Google's facial recognition algorithm has allowed one of Cambridge's favourite Friesians to hide its face from street view users.

The error was found by The Guardian's US opinion editor David Shariatmadari and posted on Twitter, where it was retweeted 9,000 times.

A second cow in the picture did not receive the blurring treatment, indicating that this was not a process applied to udder ungulates.

The mistake was confirmed by a spokesperson for the tech giant, who told the BBC: "we thought you were pulling the udder one when we herd the moos, but it's clear that our automatic face-blurring technology has been a little overzealous. Of course, we don't begrudge this cow milking its five minutes of fame."

The respect shown for the cow's dignity may provoke envy among students papped by the Daily Mail on Caesarian Sunday, though a wider shot on street view did not mask the cow's identity.

Nonetheless, one English third-year saw the censoring as an example of misplaced priorities, noting that the cow was being "treated with more humanity than a student in exam term".

Little is known about the animal's identity at this point. However, the picture - which was taken last summer - places it in Coe Fen, within the area where earlier this year a "hormonal" cow was reported as having chased and loudly mooed at women wearing colourful coats.

Varsity reached out to the cow for comment with no response. 

It remains unclear whether there is any connection between these cows, but with such questions looming large, it is perhaps no surprise that the cow in question wishes to preserve it's anonymooty.