their mother for the next two years, at which they reach breeding age and move on to form new herds.

Environmental impact
The legless cows play a very important role in the ecosystem of their native valley plains, as their grazing and droppings regulates the growth of the local flora. These in turn are also sources of food for various species of insects and birds, as well as the small mammals such as durpas and kanchirae which feed on them. Some species of bees are also known to build hives on the legless cows' horns.

Recent geological studies have shown that the gene pool of the legless cows have narrowed sharply in recent millennia. It is theorized that about a million years ago, the Dire Turtles of the surrounding lands invaded the valley after a drought killed off the plants that the turtles were allergic to which generally kept them out of the valley. Unable to defend themselves or escape the unexpected influx of a new predator, the legless cows' populations were decimated by the Dire Turtles until the next bloom of the plants, which killed off the turtles within the valley. However, only a few legless cows survived, and as such inbreeding became a concern.

While the legless cows now currently number 150,000 strong, based on recent estimate, they are vulnerable to climate change, seasonal shortages of food and high calf mortality due to illness. As urban development and oil mining continue to enroach on its habitat, environmental protection agencies are working hard to preserve the ecosystem and survival of these rare and curious creatures.