1.
Miocene
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The Miocene is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about 23.03 to 5.333 million years ago. The Miocene was named by Sir Charles Lyell and its name comes from the Greek words μείων and καινός and means less recent because it has 18% fewer modern sea invertebrates than the Pliocene. The Miocene follows the Oligocene Epoch and is followed by the Pliocene Epoch, the earth went from the Oligocene through the Miocene and into the Pliocene, with the climate slowly cooling towards a series of ice ages. The Miocene boundaries are not marked by a single distinct global event, the apes arose and diversified during the Miocene, becoming widespread in the Old World. By the end of this epoch, the ancestors of humans had split away from the ancestors of the chimpanzees to follow their own evolutionary path, as in the Oligocene before it, grasslands continued to expand and forests to dwindle in extent. In the Miocene seas, kelp forests made their first appearance, the plants and animals of the Miocene were fairly modern. The Miocene faunal stages from youngest to oldest are typically named according to the International Commission on Stratigraphy, Two subdivisions each form the lower, middle, continents continued to drift toward their present positions. Mountain building took place in western North America, Europe, both continental and marine Miocene deposits are common worldwide with marine outcrops common near modern shorelines. Well studied continental exposures occur in the North American Great Plains, India continued to collide with Asia, creating dramatic new mountain ranges. The Tethys Seaway continued to shrink and then disappeared as Africa collided with Eurasia in the Turkish–Arabian region between 19 and 12 Ma. The subsequent uplift of mountains in the western Mediterranean region and a fall in sea levels combined to cause a temporary drying up of the Mediterranean Sea near the end of the Miocene. The global trend was towards increasing aridity caused primarily by global cooling reducing the ability of the atmosphere to absorb moisture, climates remained moderately warm, although the slow global cooling that eventually led to the Pleistocene glaciations continued. Although a long-term cooling trend was well underway, there is evidence of a period during the Miocene when the global climate rivalled that of the Oligocene. The Miocene warming began 21 million years ago and continued until 14 million years ago, by 8 million years ago, temperatures dropped sharply once again, and the Antarctic ice sheet was already approaching its present-day size and thickness. Greenland may have begun to have large glaciers as early as 7 to 8 million years ago, life during the Miocene Epoch was mostly supported by the two newly formed biomes, kelp forests and grasslands. This allows for more grazers, such as horses, rhinoceroses, ninety five percent of modern plants existed by the end of this epoch. The higher organic content and water retention of the deeper and richer grassland soils, with long term burial of carbon in sediments, produced a carbon and this, combined with higher surface albedo and lower evapotranspiration of grassland, contributed to a cooler, drier climate. The expansion of grasslands and radiations among terrestrial herbivores correlates to fluctuations in CO2
2.
Holocene
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The Holocene is the geological epoch that began after the Pleistocene at approximately 11,700 years before present. The term Recent has often used as an exact synonym of Holocene. The Holocene is part of the Quaternary period and its name comes from the Ancient Greek words ὅλος and καινός, meaning entirely recent. It has been identified with the current warm period, known as MIS1, given these, a new term, Anthropocene, is specifically proposed and used informally only for the very latest part of modern history involving significant human impact. It is accepted by the International Commission on Stratigraphy that the Holocene started approximately 11,700 years ago, the epoch follows the Pleistocene and the last glacial period. The Holocene can be subdivided into five time intervals, or chronozones, based on climatic fluctuations, Preboreal, Boreal, Atlantic, Subboreal and they find a general correspondence across Eurasia and North America, though the method was once thought to be of no interest. The scheme was defined for Northern Europe, but the changes were claimed to occur more widely. The periods of the include a few of the final pre-Holocene oscillations of the last glacial period. Paleontologists have not defined any faunal stages for the Holocene, if subdivision is necessary, periods of human technological development, such as the Mesolithic, Neolithic, and Bronze Age, are usually used. However, the time periods referenced by these terms vary with the emergence of those technologies in different parts of the world, climatically, the Holocene may be divided evenly into the Hypsithermal and Neoglacial periods, the boundary coincides with the start of the Bronze Age in Europe. According to some scholars, a division, the Anthropocene, has now begun. Continental motions due to plate tectonics are less than a kilometre over a span of only 10,000 years, however, ice melt caused world sea levels to rise about 35 m in the early part of the Holocene. The sea level rise and temporary land depression allowed temporary marine incursions into areas that are now far from the sea, Holocene marine fossils are known, for example, from Vermont and Michigan. Other than higher-latitude temporary marine incursions associated with depression, Holocene fossils are found primarily in lakebed, floodplain. Holocene marine deposits along low-latitude coastlines are rare because the rise in sea levels during the period exceeds any likely tectonic uplift of non-glacial origin, post-glacial rebound in the Scandinavia region resulted in the formation of the Baltic Sea. The region continues to rise, still causing weak earthquakes across Northern Europe, the equivalent event in North America was the rebound of Hudson Bay, as it shrank from its larger, immediate post-glacial Tyrrell Sea phase, to near its present boundaries. Climate has been stable over the Holocene. It appears that this was influenced by the glacial ice remaining in the Northern Hemisphere until the later date
3.
African buffalo
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The African buffalo or Cape buffalo is a large African bovine. It is not closely related to the larger wild water buffalo of Asia. Syncerus caffer caffer, the Cape buffalo, is the subspecies. S. c. nanus is the smallest subspecies, common in forest areas of Central and West Africa, while S. c. brachyceros is in West Africa and S. c. aequinoctialis is in the savannas of Central Africa. The adult buffalos horns are its characteristic feature, they have fused bases and they are widely regarded as very dangerous animals, as they gore and kill over 200 people every year. The African buffalo is not an ancestor of cattle and is only distantly related to other larger bovines. Owing to its nature, which makes it highly dangerous to humans, the African buffalo has never been domesticated, unlike its Asian counterpart. Other than humans, African Cape buffaloes have few predators aside from lions and large crocodiles, being a member of the big five game, the Cape buffalo is a sought-after trophy in hunting. The African buffalo is a very robust species and its shoulder height can range from 1.0 to 1.7 m and its head-and-body length can range from 1.7 to 3.4 m. Compared with other bovids, it has a long but stocky body and short but thickset legs. The tail can range from 70 to 110 cm long, savannah-type buffaloes weigh 500 to 1,000 kg, with males normally larger than females, reaching the upper weight range. In comparison, forest-type buffaloes, at 250 to 450 kg, are half that size. Its head is carried low, its top is located below the backline. The front hooves of the buffalo are wider than the rear, which is associated with the need to support the weight of the front part of the body, savannah-type buffaloes have black or dark brown coats with age. Old bulls have whitish circles around their eyes, females tend to have more-reddish coats. Forest-type buffaloes are reddish brown in colour with horns that curve back, calves of both types have red coats. A characteristic feature of the horns of adult male African buffalo is fusion of their bases, from the base, the horns diverge downwards, then smoothly curve upwards and outwards. In large bulls, the distance between the ends of the horns can reach upwards of one metre, the horns form fully when the animal reaches the age of five or six years
4.
Taxonomy (biology)
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Taxonomy is the science of defining groups of biological organisms on the basis of shared characteristics and giving names to those groups. The exact definition of taxonomy varies from source to source, but the core of the remains, the conception, naming. There is some disagreement as to whether biological nomenclature is considered a part of taxonomy, the broadest meaning of taxonomy is used here. The word taxonomy was introduced in 1813 by Candolle, in his Théorie élémentaire de la botanique, the term alpha taxonomy is primarily used today to refer to the discipline of finding, describing, and naming taxa, particularly species. In earlier literature, the term had a different meaning, referring to morphological taxonomy, ideals can, it may be said, never be completely realized. They have, however, a value of acting as permanent stimulants. Some of us please ourselves by thinking we are now groping in a beta taxonomy, turrill thus explicitly excludes from alpha taxonomy various areas of study that he includes within taxonomy as a whole, such as ecology, physiology, genetics, and cytology. He further excludes phylogenetic reconstruction from alpha taxonomy, thus, Ernst Mayr in 1968 defined beta taxonomy as the classification of ranks higher than species. This activity is what the term denotes, it is also referred to as beta taxonomy. How species should be defined in a group of organisms gives rise to practical and theoretical problems that are referred to as the species problem. The scientific work of deciding how to define species has been called microtaxonomy, by extension, macrotaxonomy is the study of groups at higher taxonomic ranks, from subgenus and above only, than species. While some descriptions of taxonomic history attempt to date taxonomy to ancient civilizations, earlier works were primarily descriptive, and focused on plants that were useful in agriculture or medicine. There are a number of stages in scientific thinking. Early taxonomy was based on criteria, the so-called artificial systems. Later came systems based on a complete consideration of the characteristics of taxa, referred to as natural systems, such as those of de Jussieu, de Candolle and Bentham. The publication of Charles Darwins Origin of Species led to new ways of thinking about classification based on evolutionary relationships and this was the concept of phyletic systems, from 1883 onwards. This approach was typified by those of Eichler and Engler, the advent of molecular genetics and statistical methodology allowed the creation of the modern era of phylogenetic systems based on cladistics, rather than morphology alone. Taxonomy has been called the worlds oldest profession, and naming and classifying our surroundings has likely been taking place as long as mankind has been able to communicate
5.
Animal
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Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms of the kingdom Animalia. The animal kingdom emerged as a clade within Apoikozoa as the group to the choanoflagellates. Animals are motile, meaning they can move spontaneously and independently at some point in their lives and their body plan eventually becomes fixed as they develop, although some undergo a process of metamorphosis later in their lives. All animals are heterotrophs, they must ingest other organisms or their products for sustenance, most known animal phyla appeared in the fossil record as marine species during the Cambrian explosion, about 542 million years ago. Animals can be divided broadly into vertebrates and invertebrates, vertebrates have a backbone or spine, and amount to less than five percent of all described animal species. They include fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals, the remaining animals are the invertebrates, which lack a backbone. These include molluscs, arthropods, annelids, nematodes, flatworms, cnidarians, ctenophores, the study of animals is called zoology. The word animal comes from the Latin animalis, meaning having breath, the biological definition of the word refers to all members of the kingdom Animalia, encompassing creatures as diverse as sponges, jellyfish, insects, and humans. Aristotle divided the world between animals and plants, and this was followed by Carl Linnaeus, in the first hierarchical classification. In Linnaeuss original scheme, the animals were one of three kingdoms, divided into the classes of Vermes, Insecta, Pisces, Amphibia, Aves, and Mammalia. Since then the last four have all been subsumed into a single phylum, in 1874, Ernst Haeckel divided the animal kingdom into two subkingdoms, Metazoa and Protozoa. The protozoa were later moved to the kingdom Protista, leaving only the metazoa, thus Metazoa is now considered a synonym of Animalia. Animals have several characteristics that set apart from other living things. Animals are eukaryotic and multicellular, which separates them from bacteria and they are heterotrophic, generally digesting food in an internal chamber, which separates them from plants and algae. They are also distinguished from plants, algae, and fungi by lacking cell walls. All animals are motile, if only at life stages. In most animals, embryos pass through a stage, which is a characteristic exclusive to animals. With a few exceptions, most notably the sponges and Placozoa and these include muscles, which are able to contract and control locomotion, and nerve tissues, which send and process signals
6.
