Many, many
generations passed as such. The cows and bulls continued to hunt
small animals and eat leaves. As time went on, the populations of
amphibians and small rodents started to decline, as did the amount of leaves
within the cows’ and bulls’ reach. Some cows and bulls, while hunting
amphibians, started venturing further into the shallow waters of the pond,
where they discovered certain fish and reeds living in the wetland area.
As generations passed, some cows and bulls kept venturing further into
the water and began hunting larger fish, while always returning to the
shore for reeds (and amphibians when the population began to rise again).
Their legs eventually grew larger to help them venture further out with
more ease. With this new source of food, the cows and bulls kept
the amphibian and fish populations in balance, hunting one until the population
declined, at which point they’d hunt the other.
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While some
cows and bulls took to fishing, others discovered means of acquiring more
food from trees. Some trees in the forest had bark covered in large
knots. The cows and bulls discovered that they could hoist their
front hooves onto the knots and raise themselves ever so much higher to
reach more leaves. As time passed, their front leg muscles got stronger.
With stronger leg muscles, they could pull themselves up a bit further,
and since they were at this point much smaller than their Earth-bound ancestors,
this did not present too much of a challenge. As they learned to
climb, they discovered that digging the cloven part of their back hooves
made the climb easier. So, as their climbing years went on, their
back feet evolved into claw-like hooves. These cows and bulls, though
climbing for food, continued to live on the ground. The climbing
cows eventually discovered that certain small rodents also lived in the
trees. Thus, they remained carnivorous to a certain extent, but lived
predominantly on fruit and leaves they found in the trees. When leaves
at the top of the trees diminished, the cows and bulls resumed eating shrubs
and leaves on bushes, and vice versa.
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