Rosa (26 May 2001 – 14 July 2020) was a Spanish-born Landes cow known for her participation in the French game show ''

Intervilles ''Intervilles'' is a French comedy game show first broadcast in 1962. The show was based on a previous Italian programme. It featured teams representing towns in France competing in a series of games, some of which involved live cows and bulls ( ...

''. She became a popular part of the programme due to her intelligence and aggressiveness. She died in 2020 of a gastric illness.

Early life

Rosa was born in

Badajoz Badajoz is the capital of the Province of Badajoz in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Extremadura, Spain. It is situated close to the Portugal, Portuguese Portugal–Spain border, border, on the left bank of the river ...

Extremadura Extremadura ( ; ; ; ; Fala language, Fala: ''Extremaúra'') is a landlocked autonomous communities in Spain, autonomous community of Spain. Its capital city is Mérida, Spain, Mérida, and its largest city is Badajoz. Located in the central- ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. She was born with a black face and white body, a distinctive coloring compared to the black cows around her. When Rosa was one year old, she was spotted by Jean-Pierre Labat, who was on a visit for breeding cattle. She joined the breeding herd in France owned by the Labat family, who had previously provided cows for use in ''Intervilles''. Rosa was given a trial in Germany for ''Intervilles''. Though she initially appeared shy and Jean-Pierre Labat believed there were better cows, the programme's producer Yves Launoy selected Rosa for the televised programme due to her unique colours.

''Intervilles''

Rosa made her debut on ''Intervilles'' in 2004, and she was recognised for both her aggression towards contestants and her intelligence in knocking down sets to prevent contestants from scoring. Despite her aggressiveness, she would not attack contestants when they were on the ground. During a game that involved pushing contestants into a pool, Rosa approached people slowly without aggression running her horns against the legs of contestants to see if they would dive or not. Due to her popularity, she was given her own game called "Rosa Strike" based upon bowling. She missed one season of ''Intervilles'' when she gave birth to a calf. Due to her popularity, she was featured in the ''Intervilles'' video game for the

Wii The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America, and in December 2006 for most other regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major home game console, f ...

. Fans of the ''Intervilles'' programme visited the Labat farm to see Rosa.

Farm life and death

Following her retirement from televised competition, Rosa adopted a role as head of the herd at the Labat family farm, often leading the other cows. She toured France taking part in similar style games to ''Intervilles'' until 2020 when she was retired to pasture. Later in 2020, she started losing weight and she died of a gastric illness on 14 July 2020.

References

{{Reflist Individual cows French television personalities 2001 animal births 2020 animal deaths Individual animals in France Individual animals in Spain Individual animals in sport