ARCH2108 Animals, Plants and People

1
ARCH2108Animals, Plants and People
Sheep and Goats
2
Genera of the family Bovidae, subfamily Caprinae
-

• Ovis sheep
• Capra goats
• 12 other genera
• mostly from temperate or arctic areas
• mostly in hilly or mountainous country

3
Bharal (Blue sheep) Pseudois nayaur
Takin Budorcas taxicolor
Himalayan Tahr Hemitragus jemlahicus
Musk-ox Ovibos moschatus
Saiga antelope Saiga tatarica
4
Aoudad (Barbary sheep Ammotragus lervia
Serow Capricornis sumatraensis
Chamois Rupicapra rupicapra
Rocky Mountain Goat Oreamnos americanus
Goral Nemorhaedus goral
5
Sheepgenus Ovis

• Ovis aries Domestic sheep
• Ovis musimon Mouflon
• Ovis gmelini Red sheep
• Ovis vignei Urial
• Ovis ammon Argali
• Ovis nivicola Snow sheep
• Ovis dalli Dall sheep
• Ovis canadensis Bighorn sheep

6
Bighorn and relatives
Short legs Muscular body Thick-based horns Live
in steep mountainous country
Bighorn Ovis canadensis
Siberian Snow sheep Ovis nivicola
Dall sheep Ovis dalli
7
Old World sheep
Laristan Red sheep Ovis gmelini
Long-legged Thin-based horns Live in rolling arid
country
Pakistan Urial Ovis vignei
Mongolian argali Ovis ammon
8
N.America O.dalli and O.canadensis
O.nivicola
O.vignei
O.gmelini
O.ammon
9
Karyotypes of Old World and domestic sheep
Ovis aries (Karakul) 2n 54
Ovis gmelini isphaganica 2n 54
2n 58 Ovis vignei cycloceros
2n 56 Ovis ammon ammon
10
TURKMENISTAN
vignei
gmelini
Hybrid zone in Iran between Ovis gmelini and Ovis
vignei
11
Armenian Red SheepOvis gmelini gmelinipresumed
ancestor of domestic sheep
Sandy colour White legs Short tail Ewes with
short horns
12
What are mouflon?
Small wild sheep (Ovis musimon) native to
Corsica, Sardinia and Cyprus
Corsico-Sardinian horns curl outward (positive)
Cypriot horns curl inward (perverted)
13
Mouflon have been introduced to mainland France,
Germany, Czech Republic and elsewhere on European
mainland
14
Are mouflon wild or feral?
Distribution of Ovis gmelini
Corsica Sardinia
Cyprus
15
Mouflon were already fully domestic when they
were brought to Cyprus, but only just when they
were brought to Corsica and Sardinia
Cranial capacity
Ovis ammon
Ovis gmelini
Corsico-Sardinian mouflon
Cypriot mouflon
Domestic and feral sheep
16
Soay sheepprimitive feral sheep from the Outer
Hebridesmay be either hairy or woollyhair shed
naturally, not retained and shornshort-tailed
like wild sheep and mouflon
17
Earliest domestic sheep

• Ali Kosh, W.Iran 8900
• 
  bone collagen
• 9500
• carbonised bone
• Nevali Çori, S.E.Turkey 8500-8000
• Asikli Höyük, S.E.Turkey 8000-7800
• Tell Abu Hureyra, N.Syria 8000-7800
• Jericho, Palestine 7500
• Tepe Guran, W.Iran 7500-7000
• Shillourokambos, Cyprus 8500-8000
• Haua Fteah, Libya early 5th mill.

18
Breeds of sheep

• Hairy breeds
• Most of Africa, much of S.E.Europe Tibet.
• Ears pendulous often have throat tags
• Include
• Fat-tailed sheep widespread in Africa and
  western Asia
• Fat-rumped sheep N.E.Africa
• Wool breeds
• Wool classed as
• Coarse gt40µ, Medium 25-40µ, Fine lt25µ
• Long gt15cm in 1 years growth, medium 5-15, short
  lt5cm