Chordate
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Chordates are deuterostomes, as during the embryo development stage the anus forms before the mouth. They are also bilaterally symmetric coelomates, in the case of vertebrate chordates, the notochord is usually replaced by a vertebral column during development, and they may have body plans organized via segmentation. There are also additional extinct taxa, the Vertebrata are sometimes considered as a subgroup of the clade Craniata, consisting of chordates with a skull, the Craniata and Tunicata compose the clade Olfactores. Of the more than 65,000 living species of chordates, the worlds largest and fastest animals, the blue whale and peregrine falcon respectively, are chordates, as are humans. Fossil chordates are known from at least as early as the Cambrian explosion, Hemichordata, which includes the acorn worms, has been presented as a fourth chordate subphylum, but it now is usually treated as a separate phylum. The Hemichordata, along with the Echinodermata, form the Ambulacraria, the Chordata and Ambulacraria form the superphylum Deuterostomia, composed of the deuterostomes. Attempts to work out the relationships of the chordates have produced several hypotheses. All of the earliest chordate fossils have found in the Early Cambrian Chengjiang fauna. Because the fossil record of early chordates is poor, only molecular phylogenetics offers a prospect of dating their emergence. However, the use of molecular phylogenetics for dating evolutionary transitions is controversial and it has also proved difficult to produce a detailed classification within the living chordates. Attempts to produce family trees shows that many of the traditional classes are paraphyletic. While this has been known since the 19th century, an insistence on only monophyletic taxa has resulted in vertebrate classification being in a state of flux. Although the name Chordata is attributed to William Bateson, it was already in prevalent use by 1880, ernst Haeckel described a taxon comprising tunicates, cephalochordates, and vertebrates in 1866. Though he used the German vernacular form, it is allowed under the ICZN code because of its subsequent latinization, among the vertebrate sub-group of chordates the notochord develops into the spine, and in wholly aquatic species this helps the animal to swim by flexing its tail. In fish and other vertebrates, this develops into the spinal cord, the pharynx is the part of the throat immediately behind the mouth. In fish, the slits are modified to form gills, a muscular tail that extends backwards behind the anus. This is a groove in the wall of the pharynx. In filter-feeding species it produces mucus to gather food particles, which helps in transporting food to the esophagus and it also stores iodine, and may be a precursor of the vertebrate thyroid gland
7.
Mammal
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Mammals are any vertebrates within the class Mammalia, a clade of endothermic amniotes distinguished from reptiles by the possession of a neocortex, hair, three middle ear bones and mammary glands. All female mammals nurse their young with milk, secreted from the mammary glands, Mammals include the largest animals on the planet, the great whales. The basic body type is a quadruped, but some mammals are adapted for life at sea, in the air, in trees. The largest group of mammals, the placentals, have a placenta, Mammals range in size from the 30–40 mm bumblebee bat to the 30-meter blue whale. With the exception of the five species of monotreme, all modern mammals give birth to live young, most mammals, including the six most species-rich orders, belong to the placental group. The largest orders are the rodents, bats and Soricomorpha, the next three biggest orders, depending on the biological classification scheme used, are the Primates, the Cetartiodactyla, and the Carnivora. Living mammals are divided into the Yinotheria and Theriiformes There are around 5450 species of mammal, in some classifications, extant mammals are divided into two subclasses, the Prototheria, that is, the order Monotremata, and the Theria, or the infraclasses Metatheria and Eutheria. The marsupials constitute the group of the Metatheria, and include all living metatherians as well as many extinct ones. Much of the changes reflect the advances of cladistic analysis and molecular genetics, findings from molecular genetics, for example, have prompted adopting new groups, such as the Afrotheria, and abandoning traditional groups, such as the Insectivora. The mammals represent the only living Synapsida, which together with the Sauropsida form the Amniota clade, the early synapsid mammalian ancestors were sphenacodont pelycosaurs, a group that produced the non-mammalian Dimetrodon. At the end of the Carboniferous period, this group diverged from the line that led to todays reptiles. Some mammals are intelligent, with some possessing large brains, self-awareness, Mammals can communicate and vocalize in several different ways, including the production of ultrasound, scent-marking, alarm signals, singing, and echolocation. Mammals can organize themselves into fission-fusion societies, harems, and hierarchies, most mammals are polygynous, but some can be monogamous or polyandrous. They provided, and continue to provide, power for transport and agriculture, as well as commodities such as meat, dairy products, wool. Mammals are hunted or raced for sport, and are used as model organisms in science, Mammals have been depicted in art since Palaeolithic times, and appear in literature, film, mythology, and religion. Defaunation of mammals is primarily driven by anthropogenic factors, such as poaching and habitat destruction, Mammal classification has been through several iterations since Carl Linnaeus initially defined the class. No classification system is accepted, McKenna & Bell and Wilson & Reader provide useful recent compendiums. Though field work gradually made Simpsons classification outdated, it remains the closest thing to a classification of mammals
8.
Even-toed ungulate
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The even-toed ungulates are ungulates whose weight is borne equally by the third and fourth toes. By contrast, odd-toed ungulates, such as horses, bear their weight primarily on their third toe, the aquatic cetaceans evolved from within even-toed ungulates, and therefore modern taxonomic classification sometimes combines Artiodactyla and Cetacea into Cetartiodactyla. The oldest fossils of even-toed ungulates date back to the early Eocene, since these findings almost simultaneously appeared in Europe, Asia, and North America, it is very difficult to accurately determine the origin of artiodactyls. The fossils are classified as belonging to the family Dichobunidae, their best-known and these were small animals, some as small as a hare, with a slim build, lanky legs, and a long tail. The hind legs were longer than the front legs. The early to middle Eocene saw the emergence of the ancestors of most of todays mammals, two formerly widespread, but now extinct, families of even-toed ungulates were Enteledontidae and Anthracotheriidae. Entelodonts existed from the middle Eocene to the early Miocene in Eurasia and they had a stocky body with short legs and a massive head, which was characterized by two humps on the lower jaw bone. Anthracotheres had a large, porcine build, with short legs and this group appeared in the middle Eocene up until the Pliocene, and spread throughout Eurasia, Africa, and North America. Anthracothereres are thought to be the ancestors of hippos, and, likewise, hippopotamuses appeared in the late Miocene and occupied Africa and Asia – they never got to the Americas. The camels were, during parts of the Cenozoic, limited to North America. Among the North American camels were groups like the stocky, short-legged Merycoidodontidae and they first appeared in the late Eocene and developed a great diversity of species in North America. Only in the late Miocene or early Pliocene did they migrate from North America into Eurasia, the North American varieties became extinct around 10,000 years ago. Suina have been around since the Eocene, in the late Eocene or the Oligocene, two families stayed in Eurasia and Africa, the peccaries, which became extinct in the Old World, exist today only in the Americas. South America was settled by even-toed ungulates only in the Pliocene, with only the peccaries, lamoids, and various species of capreoline deer, South America has comparatively fewer artiodactyl families than other continents. The classification of artiodactyls was hotly debated because the ocean-dwelling cetaceans evolved from the land-dwelling even-toed ungulates, some semiaquatic even-toed ungulates are more closely related to the ocean-dwelling cetaceans than to the other even-toed ungulates. This makes the Artiodactyla as traditionally defined an invalid paraphyletic taxon, since it includes animals descended from a common ancestor, phylogenetic classification only recognizes monophyletic taxa, that is, groups that descend from a common ancestor and include all its descendants. To address this problem, the traditional order Artiodactyla and infraorder Cetacea are sometimes subsumed into the more inclusive Cetartiodactyla taxon, an alternative approach is to include both land-land dwelling even toed ungulates and ocean-dwelling cetaceans in a revised Artiodactyla taxon. Order Artiodactyla/Clade CetartiodactylaSuborder Tylopoda Family †Anoplotheriidae, molecular biology involves sequencing an organisms DNA and RNA and comparing the sequence with that of other living beings – the more similar they are, the more closely they are related
9.
Bovidae
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The Bovidae are the biological family of cloven-hoofed, ruminant mammals that includes bison, African buffalo, water buffalo, antelopes, gazelles, sheep, goats, muskoxen, and domestic cattle. A member of family is called a bovid. With 143 extant species and 300 known extinct species, the family Bovidae consists of eight major subfamilies apart from the disputed Peleinae and Pantholopinae, the family evolved 20 million years ago, in the early Miocene. The bovids show great variation in size and pelage colouration, excepting some domesticated forms, all male bovids have two or more horns, and in many species females possess horns, too. Most bovids bear 30 to 32 teeth, social activity and feeding usually peak during dawn and dusk. Bovids typically rest before dawn, during midday, and after dark and they have various methods of social organisation and social behaviour, which are classified into solitary and gregarious behaviour. Bovids use different forms of vocal, olfactory, and tangible communication, most species alternately feed and ruminate throughout the day. While small bovids forage in dense and closed habitat, larger species feed on vegetation in open grasslands. Mature bovids mate at least once a year and smaller species may even mate twice, the greatest diversities of bovids occur in Africa. The maximum concentration of species is in the savannas of eastern Africa, other bovid species also occur in Europe, Asia, and North America. Bovidae includes three of the five domesticated mammals whose use has spread outside their original ranges, namely cattle, sheep, dairy products such as milk, butter, and cheese are manufactured largely from domestic cattle. Bovids also provide leather, meat, and wool, the name Bovidae was given by the British zoologist John Edward Gray in 1821. The word Bovidae is the combination of the prefix bov- and the suffix -idae, the family Bovidae is placed in the order Artiodactyla. It includes 143 extant species, accounting for nearly 55% of the ungulates, molecular studies have supported monophyly in the family Bovidae. The number of subfamilies in Bovidae is disputed, with suggestions of as many as ten, in addition, three extinct subfamilies are known, Hypsodontinae, Oiocerinae and the subfamily Tethytraginae, which contains Tethytragus. In 1992, Alan W. Boodonts have somewhat primitive teeth, resembling those of oxen, a controversy exists about the recognition of Peleinae and Patholopinae, comprising the genera Pelea and Pantholops respectively, as subfamilies. Pantholops, earlier classified in the Antilopinae, was placed in its own subfamily. However, molecular and morphological analysis supports the inclusion of Pantholops in Caprinae, below is a cladogram based on Gatesy et al. and Gentry et al
10.
