A calf attempts to nurse from a 16-year-old horse that adopted it as a foster child. Screenshot: ABC Western Queensland/Facebook

April 21 (UPI) -- An Australian family said a 16-year-old horse who never raised a foal of her own took it upon herself to adopt a calf orphaned at less than a week old.

Anthony and Gerda Glasson of Piccarilli Station, near Thargomindah in Queensland, said they were checking horses in their paddock Tuesday when they discovered their children's polocrosse horse, Moonshine, had acquired a baby cow less than a week old.


The Glassons said they recently moved some cattle and the baby must have been separated from its mother, leaving it essentially orphaned.

"I'm thinking the calf must've got lost and I was looking around for the mother cow, but [the] calf got up and started walking over to Moonshine," Gerda Glasson told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. "Moonshine put her nose down as if to say, 'this is mine', and the calf started trying to drink. It was something I've never seen before."

Glasson said the calf was not able to successfully drink from Moonshine, who gave birth to only one foal a decade ago and the baby did not survive.

"She's never actually raised a foal; she's never been a mum," Glasson said. "So she might be thinking that this is her chance."

The family has been bottle-feeding the calf under Moonshine's close supervision.

"She is quite protective of it and if any other animals or horses come near it she pins her ears back and chases it away," Anthony Glasson told Queensland Country Life.

The couple said Moonshine and the calf will have to spend some time apart soon when polocrosse season starts.

"I can't see myself dragging a calf around to the polocrosse carnivals -- it'll be a bit of a sight."