19
Hairy sheep
Kargalin fat-rumped sheep
Cameroon dwarf sheep
20
Fat-tailed sheep
From Rudolf the Elders New History of Ethiopia
(1682)
Baluchi breed
Mehraban breed
21
Wild sheep have both contour hairs (kemps) and
underwool
Kemps are narrowed in hairy Soay, lost altogether
in woolly Soay
Coarse, medium and fine wools have lost fine,
extreme and medium/coarse fibres respectively
22
Ratio of primary to secondary follicles is
important
Primary follicles formed early in foetal life,
produce coarse hairs secondary follicles, formed
around birth, produce much finer hairs.
23
Milking sheep
Only the East Friesian is a specific dairy breed,
but many other breeds are milked.
Qashqai sheep, Iran
24
Robert Bakewell (1725 - 1795)the founder of
modern scientific breeding
Founded the Leicester Longwool breed
25
Longwool breeds
Lincoln
Leicester
26
Zackelschafscrew-horned sheep bred in parts of
Mediterranean and central Europe
Egypt, 2500 B.C.
Sicilian
27
Four-horned sheepManx Loghtan
Fleece is coloured like other primitive
breeds. Pigmentless fleece first appears in a
Scythian burial mound, 400 B.C.
28
North Ronaldsay sheep
Orkney Is. like many specialized longwool
breeds, found in Viking-settled British
islands. On North Ronaldsay, the sheep are
confined to the seashore by a stone wall, so they
are forced to eat seaweed, and blood urea levels
are higher than usually considered compatible
with good health!
29
Finewool sheep Merino
Developed in Spain, as a trail breed, with a
well-developed flocking instinct, from 1200 A.D.
on, using Spanish / E.European finewool cross
originally made by the Romans.
Negretti merino (Austria), 1892
30
The Merino today
Best wether, 1999-2000, Mungindi wether trial.
31
The ultimate longwoolKarakul sheep
Persian lamb is the pelt of very young lambs
glossy, dark, very tightly curled.
32
Woolly sheep first appeared after about 2500 B.C.
Mesopotamia, probably Assyrian period
Knossos, geometric period
33
Behaviour of sheep

• Marked flock cohesion, all graze and move
  together
• Leadership in flock changes
• Bleat to maintain contact
• Flocks forced together dont integrate
• Vision excellent, but dependant on movement
• Can scent humans at 500m downwind

34
Feeding

• Mainly grass, especially forbs (dicots growing
  among grasses), but take a few shrub and tree
  parts
• Bite their food off, not lick like cow
• Upper lip cleft, permitting close cropping
• Move erratically according to grass availability
• Ewe flocks occupy best ground
• A grazing sheep travels 8-16km per day (wild or
  domestic)
• Mouflon and Soay are more sedentary than true
  wild sheep

35
Breeding ewes

• Breeding season centred about shortest day
• Triggered by change from decreasing to increasing
  darkness
• Starts 10-14 weeks later than the change in most
  breeds
• Breeding season shorter in colder climates
• 7-13 heats per season
• First and some later ovulations occur without
  oestrus (still heats)
• Oestrus lasts 27 hours (range 3-70)
• Cycle length 16 days (usual range 14-19)
• Gestation 145-150 days

36
Breeding rams.

• Rams sperm levels lower, but not eliminated,
  outside breeding season
• Wild rams fight by rearing up, clashing horn
  bases (detail different in bighorn, argali,
  urial)
• Dominant ram copulates 20x a day over 2 weeks
• Dominant ram tends only 15-20 of ewes
• Castration (wethering) is often incomplete
  (rigs).

37
Birth and development

• 90 of ewes can be expected to breed each year
• Twinning rate varies by breed
• Most breeds one third or less
• Border Leicester more than half are twins
• Lamb-ewe bond weak, dissolves altogether at
  weaning (4-5 months in wild sheep)
• No fixed puberty age
• Early lambs are older at first heat than late
  lambs

38
Goats (genus Capra)

• Capra hircus Domestic goat
• Capra aegagrus Bezoar goat
• Capra falconeri Markhor
• Capra cylindricornis Tur
• 6 species of ibex
• Capra ibex Alpine ibex
• Capra pyrenaica Spanish ibex
• Capra caucasica Caucasian ibex
• Capra sibirica Siberian ibex
• Capra nubiana Nubian ibex
• Capra walie Walia ibex

39
Alpine ibex C.ibex
Tur C.cylindricornis
Spanish ibex C.pyrenaica
Markhor C.falconeri
Nubian ibex C.nubiana
40
Bezoar goatCapra aegagrusThe ancestor of the
domestic goat
Male herd
Distributed from Turkey to Pakistan
Females horns, unlike wild sheep, are smaller
replica of males
Female and kid
41
How to tell the sheep from the goats
42
How to tell the sheep from the goats (contd.)
43
Sheep dont climb trees -
-but goats do. Goats crop the grass less deeply
than sheep, but defoliate the trees.
44
How to tell the sheep from the goats (contd.)
45
Wild goats and sheep in Golestan National Park,
N.E.Iran
Capra aegagrus Goats live on steep, rocky cliffs
Ovis vignei Sheep prefer rolling country
46
C.pyrenaica
C.ibex
Distribution of Capra spp.
Areas of sympatry
C.caucasica
C.cylindricornis
C.aegagrus
C.nubiana
C.sibirica
C.falconeri
C.walie
47
Ibex and tur in the Caucasus
West Caucasus Capra caucasica
East Caucasus C.cylindricornis
- And in the centre, they hybridize
48
A few breeds of domestic goats have scimitar
horns, like bezoar -
Bezoar goat, Iran
Swiss Toggenberg goat
49
- but most domestic goats have spiral horns,
unlike the bezoar. Does this mean some of them
are descended from the markhor?
Agrigento goat
Markhor Capra falconeri
50
Two types of spiral
Heteronymous Right horn has a left-hand
spiral (anterior keel travels round front of horn
and goes round lateral side)
Homonymous Right horn has a right-hand
spiral (anterior keel tucks round the back on the
medial side)
Kurdish goat
Agrigento goat
51
Most (but not all) domestic goats are homonymous
markhor is heteronymous.But a few bezoar in the
Caucasus are reported to have homonymous spiral
horns
Agrigento goat
Markhor Capra falconeri
52
Earliest domestic goatssites also containing
sheep