John Edward Gray
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John Edward Gray, FRS was a British zoologist. He was the brother of zoologist George Robert Gray and son of the pharmacologist and botanist Samuel Frederick Gray. Gray was Keeper of Zoology at the British Museum in London from 1840 until Christmas 1874 and he published several catalogues of the museum collections that included comprehensive discussions of animal groups as well as descriptions of new species. He improved the zoological collections to make them amongst the best in the world, Gray was born in Walsall, but his family soon moved to London, where Gray studied medicine. He assisted his father in writing The Natural Arrangement of British Plants, after being blackballed by the Linnean Society he turned his interest from botany to zoology. He began his career by volunteering to collect insects for the British Museum at age 15. He officially joined the Zoological Department in 1824 to help John George Children catalog the reptile collection, in 1840 he took over from Children as Keeper of Zoology, which he continued for 35 years, publishing well over 1000 papers. He named many species, genera, subfamilies, and families. During this period he collaborated with Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins, the natural history artist. Knowsley Park, near Liverpool, had been founded by Edward Stanley, Gray married Maria Emma Smith in 1826. She helped him with his work, especially with her drawings. In 1833, he was a founder of what became the Royal Entomological Society of London, during his fifty years employed at the British Museum Gray wrote nearly 500 papers, including many descriptions of species new to science. He was also active in malacology, the study of molluscs, on his death he was buried at St Marys Church, Lewisham. 1821, On the natural arrangement of Vertebrose Animals,1824, A revision of the family Equidae. 1824, On the natural arrangement of the pulmonobranchous Mollusca, annals of Philosophy, new series 8, 107–109. 1825, A list and description of species of shells not taken notice of by Lamarck. 1825, An outline of an attempt at the disposition of the Mammalia into tribes and families with a list of the genera apparently appertaining to each tribe, narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia. Performed between the years 1818 and 1822, with an Appendix, containing various subjects relating to hydrography and natural history
11.
Boselaphini
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Boselaphini is a tribe of antelopes belonging to the subfamily Bovinae of the family Bovidae. It contains only two extant genera, the Boselaphini or four-horned antelope tribe are the last survivors of a form very similar to that of the ancestors of the entire subfamily. The oldest fossil members of the tribe, such as Eotragus, such fossils possessed horns very similar to those of males belonging to the two living species, although in some cases, they were also present in females. Both extant species have relatively primitive anatomical and behavioural characteristics and the females have no horns and they are native to the rapidly diminishing forests of India, and tend to avoid open plains. The nilgai has been introduced into southern Texas where a population of a little under 15,000 animals provides some long-term insurance for its survival, the following are the genera classified under the tribe. Genera marked with † are extinct
12.
Tragelaphini
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Where the Boselaphini and Bovini are mostly Asian, members of the Tragelaphini tribe, the spiral-horned antelopes, are found only on the continent of Africa. This group tends to large size, a build, longer necks. Eight of the 10 species are of concern, being classified as lower-risk, conservation dependent. This has led to a change in taxonomy for several of the members of the group, assuming that the Elands are a separate genus, which most biologists seem to agree on, then all the more basal members of the group are deserving of their own genus. What was considered two genera is now considered five, the Evolution of Artiodactyls by Donald R. Prothero and Scott E. Foss 2. Ungulate Taxonomy by Peter Grubb and Colin Groves
13.
Edward Blyth
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Edward Blyth was an English zoologist who worked for most of his life in India as a curator of zoology at the museum of the Asiatic Society of India at Calcutta. Blyth was born in London in 1810, in 1841 he travelled to India to become the curator of the museum of the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal. He set about updating the museums catalogues, publishing a Catalogue of the Birds of the Asiatic Society in 1849 and he was prevented from doing much fieldwork himself, but received and described bird specimens from A. O. Hume, Samuel Tickell, Robert Swinhoe and others and he remained as curator until 1862, when ill-health forced his return to England. His Natural History of the Cranes was published posthumously in 1881, species bearing his name include Blyths hawk-eagle, Blyths reed warbler, Blyths leaf warbler and Blyths pipit. Blyth was the son of a clothier and his father died in 1820 and his mother sent him to Dr. Fennells school in Wimbledon. Here he took an interest in reading but was often to be spending time in the woods nearby. Leaving school in 1825, he went to study chemistry, at the suggestion of Dr. Fennell and he did not find the teaching satisfactory and began to work as a pharmacist in Tooting, but quit in 1837 to try his luck as an author and editor. He was offered the position of curator at the museum of the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1841 and he was so poor that he needed an advance of 100 pounds to make the trip to Calcutta. In India, Blyth was poorly paid, with a salary of 300 pounds per year, in this venture he sought the collaboration of eminent people such as Charles Darwin and John Gould, both of whom declined these offers. Although a curator of a museum with many responsibilities, he contributed mainly to ornithology, in 1847, his employers were unhappy at his failure to produce a catalogue of the museum. I could astonish you by various statements of what I have to put up with but forbear. He also found the ornithologist George Robert Gray, keeper at the British Museum and he complained to the trustees of the museum but it was dismissed with several character references in favour of Gray including Charles Darwin. Blyths work on led him to be recognized as the father of Indian ornithology a title later transferred to Allan Octavian Hume. Mr. Blyth, who is called the Father of Indian Ornithology, was by far the most important contributor to our knowledge of the Birds of India. As the head of the Asiatic Societys Museum, by intercourse and correspondence, formed a collection for the Society. Thus he did more for the study of the birds of India than all previous writers, there can be no work on Indian Ornithology without reference to his voluminous contributions. He married a widow, Mrs. Hodges who had moved to India and she however died in December 1857, a shock which led to his health deteriorating from then on. Edward Blyth wrote three articles on variation, discussing the effects of selection and describing the process in nature as restoring organisms in the wild to their archetype
14.
Bovini
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The closest relations to this tribe are the Boselaphini and Tragelaphini tribes. The common ancestor of all the Bovini species appears to have lived about 5–8 million years ago, the first clade to diverge was the buffalo clade. This was followed by the clade and the domestic cattle clade. A fourth clade leading to the bison and yak species may also exist
15.
Ungulate
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Most terrestrial ungulates use the tips of their toes, usually hoofed, to sustain their whole body weight while moving. The term means, roughly, being hoofed or hoofed animal, ungulates are typically herbivorous, and many employ specialized gut bacteria to allow them to digest cellulose, as in the case of ruminants. They inhabit a range of habitats, including jungles, plains. Ungulata, which used to be considered an order, has split into the following, Perissodactyla, Artiodactyla, Tubulidentata, Hyracoidea, Sirenia, Proboscidea. This is an example of convergent evolution. There is now some dispute as to whether this smaller Ungulata is a cladistic group, some studies have indeed found the mesaxonian ungulates and paraxonian ungulates to form a monophyletic lineage, closely related to either the Ferae in the clade Fereuungulata or to the bats. Below is a simplified taxonomy with the extant families, in order of the relationships, keep in mind that there are still some grey areas of conflict, such as the case with relationship of the pecoran families and the baleen whale families. See each family for the relationships of the species as well as the controversies in their respective article, Perissodactyla and Artiodactyla include the majority of large land mammals. These two groups first appeared during the late Paleocene, rapidly spreading to a variety of species on numerous continents. In Australia, the marsupial Chaeropus also developed hooves, convergent those of artiodactyls, perissodactyls are said to have evolved from the Phenacodontidae, small, sheep-sized animals that already shown signs of anatomical features that their descendents will inherit. By the start of the Eocene,55 million years ago, they had diversified, horses and tapirs both evolved in North America, rhinoceroses appear to have developed in Asia from tapir-like animals and then colonised the Americas during the middle Eocene. Of the approximately 15 families, only three survive and these families were very diverse in form and size, they included the enormous brontotheres and the bizarre chalicotheres. The largest perissodactyl, an Asian rhinoceros called Paraceratherium, reached 15 tonnes, the desmostylians were large amphibious quadrupeds with massive limbs and a short tail. They grew to 1.8 metres in length and are thought to have weighed more than 200 kilograms. Their fossils are known from the northern Pacific Rim, from southern Japan through Russia, the Aleutian Islands and their dental and skeletal form suggests desmostylians were aquatic herbivores dependent on littoral habitats. They are the marine mammals to have gone extinct. For a while their relationships with other ungulates was a mystery, a recent study based on bone collagen as also found that to suggest that at least litopterns and the notoungulates were closely related to the perissodactyls. The oldest known fossils assigned to Equidae date from the early Eocene,54 million years ago
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Cattle
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Cattle—colloquially cows—are the most common type of large domesticated ungulates. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae, are the most widespread species of the genus Bos, cattle are raised as livestock for meat, as dairy animals for milk and other dairy products, and as draft animals. Other products include leather and dung for manure or fuel, in some regions, such as parts of India, cattle have significant religious meaning. From as few as 80 progenitors domesticated in southeast Turkey about 10,500 years ago, according to an estimate from 2011, in 2009, cattle became one of the first livestock animals to have a fully mapped genome. Some consider cattle the oldest form of wealth, and cattle raiding consequently one of the earliest forms of theft. Cattle were originally identified as three species, Bos taurus, the European or taurine cattle, Bos indicus, the zebu, and the extinct Bos primigenius. The aurochs is ancestral to both zebu and taurine cattle and these have been reclassified as one species, Bos taurus, with three subspecies, Bos taurus primigenius, Bos taurus indicus, and Bos taurus taurus. Complicating the matter is the ability of cattle to interbreed with other related species. Hybrid individuals and even breeds exist, not only between taurine cattle and zebu, but also one or both of these and some other members of the genus Bos – yaks, banteng. Hybrids such as the breed can even occur between taurine cattle and either species of bison, leading some authors to consider them part of the genus Bos. However, cattle cannot successfully be hybridized with more distantly related bovines such as water buffalo or African buffalo, the aurochs originally ranged throughout Europe, North Africa, and much of Asia. In historical times, its range became restricted to Europe, breeders have attempted to recreate cattle of similar appearance to aurochs by crossing traditional types of domesticated cattle, creating the Heck cattle breed. Cattle did not originate as the term for bovine animals and it was borrowed from Anglo-Norman catel, itself from medieval Latin capitale principal sum of money, capital, itself derived in turn from Latin caput head. Cattle originally meant movable personal property, especially livestock of any kind, the word is a variant of chattel and closely related to capital in the economic sense. The term replaced earlier Old English feoh cattle, property, which today as fee. The word cow came via Anglo-Saxon cū, from Common Indo-European gʷōus = a bovine animal, compare Persian gâv, Sanskrit go-, Welsh buwch. The plural cȳ became ki or kie in Middle English, and a plural ending was often added, giving kine, kien. This is the origin of the now archaic English plural, kine, the Scots language singular is coo or cou, and the plural is kye
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Bison
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Bison are large, even-toed ungulates in the genus Bison within the subfamily Bovinae. Two extant and four species are recognized. Of the four species, three were North American endemics, Bison antiquus, B. latifrons, and B. occidentalis. The fourth, B. priscus, ranged across steppe environments from Western Europe, through Central Asia, East Asia including Japan, of the two surviving species, the American bison, B. bison, found only in North America, is the more numerous. Although sometimes referred to historically as a buffalo, it is distantly related to the true buffalo. The North American species is composed of two subspecies, the Plains bison, B. b. bison, and the Wood bison, B. b. athabascae, which is the namesake of Wood Buffalo National Park in Canada. A third subspecies, the Eastern Woodland Bison is no longer considered a valid taxon, references to Woods Bison or Wood Bison from the eastern United States confusingly refer to this subspecies, not B. b. athabascae, which was not found in the region. The European bison B. bonasus, or wisent, is found in Europe, while all bison species are classified in their own genus, they are sometimes bred with domestic cattle and produce fertile offspring called beefalo or zubron. The American bison and the European bison are the largest surviving terrestrial animals in North America, Bison are good swimmers and can cross rivers over half a mile wide. They are nomadic grazers and travel in herds, the bulls leave the herds of females at two or three years of age, and join a male herd, which are generally smaller than female herds. Towards the end of the summer, for the reproductive season, American bison are known for living in the Great Plains, but formerly had a much larger range including much of the eastern United States and parts of Mexico. The American Plains bison is no longer listed as endangered, genetically pure B. b. bison currently number only ~20,000, separated into fragmented herds - all of which require active conservation measures. Although superficially similar, physical and behavioural differences exist between the American and European bison, the American species has 15 ribs, while the European bison has 14. The American bison has four lumbar vertebrae, while the European has five, adult American bison are less slim in build and have shorter legs. American bison tend to more, and browse less than their European relatives. Their anatomies reflect this difference, the American bisons head hangs lower than the Europeans. The body of the American bison is hairier, though its tail has less hair than that of the European bison. American bison are more easily tamed than their European cousins, the bovine tribe split about 5 to 10 million years ago into the buffalos and a group leading to bison and taurine cattle
