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Akaitze Kamiruaga. Labayru Fundazioa Photographic Archive.

The present post accounts for some of the vocabulary connected with oestrus and pregnancy cycles in several domestic animals, gathered in Gernika-Lumo (Bizkaia) and applicable to a region which extends as far as the coastal city of Lekeitio (Bizkaia).

Cattle (behiak): We use the term susera to indicate that a cow is on heat —behia susera dago or behia suseratu egin da—. We could likewise use the more generic term umeske, literally ‘desiring to breed’, and therefore attributable to other female animals which are receptive to mating, such as mares, jennets and ewes. (more…)