• Ganj Dareh, W.Iran 10005-9525
• Ali Kosh, W.Iran 8900 or 9500
  
• Nevali Çori, S.E.Turkey 8500-8000
• Asikli Höyük, S.E.Turkey 8000-7800
• Tell Abu Hureyra, N.Syria 8000-7800
• Tell Halula, Syria 8000-7800
• Jericho, Palestine 7500
• Tepe Guran, W.Iran 7500-7000
• Shillourokambos, Cyprus 8500-8000
• Haua Fteah, Libya early 5th mill.

53
Nubian ibex
Jericho, Pre-pottery Neolithic
Domestic goats have a less angular cross-section
than bezoar
Wild bezoar (modern)
Bezoar, Late Pleistocene, Antelias, Lebanon
Domestic scimitar goats
Cross-sections of scimitar goat horns
54
Shaheinab Neolithic
Cross- sections of spiral goat horns
Cyprus, Late Bronze Age
Jericho, Bronze Age
Ancient Egypt
Shaheinab Neolithic
Domestic spiral-horned goats
From Zeuner, 1955
55
Chiltan goats
In the Chiltan Hills, Pakistan, some
spiral-horned (heteronymous) wild goats occur
among the ordinary bezoar. Are they a morph of
bezoar, or hybrids with (formerly sympatric)
markhor?
56
Chiltan goat is not a bezoarBest interpreted as
a hybrid
57
Aegean wild goats
Wild goats, looking very like small bezoar (but
sometimes with slightly spiraled horns) live on
Crete, Erimomilos and Yioura. Are they truly
wild, or feral?
Cretan wild goat
58
The Aegean goats fall between wild and
domestic. They are probably derived from very
early-stage domesticates
Capra aegagrus 1 Crete 2 Erimomilos 3
Yioura Feral and domestic Nilotic dwarf goats
59
Early Cretan goats
Goat and kids Knossos Neolithic
An unexpected use for goats Minoan period
60
Breeds of goats

• Of about 62 recognized breeds, 30 are primarily
  dairy
• Lactate for 8-10 months
• Produce 900kg milk (but up to 1800)
• 3.5 fat (fat globules much smaller than cows
  milk)
• Swiss Saanen and Toggenberg
• French and Swiss Alpine
• Balkan breeds (meat and skin as well)
• Fetta cheese
• Nubian up to 5 fat

61
Dairy goats
Swiss Toggenberg
Auvergne
62
Breeds of goats contd.

• Many goats bred for hair
• Kurdish breeds, Turkey to Central Asia
• Angora - finest of Kurdish breeds produces
  mohair
• Mohair grows 15-30cm/year
• Usually clipped twice a year
• Clip has nearly doubled under selective breeding
• Much smoother surface than wool
• Central Asian Down breeds, Caspian Sea to Gobi
  and Tibet
• Cashmere finest of Down breeds produces
  fluffy underwool called Pashm
• Pasha long, straight silky
• Only 85 grams in a clip

63
Goats bred for hair
Tadzhik goat
Himalayan goat
Gujarat goat
64
Breeds of goats contd.

• All-purpose breeds
• Syrian
• Lop-eared
• Often hornless
• Widely milked
• Dwarf breeds
• Bred in Africa, Arabia, Tibet, Lapland
• Meat, milk, skins (for bags)
• Useful in eating crop stubble
• Often, especially in Africa, housed only at
  night, roam free by day, return to their correct
  quarters

65
All-purpose goats
Cameroon dwarf goats (achondroplastic)
Bedouin goats
Syrian lop-eared goat
66
Sacred goats
The Egyptian god Kneph
Goats brought as sacrificial offerings Hagia
Triada, Crete (Minoan period)
The annual plays in classical Athens in honour of
Dionysos, god of wine, were called tragedies,
literally goat songs
67
The goat caught in the thorn bush Royal tombs
of Ur (Mesopotamia) 2700 B.C.