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Domestic yak
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The domestic yak is a long-haired domesticated bovid found throughout the Himalaya region of southern Central Asia, the Tibetan Plateau and as far north as Mongolia and Russia. It is descended from the wild yak, the English word yak is a loan originating from Tibetan, གཡག་, Wylie, g. yag. In Tibetan, it only to the male of the species. In English, as in most other languages that have borrowed the word, Yaks belong to the genus Bos and are therefore related to cattle. Mitochondrial DNA analyses to determine the history of yaks have been inconclusive. Except where the wild yak is considered as a subspecies of Bos grunniens, Yaks are heavily built animals with a bulky frame, sturdy legs, and rounded cloven hooves, and extremely dense, long fur that hangs down lower than the belly. While wild yaks are generally dark, blackish to brown, in colouration, domestic yaks can be variable in colour, often having patches of rusty brown. They have small ears and a forehead, with smooth horns that are generally dark in colour. In males, the horns sweep out from the sides of the head, the horns of females are smaller, only 27 to 64 cm in length, and have a more upright shape. Both sexes have a neck with a pronounced hump over the shoulders, although this is larger. Males weigh 350 to 580 kg, females weigh 225 to 255 kg, wild yaks can be substantially heavier, males reaching weights of up to 1,000 kilograms. Both sexes have long hair with a dense woolly undercoat over the chest, flanks. Especially in males, this may form a skirt that can reach the ground. The tail is long and horselike rather than tufted like the tails of cattle or bison, domesticated yaks have a wide range of coat colours, with some individuals being white, grey, brown, roan or piebald. The udder in females and the scrotum in males are small and hairy, Yaks grunt and, unlike cattle, are not known to produce the characteristic bovine lowing sound, which inspired the scientific names of both yak variants, Bos grunniens and Bos mutus. Conversely, yaks do not thrive at lower altitudes, and begin to suffer from heat exhaustion above about 15 °C, further adaptations to the cold include a thick layer of subcutaneous fat, and an almost complete lack of functional sweat glands. Compared with domestic cattle, the rumen of yaks is unusually large and this likely allows them to consume greater quantities of low-quality food at a time, and to ferment it longer so as to extract more nutrients. Yak consume the equivalent of 1% of their body weight daily while cattle require 3% to maintain condition, contrary to popular belief, yak and their manure have little to no detectable odour when maintained appropriately in pastures or paddocks with adequate access to forage and water
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Antelope
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An antelope is a member of a number of even-toed ungulate species indigenous to various regions in Africa and Eurasia. Antelopes comprise a wastebasket taxon within the family Bovidae, encompassing those Old World species that are not cattle, sheep, buffalo, bison, a group of antelope is called a herd. It perhaps derives from Greek anthos and ops, perhaps meaning beautiful eye or alluding to the animals long eyelashes and this, however, may be a later folk etymology. The word talopus and calopus, from Latin, came to be used in heraldry, in 1607, it was first used for living, cervine animals. The 91 species, most of which are native to Africa, the classification of tribes or subfamilies within Bovidae is still a matter of debate, with several alternative systems proposed. Antelope are not a cladistic or taxonomically defined group, the term is used to describe all members of the family Bovidae that do not fall under the category of sheep, cattle, or goats. Usually, all species of the Alcelaphinae, Antilopinae, Hippotraginae, Reduncinae, Cephalophinae, many Bovinae, the grey rhebok, and the impala are called antelopes. No antelope species is native to Australasia or Antarctica, nor do any extant species occur in the Americas, North America is currently home to the native pronghorn, which taxonomists do not consider a member of the antelope group, but which is locally referred to as such. More species of antelope are native to Africa than to any other continent, almost exclusively in savannahs, other species occur in Asia, the Arabian Peninsula is home to the Arabian oryx and Dorcas gazelle. India is home to the nilgai, chinkara, blackbuck, Tibetan antelope, and four-horned antelope, while Russia and Central Asia have the Tibetan antelope, many species of antelopes have been imported to other parts of the world, especially the United States, for exotic game hunting. With some species possessing spectacular leaping and evasive skills, individuals may escape, Texas in particular has many game ranches, as well as habitats and climates, that are very hospitable to African and Asian plains antelope species. Accordingly, wild populations of antelope, gemsbok, and nilgai may be found in Texas. Antelope live in a range of habitats. Numerically, most live in the African savannahs, species living in forests, woodland, or bush tend to be sedentary, but many of the plains species undertake long migrations. These enable grass-eating species to follow the rains and thereby their food supply, the gnus and gazelles of East Africa perform some of the most impressive mass migratory circuits of all mammals. For example, a male common eland can measure 178 cm at the shoulder and weigh almost 950 kg, whereas an adult royal antelope may stand only 24 cm at the shoulder and weigh a mere 1.5 kg. Not surprisingly for animals with long, slender yet powerful legs, many antelopes have long strides, some are also adapted to inhabiting rock koppies and crags. Both dibatags and gerenuks habitually stand on their two legs to reach acacia and other tree foliage
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Cloven hoof
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A cloven hoof, cleft hoof, divided hoof or split hoof is a hoof split into two toes. This is found on members of the mammalian order Artiodactyla, examples of mammals that possess this type of hoof are cattle, deer, antelopes, gazelles, goats, and sheep. In folklore and popular culture, a cloven hoof has long associated with the Devil. The two digits of cloven hoofed animals are homologous to the third and fourth fingers of the hand and they are called claws and are named for their relative location on the foot, the outer, or lateral, claw and the inner, or medial claw. The space between the two claws is called the interdigital cleft, the area of skin is called the interdigital skin, the hard outer covering of the hoof is called the hoof wall, or horn. It is a surface, similar to the human fingernail. The five-toed ancestors of the earliest Eocene had already developed feet that suggest odd-toed and even-toed descendants to the modern viewer, the distinction between cloven and uncloven hooves is highly relevant for dietary laws of Judaism, as set forth in the Torah and the Talmud. Animals that both chew their cud and have split true cloven hooves are allowed for Jewish consumption and those animals that have neither of these two characteristics, or only one of the characteristics, are considered unclean animals and Jews are forbidden to eat them. Similarly, the pig, although it has cloven hooves, does not ruminate. Other animals such as dogs or cats exhibit neither characteristic, and are also forbidden for Jewish consumption. Food laws of Judaism concerning cloven hooves in the Torah and in Maimonides’ Code of Jewish Law
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Horn (anatomy)
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A horn is a permanent pointed projection on the head of various animals consisting of a covering of keratin and other proteins surrounding a core of live bone. Horns are distinct to antlers which are not permanent, in mammals, true horns are found mainly among the ruminant artiodactyls, in the families Antilocapridae and Bovidae. One pair of horns is usual, however, two or more occur in a few wild species and domesticated breeds of sheep. Polycerate sheep breeds include the Hebridean, Icelandic, Jacob, Manx Loaghtan, horns usually have a curved or spiral shape, often with ridges or fluting. In many species only males have horns, horns start to grow soon after birth, and continue to grow throughout the life of the animal. Partial or deformed horns in livestock are called scurs, similar growths on other parts of the body are not usually called horns, but spurs, claws or hoofs depending on the part of the body on which they occur. These are covered with furred skin, cervidae, Most deer have antlers, which are not true horns. When fully developed, antlers are dead bone without a horn or skin covering, they are only by adults and are shed. Rhinocerotidae, The horns of rhinoceroses are made of keratin, the substance as fingernails, and grow continuously. Chamaeleonidae, Many chameleons, most notably the Jacksons Chameleon, possess horns on their skulls, ceratopsidae, The horns of the Triceratops were extensions of its skull bones although debate exists over whether they had a keratin covering. Horned lizards, These lizards have horns on their heads which have a keratin covering over a bony core. Insects, Some insects have horn-like structures on the head or thorax and these are pointed outgrowths of the hard chitinous exoskeleton. Some have greatly enlarged jaws, also made of chitin, canidae, Golden jackals are known to occasionally develop a horny growth on the skull, which is associated with magical powers in south-eastern Asia. Many mammal species in various families have tusks, which serve the same functions as horns. These include the Moschidae, Suidae, Proboscidea, Monodontidae and Odobenidae, Polled animals or pollards are those of normally-horned species whose horns have been removed, or which have not grown. In some cases animals have small horny growths in the skin where their horns would be – these are known as scurs. Cutaneous horns are the examples of horns growing on people. They are most often benign growths and can be removed by a razor, cases of people growing horns have been historically described, sometimes with mythical status
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Gaur
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The gaur, also called Indian bison, is the largest extant bovine, native to South Asia and Southeast Asia. The species has listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List since 1986. Population trends are stable in well-protected areas, and are rebuilding in a few areas which had been neglected, the gaur is the tallest species of wild cattle. The Malayan gaur is called seladang, and the Burmese gaur is called pyoung ပြောင်, the domesticated form of the gaur is called gayal or mithun. The gaur is a strong and massively built species with a high ridge on the forehead between the horns, which bends forward, causing a deep hollow in the profile of the upper part of the head. There is a prominent ridge on the back, the ears are very large, the tail only just reaches the hocks, and in old bulls the hair becomes very thin on the back. The cows and young bulls are paler, and in some instances have a rufous tinge, the tail is shorter than in the typical oxen, reaching only to the hocks. They have a ridge running from the shoulders to the middle of the back. This ridge is caused by the length of the spinous processes of the vertebrae of the fore-part of the trunk as compared with those of the loins. The hair is short, fine and glossy, and the hooves are narrow, the gaur has a head-and-body length of 250 to 330 cm with a 70 to 105 cm long tail, and is 165 to 220 cm high at the shoulder. The average weight of adult gaur is 650 to 1,000 kg, males are about one-fourth larger and heavier than females. In general measurements are derived from gaurs surveyed in India and China, the Seladang, or Malayasian subspecies, may average larger but no scientifically published measurements are known. Gaur do not have a dewlap on the throat and chest. Both sexes carry horns, which grow from the sides of the head, between the horns is a high convex ridge on the forehead. At their bases they present an elliptical cross-section, a characteristic that is strongly marked in bulls than in cows. The horns are decidedly flattened at the base and regularly curved throughout their length, the colour of the horns is some shade of pale green or yellow throughout the greater part of their length, but the tips are black. The horns, of size by large bovid standards, grow to a length of 60 to 115 cm. The cow is considerably lighter in make and in colour than the bull, the horns are more slender and upright, with more inward curvature, and the frontal ridge is scarcely perceptible
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Milk
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Milk is a pale liquid produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It is the source of nutrition for infant mammals before they are able to digest other types of food. Early-lactation milk contains colostrum, which carries the mothers antibodies to its young and it contains many other nutrients including protein and lactose. As an agricultural product, milk is extracted from non-human mammals during or soon after pregnancy, Dairy farms produced about 730 million tonnes of milk in 2011, from 260 million dairy cows. India is the worlds largest producer of milk, and is the leading exporter of skimmed milk powder, the ever increasing rise in domestic demand for dairy products and a large demand-supply gap could lead to India being a net importer of dairy products in the future. The United States, India, China and Brazil are the worlds largest exporters of milk and milk products, China and Russia were the worlds largest importers of milk and milk products until 2016 when both countries became self-sufficient, contributing to a worldwide glut of milk. Throughout the world, there are more than six billion consumers of milk and milk products, over 750 million people live in dairy farming households. The term milk comes from Old English meoluc, milc, from Proto-Germanic *meluks milk, there are two distinct types of milk consumption, a natural source of nutrition for all infant mammals and a food product for humans of all ages that is derived from other animals. In almost all mammals, milk is fed to infants through breastfeeding, the early milk from mammals is called colostrum. Colostrum contains antibodies that provide protection to the baby as well as nutrients. The makeup of the colostrum and the period of secretion varies from species to species, for humans, the World Health Organization recommends exclusive breastfeeding for six months and breastfeeding in addition to other food for at least two years. In some cultures it is common to breastfeed children for three to five years, and the period may be longer, fresh goats milk is sometimes substituted for breast milk. This introduces the risk of the child developing electrolyte imbalances, metabolic acidosis, megaloblastic anemia, in many cultures of the world, especially the West, humans continue to consume milk beyond infancy, using the milk of other animals as a food product. Initially, the ability to digest milk was limited to children as adults did not produce lactase, Milk was therefore converted to curd, cheese and other products to reduce the levels of lactose. Thousands of years ago, a chance mutation spread in human populations in Europe that enabled the production of lactase in adulthood and this allowed milk to be used as a new source of nutrition which could sustain populations when other food sources failed. Milk is processed into a variety of products such as cream, butter, yogurt, kefir, ice cream. Modern industrial processes use milk to produce casein, whey protein, lactose, condensed milk, powdered milk, whole milk, butter and cream have high levels of saturated fat. The sugar lactose is found only in milk, forsythia flowers, the enzyme needed to digest lactose, lactase, reaches its highest levels in the small intestine after birth and then begins a slow decline unless milk is consumed regularly
