MAMIL helps a mammal - cyclist filmed delivering calf mid ride

A video has emerged on social media of a cyclist helping to deliver a calf during a bike ride. 

The 30-second clip, shared on Twitter by Farmers Weekly - which is of no relationship to this publication - shows the cyclist in a vast farm field, knelt down beside a cow. 

The camera then zooms in as he helps birth a calf, drawing it out from inside the cow, and placing it in front of its mother. 

Afterwards, the cyclist remounts his bike and rides off, across the grass and out into the countryside. 

“Bloody cyclists!” the captions on the video read, clearly imbued with sarcasm. “These MAMILs get everywhere!”

In the clip’s denoument, the captions then say: “This one turned out to be pretty helpful.” 

The video is understood to have been taken by shepherdess Emma Gray, who runs a sheepdog training school on the Isle of Bute, Scotland. It is thought that the cyclist in the video is also a full-time farmer. 

Interestingly, this is not the first report of a cyclist stopping to deliver a calf.

In 2017, a group of Spanish cyclists in the northwest region of Galicia came across a distressed pregnant cow during a Sunday ride. 

José Antonio Faraldo, a member of the group, reacted by removing his jersey and assisting with the birthing. “The calf didn’t have a leg out, but Fari managed to get it back inside and then get it out,” one of the other riders present told La Voz de Galicia. “He is not a vet or anything, but he grew up in the village and he remembered perfectly from when he was younger.” 

Last month, a cyclist competing in the British Team Time Trial National Championships was asked to administer medication on a sick goat the night before her event.

Phoebe Barker, a Cambridge University veterinary student, ended up finishing third with her teammates in the championships the following day. 

Speaking to Cycling Weekly, Barker said that the goat had mastitis - inflammation of the udder - and she helped insert an antibiotic tube after her farm Airbnb host had struggled to do so.

“She texted us [the next day] to say the goat, which was called Trixie, was doing much better,” the cyclist said. “It was up and walking, looked much brighter, and had gone out to the field to graze.”