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Meat
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Meat is animal flesh that is eaten as food. Humans have hunted and killed animals for meat since prehistoric times, the advent of civilization allowed the domestication of animals such as chickens, sheep, pigs and cattle. This eventually led to their use in production on an industrial scale with the aid of slaughterhouses. Meat is mainly composed of water, protein, and fat and it is edible raw, but is normally eaten after it has been cooked and seasoned or processed in a variety of ways. Unprocessed meat will spoil or rot within hours or days as a result of infection with and decomposition by bacteria, most often, meat refers to skeletal muscle and associated fat and other tissues, but it may also describe other edible tissues such as offal. The word meat comes from the Old English word mete, which referred to food in general, the term is related to mad in Danish, mat in Swedish and Norwegian, and matur in Icelandic and Faroese, which also mean food. The word mete also exists in Old Frisian to denote important food, differentiating it from swiets, paleontological evidence suggests that meat constituted a substantial proportion of the diet of even the earliest humans. Early hunter-gatherers depended on the hunting of large animals such as bison. Several breeds of sheep were established in ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt by 3500–3000 BC, today, more than 200 sheep-breeds exist. Cattle were domesticated in Mesopotamia after settled agriculture was established about 5000 BC, modern domesticated cattle fall into the groups Bos taurus and Bos indicus, both descended from the now-extinct aurochs. The breeding of cattle, cattle optimized for meat production as opposed to animals best suited for draught or dairy purposes. Domestic pigs, which are descended from boars, are known to have existed about 2500 BC in modern-day Hungary and in Troy, earlier pottery from Jericho. Pork sausages and hams were of commercial importance in Greco-Roman times. Pigs continue to be bred intensively as they are being optimized to produce meat best suited for meat products. Other animals are or have raised or hunted for their flesh. The type of meat consumed varies much between different cultures, changes over time, depending on such as tradition and the availability of the animals. The amount and kind of meat consumed also varies by income, horses are commonly eaten in France, Italy, Germany and Japan, among other countries. Horses and other mammals such as reindeer were hunted during the late Paleolithic in western Europe
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Livestock
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Livestock are domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to produce commodities such as food, fiber, and labor. The term is used to refer solely to those raised for food. In recent years, some organizations have also raised livestock to promote the survival of rare breeds, animal husbandry practices have varied widely across cultures and time periods. Originally, livestock were not confined by fences or enclosures, but these practices have largely shifted to intensive animal farming and these practices increase yield of the various commercial outputs, but have led to increased concerns about animal welfare and environmental impact. Livestock production continues to play an economic and cultural role in numerous rural communities. Livestock as a word was first used between 1650 and 1660, as a merger between the live and stock. Older English sources, such as the King James Version of the Bible, the word cattle is derived from Old North French catel, which meant all kinds of movable personal property, including livestock, which was differentiated from immovable real estate. In later English, sometimes smaller livestock such as chickens and pigs were referred to as small cattle, today, the modern meaning of cattle, without a modifier, usually refers to domesticated bovines, but sometimes livestock refers only to this subgroup. Legal definition United States federal legislation sometimes more narrowly defines the term to make specified agricultural commodities either eligible or ineligible for a program or activity, for example, the Livestock Mandatory Reporting Act of 1999 defines livestock only as cattle, swine, and sheep. Animal-rearing originated during the transition to settled farming communities from hunter-gatherer lifestyles. Animals are domesticated when their breeding and living conditions are controlled by humans, over time, the collective behaviour, lifecycle and physiology of livestock have changed radically. Many modern farm animals are unsuited to life in the wild, dogs were domesticated in East Asia about 15,000 years ago. Goats and sheep were domesticated around 8000 BC in Asia, swine or pigs were domesticated by 7000 BC in the Middle East and China. The earliest evidence of horse domestication dates to around 4000 BC, the term livestock is nebulous and may be defined narrowly or broadly. Broadly, livestock refers to any breed or population of animal kept by humans for a useful and this can mean domestic animals, semidomestic animals, or captive wild animals. Semidomesticated refers to animals which are only lightly domesticated or of disputed status and these populations may also be in the process of domestication. Some people may use the term livestock to refer to only used for red meat. Livestock are used by humans for a variety of purposes, many of which have an economic value, Livestock products include, Meat A useful form of dietary protein and energy, meat is the edible tissue of the animal carcass
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India
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India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and it is bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast. It shares land borders with Pakistan to the west, China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the northeast, in the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Indias Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a border with Thailand. The Indian subcontinent was home to the urban Indus Valley Civilisation of the 3rd millennium BCE, in the following millennium, the oldest scriptures associated with Hinduism began to be composed. Social stratification, based on caste, emerged in the first millennium BCE, early political consolidations took place under the Maurya and Gupta empires, the later peninsular Middle Kingdoms influenced cultures as far as southeast Asia. In the medieval era, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam arrived, much of the north fell to the Delhi sultanate, the south was united under the Vijayanagara Empire. The economy expanded in the 17th century in the Mughal empire, in the mid-18th century, the subcontinent came under British East India Company rule, and in the mid-19th under British crown rule. A nationalist movement emerged in the late 19th century, which later, under Mahatma Gandhi, was noted for nonviolent resistance, in 2015, the Indian economy was the worlds seventh largest by nominal GDP and third largest by purchasing power parity. Following market-based economic reforms in 1991, India became one of the major economies and is considered a newly industrialised country. However, it continues to face the challenges of poverty, corruption, malnutrition, a nuclear weapons state and regional power, it has the third largest standing army in the world and ranks sixth in military expenditure among nations. India is a constitutional republic governed under a parliamentary system. It is a pluralistic, multilingual and multi-ethnic society and is home to a diversity of wildlife in a variety of protected habitats. The name India is derived from Indus, which originates from the Old Persian word Hindu, the latter term stems from the Sanskrit word Sindhu, which was the historical local appellation for the Indus River. The ancient Greeks referred to the Indians as Indoi, which translates as The people of the Indus, the geographical term Bharat, which is recognised by the Constitution of India as an official name for the country, is used by many Indian languages in its variations. Scholars believe it to be named after the Vedic tribe of Bharatas in the second millennium B. C. E and it is also traditionally associated with the rule of the legendary emperor Bharata. Gaṇarājya is the Sanskrit/Hindi term for republic dating back to the ancient times, hindustan is a Persian name for India dating back to the 3rd century B. C. E. It was introduced into India by the Mughals and widely used since then and its meaning varied, referring to a region that encompassed northern India and Pakistan or India in its entirety
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Nepal
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Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked central Himalayan country in South Asia. Nepal is divided into 7 provinces and 75 districts and 744 local units including 4 metropolises,13 sub-metropolises,246 municipal councils and 481 village and it has a population of 26.4 million and is the 93rd largest country by area. Bordering China in the north and India in the south, east, Nepal does not border Bangladesh, which is located within only 27 km of its southeastern tip. It neither borders Bhutan due to the Indian state of Sikkim being located in between, Nepal has a diverse geography, including fertile plains, subalpine forested hills, and eight of the worlds ten tallest mountains, including Mount Everest, the highest point on Earth. Kathmandu is the capital and largest city. It is a nation with Nepali as the official language. The territory of Nepal has a history since the Neolithic age. The name Nepal is first recorded in texts from the Vedic Age, the era which founded Hinduism, in the middle of the first millennium BCE, Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, was born in southern Nepal. Parts of northern Nepal were intertwined with the culture of Tibet, the Kathmandu Valley in central Nepal became known as Nepal proper because of its complex urban civilization. It was the seat of the prosperous Newar confederacy known as Nepal Mandala, the Himalayan branch of the ancient Silk Road was dominated by the valleys traders. The cosmopolitan region developed distinct traditional art and architecture, by the 18th century, the Gorkha Kingdom achieved the unification of Nepal. The Shah dynasty established the Kingdom of Nepal and later formed an alliance with the British Empire, the country was never colonized but served as a buffer state between Imperial China and Colonial India. In the 20th century, Nepal ended its isolation and forged ties with regional powers. Parliamentary democracy was introduced in 1951, but was suspended by Nepalese monarchs in 1960 and 2005. The Nepalese Civil War resulted in the proclamation of a republic in 2008, modern Nepal is a federal secular parliamentary republic. Nepal is a nation, ranking 144th on the Human Development Index in 2016. The country struggles with the transition from a monarchy to a republic and it also suffers from high levels of hunger and poverty. Despite these challenges, Nepal is making progress, with the government declaring its commitment to elevate the nation from least developed country status by 2022
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Food and drink prohibitions
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Some people abstain from consuming various foods and beverages in conformity with various religious, cultural, legal or other societal prohibitions. Many of these prohibitions constitute taboos, some prohibitions are specific to a particular part or excretion of an animal, while others forgo the consumption of plants or fungi. Food prohibitions can be defined as rules, codified by religion or otherwise, about which foods, or combinations of foods, may not be eaten, the origins of these prohibitions are varied. In some cases, they are thought to be a result of health considerations or other reasons, in others. Some foods may be prohibited during certain periods, at certain stages of life, or to certain classes of people. Various religions forbid the consumption of certain types of food, for example, Judaism prescribes a strict set of rules, called Kashrut, regarding what may and may not be eaten, and notably forbidding the mixing of meat with dairy products. Islam has similar laws, dividing foods into haraam and halal, jains often follow religious directives to observe vegetarianism. Most Hindus do not eat beef, and some Hindus apply the concept of ahimsa to their diet and consider vegetarianism as ideal, in some cases, the process of preparation rather than the food itself comes under scrutiny. The Kapu system was used in Hawaii until 1819, aside from formal rules, there are cultural taboos against the consumption of some animals. Within a given society, some meats will be considered to be not for consumption that are outside the range of the accepted definition of a foodstuff. Novel meats, i. e. animal-derived food products not familiar to an individual or to a culture, generally provoke a disgust reaction, which may be expressed as a cultural taboo. For example, although dog meat is eaten, in circumstances, in Korea, Vietnam. Likewise, horse meat is eaten in the English-speaking world, although it is part of the national cuisine of countries as widespread as Kazakhstan, Japan, Italy. Sometimes food prohibitions enter national or local law, as with the ban on cattle abattoirs in most of India, even after reversion to Chinese rule, Hong Kong has not lifted its ban on supplying meat from dogs and cats, imposed during British colonial rule. Environmentalism, ethical consumerism and other activist movements are giving rise to new prohibitions, a fairly recent addition to cultural food prohibitions is the meat and eggs of endangered species or animals that are otherwise protected by law or international treaty. Examples of such protected species include species of whales, sea turtles. Similarly, sustainable seafood advisory lists and certification discourage the consumption of certain seafoods due to unsustainable fishing, organic certification prohibits certain synthetic chemical inputs during food production, or genetically modified organisms, irradiation, and the use of sewage sludge. The Fair Trade movement and certification discourage the consumption of food, Judaism strictly forbids the consumption of amphibians, such as frogs
29.
Hindu
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Hindu refers to any person who regards themselves as culturally, ethnically, or religiously adhering to aspects of Hinduism. It has historically used as a geographical, cultural, or religious identifier for people indigenous to South Asia. The historical meaning of the term Hindu has evolved with time, by the 16th century, the term began to refer to residents of India who were not Turks or Muslims. The historical development of Hindu self-identity within the Indian population, in a religious or cultural sense, is unclear, competing theories state that Hindu identity developed in the British colonial era, or that it developed post-8th century CE after the Islamic invasion and medieval Hindu-Muslim wars. A sense of Hindu identity and the term Hindu appears in texts dated between the 13th and 18th century in Sanskrit and regional languages. The 14th- and 18th-century Indian poets such as Vidyapati, Kabir and Eknath used the phrase Hindu dharma, the Christian friar Sebastiao Manrique used the term Hindu in religious context in 1649. In the 18th century, the European merchants and colonists began to refer to the followers of Indian religions collectively as Hindus, in contrast to Mohamedans for Mughals, scholars state that the custom of distinguishing between Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs is a modern phenomenon. Hindoo is a spelling variant, whose use today may be considered derogatory. At more than 1.03 billion, Hindus are the third largest group after Christians. The vast majority of Hindus, approximately 966 million, live in India, according to Indias 2011 census. After India, the next 9 countries with the largest Hindu populations are, in decreasing order, Nepal, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, United States, Malaysia, United Kingdom and Myanmar. These together accounted for 99% of the worlds Hindu population, the word Hindu is derived from the Indo-Aryan and Sanskrit word Sindhu, which means a large body of water, covering river, ocean. It was used as the name of the Indus river and also referred to its tributaries, the Punjab region, called Sapta Sindhava in the Vedas, is called Hapta Hindu in Zend Avesta. The 6th-century BCE inscription of Darius I mentions the province of Hidush, the people of India were referred to as Hinduvān and hindavī was used as the adjective for Indian in the 8th century text Chachnama. The term Hindu in these ancient records is an ethno-geographical term, the Arabic equivalent Al-Hind likewise referred to the country of India. Among the earliest known records of Hindu with connotations of religion may be in the 7th-century CE Chinese text Record of the Western Regions by the Buddhist scholar Xuanzang, Xuanzang uses the transliterated term In-tu whose connotation overflows in the religious according to Arvind Sharma. The Hindu community occurs as the amorphous Other of the Muslim community in the court chronicles, wilfred Cantwell Smith notes that Hindu retained its geographical reference initially, Indian, indigenous, local, virtually native. Slowly, the Indian groups themselves started using the term, differentiating themselves, the poet Vidyapatis poem Kirtilata contrasts the cultures of Hindus and Turks in a city and concludes The Hindus and the Turks live close together, Each makes fun of the others religion
30.
Riding animal
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A working animal is an animal, usually domesticated, that is kept by humans and trained to perform tasks. They may be members of the family, such as guide dogs or other assistance dogs, or they may be animals trained to provide tractive force. The latter types of animals are called animals or beasts of burden. Most working animals are either service animals or draft animals and they may also be used for milking or herding, jobs that require human training to encourage the animal to cooperate. Some, at the end of their lives, may also be used for meat or other products such as leather. The history of working animals may predate agriculture, with used by our hunter-gatherer ancestors. Around the world, millions of animals work in relationship with their owners, domesticated species are often bred to be suitable for different uses and conditions, especially horses and working dogs. Working animals are raised on farms, though some are still captured from the wild, such as dolphins. People have found uses for a variety of abilities found in animals. The strength of horses, elephants and oxen is used in pulling carts, the keen sense of smell of dogs is used to search for drugs and explosives as well helping to find game while hunting and to search for missing or trapped people. Several animals including camels, donkeys, horses and dogs are used for transport, either riding or to pull wagons, other animals including dogs and monkeys provide assistance to blind or disabled people. Conversely, not all domesticated animals are working animals, for example, while cats may perform work catching mice, it is an instinctive behavior, not one that can be trained by human intervention. Other domesticated animals, such as sheep, or rabbits, may have uses for meat, hides and wool. Finally, small pets such as most birds or hamsters are generally incapable of performing work other than that of providing simple companionship. Some animals are used due to physical strength in tasks such as ploughing or logging. Such animals are grouped as a draught or draft animal, others may be used as pack animals, for animal-powered transport, the movement of people and goods. People ride some animals directly as mounts, Alternatively, one or more animals in harness may be used to pull vehicles and they include equines such as horses, ponies, donkeys, and mules, elephants, yaks, and camels. Dromedary camels in arid areas of Australia, North Africa and the Middle East, on occasion, reindeer, though usually driven, may be ridden
31.
Four-horned antelope
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The four-horned antelope, or chousingha, is a small antelope found in India and Nepal. This antelope has four horns, which distinguish it from most other bovids, the sole member of the genus Tetracerus, the species was first described by French zoologist Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville in 1816. The four-horned antelope stands nearly 55–64 centimetres at the shoulder and weighs nearly 17–22 kilograms, slender with thin legs and a short tail, the four-horned antelope has a yellowish brown to reddish coat. One pair of horns is located between the ears, and the other on the forehead, the posterior horns are always longer than the anterior horns, which might be mere fur-covered studs. While the posterior horns measure 8–12 centimetres, the ones are 2–5 centimetres long. Though solitary by nature, four-horned antelopes may form groups of three to five –with one or more adults, sometimes accompanied by juveniles. This elusive antelope feeds on grasses, herbs, shrubs, foliage, flowers and it needs to drink water frequently, as such it stays in places near water sources. The breeding behaviour of the four-horned antelope has not been well studied, the age at which they reach sexual maturity and the season when mating occurs have not been understood well. Gestation lasts about eight months, following one or two calves are born. They are kept concealed for the first few weeks of their birth, the young remain with the mother for about a year. Four-horned antelopes tend to inhabit areas with significant grass cover or heavy undergrowth, earlier common throughout deciduous forests in India, the antelope now occurs in widely disjunct, small populations. Most of the populations are in India, and lower numbers can be found in adjoining Nepal, the four-horned antelope is threatened by the loss of its natural habitat due to agricultural expansion. Moreover, the unusual four-horned skull and the horns have been a target for trophy hunters. The four-horned antelope is classified as Vulnerable by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, the scientific name of the four-horned antelope is Tetracerus quadricornis. The generic name Tetracerus is the combination of two Greek words, tetra and ceros, the specific name quadricornis is derived from two Latin words, quadri and cornu. The four-horned antelope is known by several names, chausingha, chowsingha, chousingha, doda, ghutri, kondu kuri, chauka. The four-horned antelope is the member of the genus Tetracerus. The species was first described by French zoologist Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville in 1816, the four-horned antelope has only one other relative in the tribe Boselaphini, the nilgai
32.
Nilgai
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The nilgai or blue bull is the largest Asian antelope and is endemic to the Indian subcontinent. The sole member of the genus Boselaphus, the species was described, the nilgai stands 1–1.5 metres at the shoulder, males weigh 109–288 kilograms, and the lighter females 100–213 kilograms. A column of pendant coarse hair hangs from the ridge below the white patch. Sexual dimorphism is prominent – while females and juveniles are orange to tawny, only males possess horns, 15–24 centimetres long. The animals band together in three kinds of groups, one or two females with young calves, three to six adult and yearling females with calves, and all-male groups with two to 18 members. Typically tame, the nilgai may appear timid and cautious if harassed or alarmed, it flees up to 300 metres -or even 700 metres, herbivores, nilgai prefer grasses and herbs, though they commonly eat woody plants in the dry tropical forests of India. Females become sexually mature by two years, while males do not become active until four or five years old. The time of the year when mating takes place varies geographically, gestation lasts eight to nine months, following which a single calf is born. As typical of several species, nilgai calves stay hidden for the first few weeks of their lives. The lifespan of the nilgai is around ten years, nilgai prefer areas with short bushes and scattered trees in scrub forests and grassy plains. They are common in agricultural lands, but hardly occur in dense forest, major populations occur in the Terai lowlands in the foothills of the Himalayas, but the antelope is sparsely found in Nepal and Pakistan and is extinct in Bangladesh. Nilgai were first introduced to Texas in the 1920s and the 1930s, as of 2008, the feral population in Texas is nearly 37,000. The nilgai is categorised as Least Concern by the IUCN, the nilgai has been associated with Indian culture since the Vedic period. Hindus revere the nilgai as sacred and associate it with the cow and they were hunted in the Mughal era and are depicted in numerous miniatures. Nilgai have been considered a pest in several north Indian states, as they ravage crop fields, in Bihar, authorities have classified the nilgai as vermin. The vernacular name comes from the fusion of the Sanskrit word nil. The word was first recorded in use in 1882, alternative origins could be from the Sanskrit gabhih, or Persian gaw. The nilgai has been referred to by a variety of names, neelghae, nilgau, nilgo, nylghau and they are also known as white-footed antelope
33.
Bluebuck
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The bluebuck or blue antelope is an extinct species of antelope that lived in South Africa until around 1800. It is congeneric with the antelope and sable antelope, but was smaller than either. It was sometimes considered a subspecies of the antelope, but a genetic study has confirmed it as a distinct species. The largest mounted bluebuck specimen is 119 centimetres tall at the withers and its horns measure 56.5 centimetres along the curve. The coat was a uniform bluish-grey, with a whitish belly. The forehead was brown, darker than the face and its mane was not as developed as in the roan and sable antelopes, its ears were shorter and blunter, not tipped with black, and it had a darker tail tuft and smaller teeth. It also lacked the black and white patterns seen on the heads of its relatives. The bluebuck was a grazer, and may have calved where rainfall, the bluebuck was confined to the southwestern Cape when encountered by Europeans, but fossil evidence and rock paintings show that it originally had a larger distribution. Sea level changes during the early Holocene may also have contributed to its decline by disrupting the population, the first published mention of the bluebuck is from 1681, and few descriptions of the animal were written while it existed. The few 18th-century illustrations appear to have based on stuffed specimens. Hunted by European settlers, the bluebuck became extinct around 1800, it was the first large African mammal to face extinction in historical times, followed by the quagga in 1883. Only four mounted specimens remain, in museums in Leiden, Stockholm, Vienna, in 1776 the German zoologist Peter Simon Pallas formally described the bluebuck as Antilope leucophaeus. In 1846, the Swedish zoologist Carl Jakob Sundevall moved the bluebuck and its closest relatives to the genus Hippotragus and this revision was commonly accepted by other writers, such as the British zoologists Philip Sclater and Oldfield Thomas, who restricted the genus Antilope to the blackbuck in 1899. In 1914, the name Hippotragus was submitted for conservation to the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature with the bluebuck as type species. However, the original 1845 naming of the genus with the antelope as single species was overlooked and later suppressed by the ICZN. In 2001, the British ecologist Peter J and this was accepted by the commission in 2003. Kolbe also included an illustration, which Mohr believed was based on memory, the first published illustration of the bluebuck is therefore instead a depiction of a horn from 1764. It has also pointed out that the animal had already been mentioned on a list of South African mammals in 1681
34.
Wild water buffalo
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The wild water buffalo, Bubalus arnee, also called Asian buffalo, Asiatic buffalo and arni or arnee, is a large bovine native to the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia. It has been listed as Endangered in the IUCN Red List since 1986, a population decline of at least 50% over the last three generations is projected to continue. The global population has been estimated at 3,400 individuals, of which 3,100 live in India, the wild water buffalo is the probable ancestor of the domestic water buffalo. Wild water buffalo are larger and heavier than domestic buffalo, and their head-to-body-length is 240 to 300 cm with a tail 60 to 100 cm long, and a shoulder height of 150 to 190 cm. Both sexes carry horns that are heavy at the base and widely spreading up to 2 m along the outer edges and their skin color is ash gray to black. The moderately long, coarse and sparse hair is directed forward from the haunches to the long, there is a tuft on the forehead, and the ears are comparatively small. The tip of the tail is bushy, the hooves are large, wild water buffalo occur in India, Nepal, Bhutan, Thailand, and Cambodia, with an unconfirmed population in Myanmar. They have been extirpated in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Laos, and they are associated with wet grasslands, swamps and densely vegetated river valleys. A small population survives in Balpakram National Park in Meghalaya, and in Chhattisgarh in the Indravati National Park and this population might extend into adjacent parts of Orissa. In the early 1990s, there may still have been about 3, 300–3,500 wild buffalo in Assam, in 1997, the number was assessed at less than 1,500 mature individuals. Many surviving populations are believed to have interbred with feral or domestic water buffalo, in the late 1980s, fewer than 100 wild buffalo were left in Madhya Pradesh. By 1992, only 50 animals were estimated to have survived there, nepals only population lives in the Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve, and has grown from 63 individuals in 1976 to 219 individuals in 2009. Latest census was carried out in 2016 which revealed this population has now grown significantly and has reached a total of 432 individuals with 120 males,182 females and 130 calves. Further more, since there are no leopard, tiger or dhole in the reserve, in and around Bhutans Royal Manas National Park, a small number of wild water buffalo occur. This is part of the sub-population that occurs in Indias Manas National Park, in Myanmar, a few animals living independent of human husbandry live in the Hukaung Valley Tiger Reserve. In Thailand, wild buffalo have been reported to occur in herds of less than 40 individuals. A population of 25–60 individuals inhabited lowland areas of the Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary between December 1999 and April 2001 and this population has not grown significantly in 15 years, and may be interbreeding with domestic water buffalo. The population in Cambodia is confined to an area of easternmost Mondulkiri
35.
Water buffalo
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The water buffalo or domestic Asian water buffalo is a large bovid originating in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and China. Today, it is found in Europe, Australia, South America. The wild water buffalo native to Southeast Asia is considered a different species, Water buffalo were traded from the Indus Valley Civilisation to Mesopotamia, in modern Iraq,2500 BC by the Meluhhas. The seal of a scribe employed by an Akkadian king shows the sacrifice of water buffalo, at least 130 million domestic water buffalo exist, and more people depend on them than on any other domestic animal. They are especially suitable for tilling rice fields, and their milk is richer in fat, the large feral population of northern Australia became established in the late 19th century, and smaller feral herds are in New Guinea, Tunisia, and northeastern Argentina. Feral herds are present in New Britain, New Ireland, Irian Jaya, Papua New Guinea, Colombia, Guyana, Suriname, Brazil. The skin of buffalo is black, but some specimens may have dark. Swamp buffalo have a skin at birth, but become slate blue later. Albinoids are present in some populations, River buffalo have comparatively longer faces, smaller girths, and bigger limbs than swamp buffalo. Their dorsal ridges extend further back and taper off more gradually and their horns grow downward and backward, then curve upward in a spiral. Swamp buffalo are heavy-bodied and stockily built, the body is short, the forehead is flat, the eyes prominent, the face short, and the muzzle wide. The neck is long, and the withers and croup are prominent. A dorsal ridge extends backward and ends abruptly just before the end of the chest and their horns grow outward, and curve in a semicircle, but always remain more or less on the plane of the forehead. The tail is short, reaching only to the hocks, height at withers is 129–133 cm for males, and 120–127 cm for females. They range in weight from 300–550 kg, but weights of over 1,000 kg have also been observed, Tedong bonga is a black pied buffalo featuring a unique black and white colouration that is favoured by the Toraja of Sulawesi. The swamp buffalo has 48 chromosomes, the buffalo has 50 chromosomes. The two types do not readily interbreed, but fertile offspring can occur, buffalo-cattle hybrids have not been observed to occur, but the embryos of such hybrids reach maturity in laboratory experiments, albeit at lower rates than non-hybrids. The rumen of the buffalo has important differences from that of other ruminants
36.
Anoa
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This article refers to the animal. For the Indonesian-made military vehicle, see Anoa, Anoa, also known as midget buffalo and sapiutan, are a subgenus of Bubalus comprising two species native to Indonesia, the mountain anoa and the lowland anoa. Both live in undisturbed rainforest, and are essentially miniature water buffalo and they are similar in appearance to a deer, weighing 150–300 kg. Both are found on the island of Sulawesi and the island of Buton in Indonesia. They apparently live singly or in pairs, rather than in herds like most cattle, one young is born per year. Both species of anoa have been classified as endangered since the 1960s, fewer than 5000 animals of each species likely remain. Reasons for their decline include hunting for hide, horns, and meat by the local peoples, currently, hunting is the more serious factor in most areas. The lowland anoa is a bovid, standing barely over 90 cm at the shoulder. They are also known as anoa de Ilanura or anoa des plaines and it is most closely allied to the larger Asiatic buffaloes, showing the same reversal of the direction of the hair on their backs. The horns are peculiar for their direction and comparative straightness. White spots are present below the eyes, and there may be white markings on the legs and back. The horns of the cows are very small, the nearest allies of the anoa appear to be certain extinct buffaloes, the remains of which are found in the Siwalik Hills of northern India. In habits, the animal appears to resemble the Indian buffalo and it is usually solitary, living in lowland forests and wetlands, browsing on plants and understory. Mountain anoa are also known as anoa de montana, anoa de Quarle, anoa des montagnes, anoa pegunungan, standing at 70 cm at the shoulder, it is even smaller than the lowland anoa and the smallest of all wild cattle. They also have longer, woolier hair that moults every February to April, showing faint spots on the head, neck, lowland Anoa bubalus depressicornis Smith from wildcattleconservation. org
37.
Tamaraw
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The tamaraw or Mindoro dwarf buffalo is a small, hoofed mammal belonging to the family Bovidae. It is endemic to the island of Mindoro in the Philippines and it is believed, however, to have once also thrived on the larger island of Luzon. Contrary to common belief and past classification, the tamaraw is not a subspecies of the local carabao and it is the largest native terrestrial mammal in the country. Bubalus mindorensis has the appearance of a member of its family. It has a compact, heavyset, bovine body, four legs that end in cloven hooves and it is smaller and stockier compared to the water buffalo. There is little sexual dimorphism in the species although males are reported to have thicker necks, the tamaraw has an average shoulder height of 100–105 cm. The length of the body is 2.2 m while the tail adds a further 60 cm, reported weights have ranged from 180 to 300 kg. Adults have a brown to grayish color and more hair than Bubalus bubalis. The limbs are short and stocky, white markings are seen in the hooves and the inner lower forelegs. These markings are similar to that of the anoa, the face is the same color as that of the body. Most of the members of the species also have a pair of gray-white strips that begins from the corner of the eye to the horns. The nose and lips have black skin, the ears are 13.5 centimetres long from notch to tip with white markings on the insides. Both sexes grows short black horns in a V-shaped manner compared to C-shaped horns of Bubalus bubalis, the horns have flat surfaces and are triangular at their base. Due to the rubbing, the tamaraws horns have a worn outer surface. The horns are reported to be 35.5 to 51 centimetres long, the tamaraw was first documented in 1888 on the island of Mindoro. Before 1900, most people avoided settling on Mindoro due to a virulent strain of malaria, however, as anti-malarial medicine was developed, more people settled on the island. The increase in human activity has drastically reduced tamaraw population, by 1966 the tamaraws range was reduced to three areas, Mount Iglit, Mount Calavite and areas near the Sablayan Penal Settlement. By 2000, their range was reduced to only two areas, the Mounts Iglit–Baco National Park and Aruyan
38.
Bos
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Bos is the genus of wild and domestic cattle. Bos can be divided into four subgenera, Bos, Bibos, Novibos, and Poephagus, the genus has five extant species. However, this may rise to seven if the domesticated varieties are counted as separate species, most modern breeds of domesticated cattle are believed to have originated from the extinct aurochs. Most species are grazers, with long tongues to twist the plant material they favor and they are ruminants, having a four-chambered stomach that allows them to break down plant material. There are about 1.3 billion domestic cattle alive today, members of this genus are currently found in Africa, Asia, eastern and western Europe, parts of North America, South America and also in Oceania. Their habitats vary greatly depending on the species, they can be found in prairies, rain forests, wetlands, savannas. Most Bos species have a lifespan of 18–25 years in the wild and they have a 9–11 month gestation, depending on the species and birth one, or rarely two young in the spring. Most species travel in herds ranging in size from 10 members into the hundreds, within most herds, there is one bull for all the cows. Dominance is important in the herds, calves will usually inherit their mothers position in the hierarchy and they are generally diurnal, resting in the hot part of the day and being active morning and afternoon. In areas where humans have encroached on the territory of a herd, some species are also migratory, moving with food and water availability. Modern species of Bos are thought to have evolved from a single ancestor and this particular species survived until the early 17th century when it was hunted to extinction as the last aurochs, a female, died in Poland. Bovine genome Bull Bull versus bear Briggs, H. M. and Briggs, usage of 17 specific names based on wild species which are pre-dated by or contemporary with those based on domestic animals, conserved. De Oeros – Het spoor terug, Cis van Vuure, Wageningen University and Research Centrum / Ministry of the Flemish Community, a record of Bos primigenius from the Quaternary of the Aba Tibetan Autonomous Region. Vertebrata PalAsiatica, Volume XXII No.3 pp. 239–245, translated by Jeremy Dehut, April 1991. A monograph of the genus Bos
39.
Aurochs
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The aurochs, also urus, ure, is an extinct type of large wild cattle that inhabited Europe, Asia, and North Africa. It is the ancestor of domestic cattle, the species survived in Europe until the last recorded aurochs died in the Jaktorów Forest, Poland in 1627. Other species of wild bovines were also domesticated, namely the water buffalo, gaur. In modern cattle, numerous breeds share characteristics of the aurochs, such as a colour in the bulls with a light eel stripe along the back. The aurochs was variously classified as Bos primigenius, Bos taurus, or, in old sources, the words aurochs, urus, and wisent have all been used synonymously in English. However, the extinct aurochs/urus is a separate species from the still-extant wisent. The two were confused, and some 16th-century illustrations of aurochs and wisents have hybrid features. The word urus is a Latin word, but was borrowed into Latin from Germanic, in German, OHG ūr was compounded with ohso ox, giving ūrohso, which became early modern Aurochs. The word aurochs was borrowed from early modern German, replacing archaic urochs, the word is invariable in number in English, though sometimes back-formed singular auroch and innovated plural aurochses occur. The use in English of the plural form aurochsen is nonstandard and it is directly parallel to the German plural Ochsen and recreates by analogy the same distinction as English ox and oxen. During the Pliocene, the colder climate caused an extension of open grassland, Bos acutifrons is an extinct species of cattle that has been suggested as an ancestor for the aurochs. The oldest aurochs remains have been dated to about 2 million years ago, the Indian subspecies was the first to appear. During the Pleistocene, the species migrated west into the Middle East and they reached Europe about 270,000 years ago. The South Asian domestic cattle, or zebu, descended from Indian aurochs at the edge of the Thar Desert, domestic yak, gayal, and banteng do not descend from aurochs. The first complete mitochondrial genome DNA sequence analysis of Bos primigenius from an archaeologically verified, three wild subspecies of aurochs are recognized. Only the Eurasian subspecies survived until recent times, the Eurasian aurochs once ranged across the steppes and taigas of Europe, Siberia and Central Asia, and East Asia. It is noted as part of the Pleistocene megafauna, and declined in numbers along with other species by the end of Pleistocene. The Eurasian aurochs were domesticated into modern taurine cattle breeds around the sixth millennium BC in the Middle East, Aurochs were still widespread in Europe during the time of the Roman Empire, when they were widely popular as a battle beast in Roman arenas
40.
Banteng
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The banteng, also known as tembadau, is a species of wild cattle found in Southeast Asia. Banteng have been domesticated in several places in Southeast Asia, and there are around 1.5 million domestic banteng and these animals are used as working animals and for their meat. Banteng have also introduced to Northern Australia, where they have established stable feral populations. These subspecies are recognised, Java banteng, Found on Java and Bali in Indonesia, Borneo banteng, From Borneo, they are smaller than Java banteng and the horns are steeper, bulls are chocolate-brown. This subspecies is recognised by the IUCN, but not by Mammal Species of the World, 3rd edition. The banteng is similar in size to domesticated cattle, measuring 1.55 to 1.65 m tall at the shoulder and 2. 45–3.5 m in total length, body weight can range from 400 to 900 kg. It exhibits sexual dimorphism, allowing the sexes to be distinguished by colour. In mature males, the coat is blue-black or dark chestnut in colour, while in females. Both males and females have white stockings on their legs, a white rump, a white muzzle. The build is similar to that of domesticated cattle, but with a slender neck and small head. Banteng live in sparse forest where they feed on grasses, bamboo, fruit, leaves, the banteng is generally active both night and day, but in places where humans are common, they adopt a nocturnal schedule. Banteng tend to gather in herds of two to 30 members, the wild banteng is considered as endangered by the IUCN. The populations on the Asian mainland have decreased by about 80% in the last decades, the total number of wild banteng is estimated to about 5, 000-8,000 animals. No population has more than 500 animals, only a few have more than 50, reasons for the population decline are reduction of habitat, hunting, hybridisation with domesticated cattle, and infections with cattle diseases. The most important stronghold for the species is Java with the biggest populations in Ujung Kulon National Park, the biggest population on the mainland is found in Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary in Thailand. Another larger population lives in Kaeng Krachan, Borneo has still a few hundred bantengs, more than a hundred of which occur in Kulamba Wildlife Reserve in Sabah. The banteng is the endangered species to be successfully cloned. Thirty embryos were created and sent to Trans Ova Genetics, which implanted the fertilized eggs in domestic cattle, two were carried to term and delivered by Caesarian section
41.
Gayal
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The gayal, also known as mithun, is a large semi-domesticated bovine distributed in Northeast India, Bangladesh, northern Burma and in Yunnan, China. The gayal differs in important particulars from the gaur. It is somewhat smaller, with shorter limbs, and stands much lower at the withers. The ridge on the back is less developed, and bulls have a dewlap on the throat. The head is shorter and broader, with a flat forehead. Their extremities are much farther apart than in the gaur. The female gayal is much smaller than the bull, and has scarcely any dewlap on the throat, the skin colour of the head and body is blackish-brown in both sexes, and the lower portion of the limbs are white or yellowish. The horns are of uniform blackish tint from base to tip, some domesticated gayals are parti-coloured, while others are completely white. Gayals are essentially inhabitants of hill-forests, in India, semi-domesticated gayals are kept by several ethnic groups living in the hills of Tripura, Mizoram, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, and Nagaland. They also occur in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, in northern Burma, they occur in the Kachin State, and in adjacent Yunnan are found only in the Trung and Salween River basins. In Nagaland, the animals are kept semi-wild, and live in herds and they respond to a horn kept specially for the individual caretaker or actual owner to call them. From birth until the time of butchering or market, the Mithun remain in the herd, the mithun is a semi-domesticate, managed in fenced tracts of forests rather than being kept in or near villages. Outside North East India, mithun are primarily imported for the purpose of breeding with other bovids. It is very common among Eastern Himalayan languages to find lexical sets denoting fauna in which the mithun is lexicalized as a meat animal. Terms for ‘mithun’ in other languages of Arunachal Pradesh are typically cognate with Aka fu, the implication is that the semi-wild mithun was seen as the core species, and the true domesticates such as cattle, which arrived subsequently, as marginal to the system. In his first description of 1804, Aylmer Bourke Lambert applied the binomial Bos frontalis to a specimen probably from Chittagong. Most authors have adopted the binomial Bos frontalis for the species as valid for the taxon. Phylogenetic analysis corroborates the taxonomic assessment that the gayal is an independent Bos species originating matrilineally from gaur, zebu, to the Idu Mishmi, Nyishi people or Adi people, the possession of gayal is the traditional measure of a familys wealth
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Wild yak
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The wild yak is a large wild bovid native to the Himalayas in Central Asia. It is the ancestor of the domestic yak, the ancestor of the wild and domestic yak is thought to have diverged from Bos primigenius at a point between one and five million years ago. The wild yak is now treated as a separate species from the domestic yak. Wild yaks are among the largest bovids and are only to the gaur in shoulder height. They are also the largest native animal in their range, Wild yak adults stand about 1.6 to 2.2 m tall at the shoulder and weigh 305–1,000 kg. The head and body length is 2.5 to 3.3 m, the females are about one-third the weight and are about 30% smaller in their linear dimensions when compared to bull wild yaks. They are heavily built animals with a frame, sturdy legs. The udder in females and the scrotum in males are small and hairy, the fur is extremely dense, long and hangs down lower than the belly. Wild yaks are generally dark, blackish to brown, in colouration, both sexes have long shaggy hair with a dense woolly undercoat over the chest, flanks, and thighs to insulate them from the cold. Especially in males, this may form a skirt that can reach the ground. The tail is long and horselike rather than tufted like the tails of cattle or bison, the coat is typically black or dark brown over most of the body, with a greyish muzzle, although some wild golden-brown individuals have been reported. Wild yaks with gold coloured hair, known as the Wild Golden Yak is considered a subspecies by China. Wild yaks are found primarily in northern Tibet and western Qinghai, with populations extending into the southernmost parts of Xinjiang. Small, isolated populations of wild yak are also found farther afield, primarily in western Tibet, in historic times, wild yaks were also found in Nepal and Bhutan, but they are now considered extinct in both countries. The primary habitat of wild yaks consists of treeless uplands between 3,000 and 5,500 m, dominated by mountains and plateaus and they are most commonly found in alpine tundra with a relatively thick carpet of grasses and sedges rather than the more barren steppe country. The diet of wild yaks consists largely of grasses and sedges, such as Carex, Stipa and they also eat a smaller amount of herbs, winterfat shrubs, and mosses, and have even been reported to eat lichen. Thubten Jigme Norbu, the brother of the 14th Dalai Lama, reported on his journey from Kumbum in Amdo to Lhasa in 1950. The sight of beautiful and powerful beasts who from time immemorial have made their home on Tibets high
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