An animal of the bovids family is a cloven-hoofed bovid family. Bovids Bovids in the Himalayas

Males, and mostly females, have horns. The horns of the bovids represent permanent, irreplaceable outgrowths. The absence of horns (hornlessness) in males is sometimes observed as a domestication sign of the frontal bones, dressed from the outside with horny sheaths made of a modified epidermal layer of the skin.

Unlike the pronghorn family (Antilocapridae), the corneous sheaths do not fall off or change throughout the life of the animal. Antler growth, in contrast to deer (Cervidae), does not occur at the top, but at the base; the top is the oldest part of it, formed in the first stages of formation. Characterized by a periodic increase and slowdown in the growth of horns, which is expressed in the formation of rings on the surface of the horny sheaths and is obviously associated with the cyclical function of the reproductive system.

The shape of the horns is very varied, but it is never branched. The horns may look like simple matches; there are arcuate bent forward or backward; snail; coiled or twisted in a spiral; straight, vertical or backward. The twisting and folding of the horns can be homonymous or heteronymous. The length of the horns can be small, not exceeding half the length of the skull, or, conversely, exceed the latter by several times.

Habitat and distribution of bovids

Europe, Asia, Africa, North America and adjacent islands. Absent in Australia, South America, Madagascar and Sakhalin. Acclimatized in New Zealand. At home, they are distributed all over the world.

Evolution of bovids

The family of bovids is phylogenetically the youngest and most numerous of the modern groups of ungulates, which have not yet survived their heyday. The roots of the bovids lead to the Lower Oligocene deer (Tragulidae). Their immediate ancestor or original form is not known, but, probably, very close to that was the genus Gelocus Aymard, which lived in Europe in the Lower Oligocene. Gelocus had no horns, its ulna was independent, but the tibia was greatly reduced. The side fingers were likely to touch the ground when walking. On the forelimbs, the central (III and IV) metapodia were separate, but on the hind limbs the corresponding bones merged and formed a tarsus. Both proximal and distal rudiments were preserved from the lateral metapods. The molars were of an extremely brachyodont type, the upper saber canines were preserved, but the upper incisors had already disappeared, and the canines of the lower jaw were functionally incisors. The premolars had an extremely primitive structure, and the first of them had already disappeared in the upper jaw, while it was still preserved in the lower jaw.

Forms intermediate between deer and true bovids are not yet known. In the Middle Miocene of Europe, antelopes lived with irreplaceable horns, but still with extremely primitive brachiodontic molars of the skull and a long, horizontally located germ. They could be considered the original forms for all subsequent bovids. But in layers of the same age in Europe and even earlier in Mongolia, relatively highly specialized representatives of the family were found, which make it possible to assume that the departure of the bovids' ancestors from the common trunk of the Resog occurred no later than the Upper or even Middle Oligocene. The homeland of the bovids should be considered the Eurasian continent, where the primary center of settlement of this group lay at the junction of it with Africa. The secondary centers were, on the one hand, Central Asia, and on the other, the regions adjacent to India, to the west of the latter.

A characteristic feature of bovids - horns covered with an irreplaceable cover - appeared in the history of this group, apparently, not immediately. The original forms, probably, did not have horns or had small outgrowths of the frontal bones, covered with caps of keratinized skin that were periodically shed. The original purpose of the horns is to decorate males and tournament weapons. As a weapon of defense against enemies and attack, they began to serve later.

Classification of bovids

The division of bovids into bulls, goats, rams and antelopes, which existed since the time of Pallas, does not correspond to modern ideas about their phylogenetic relationships and therefore has been abandoned by most zoologists at the present time. The clearly artificial group of "antelopes" in the system has been eliminated, since many of them are genetically closer to bulls or goats with rams than to other antelopes. However, there is no agreement on the relationship between individual groups of Bovidae and the related division of the entire family into subordinate groups, and its classification is carried out in different ways. Basically, the division of bovids into six subfamilies is accepted.

1. Real antelopes(subfamily) - Antilopinae. Horns, with a few exceptions, are found only in males; bases located above the orbits, massive, without internal cavities inside the rods. The nostrils are close together; the distance between them is not more than the height of the upper lip (from its lower edge to the nostrils). The mammary gland has four nipples. The corneous part of the skull is long, longer than the length of the forehead. The frontal bones are short, no more than 36% of the main length of the skull. Swollen auditory bubbles. The middle pair of incisors is strongly expanded in comparison with the others and has the shape of asymmetric shoulder blades. Distribution: Africa, Front, Middle, Central and South Asia, some areas of southern Siberia (Altai, Tuva, southern Transbaikalia).

2. Dukers(subfamily) - Cephalophinae. Horns are often present in females, massive, without internal cavities inside the rods. The nostrils are located close to each other, the distance between them is no more than the height of the upper lip from its lower edge to the nostrils. The mammary gland has four nipples. Unlike other bovids, the preorbital glands are located midway between the nostrils and the eyes and open with a series of linearly spaced small holes in the hairless area of ​​the skin. Distinctive features in the skull are also very large preorbital fossae, in the formation of which the nasal bones are strongly expanded in the posterior half, and the bases of the corneous processes are shifted far beyond the orbits, while not extending to the sides beyond the borders of the cerebral box. The corneous part of the skull is much shorter than the length of the forehead. The frontal bones are long, more than 36% of the main length of the skull. Swollen auditory bubbles. The middle pair of incisors is strongly expanded in comparison with the others and has the shape of asymmetric shoulder blades. Distribution: Africa south of the northern tropic. Over 30 species of dukers are morphologically close to each other and are usually combined into one genus Cephalophus H. Smith.

Infraclass - placental

Family - bovids

Literature:

1.I.I. Sokolov "Fauna of the USSR, Ungulates" Publishing house of the Academy of Sciences, Moscow, 1959.

The bovids family includes 140 species ranging from a 5 kg dikdik to a 1000 kg bison. An important difference is the horns: there is almost always one pair of them (the exception is the genus of four-horned antelopes), and the length can range from 2 cm to 1.5 meters. Some species only have horns in males, but most have horns in both sexes. These are bony structures that are firmly connected to the skull. Unlike deer and pronghorns, bovine horns are never branched.

The largest representative of the family is a gaur (up to 2.2 m tall at the withers and weighing more than a ton), and the smallest is a dwarf antelope (weighs no more than 3 kg and is as tall as a large domestic cat).

Most of the bovids live in open areas. African savannas are ideal living spaces for many species. There are also species that live in mountainous areas or in forests.

Digestive system

Most members of the family are herbivores, although some antelopes can also eat animal food. Like other ruminants, bovids have a four-chambered stomach, which allows them to digest plant foods such as herbs that cannot be used as food by many other animals. Such food contains a lot of cellulose, and not all animals are able to digest it. However, the digestive system of ruminants, which all bovids are, is able to digest such food.

Horns

The horns are attached to the protruding frontal bone. The length and width are different (the girth of the argali's horns, for example, is 50 cm). The horns of bovids grow all their lives, but never branch. They consist of a substance of epidermal origin. Mainly, the horns are used by males in skirmishes with congeners.

Evolution

Historically, bovids are a relatively young group of animals. The oldest fossils that can be confidently attributed to bovids is the genus Eotragus (English) Russian from the Miocene. These animals resembled modern crested duikers, were no larger than roe deer and had very small horns. Even during the Miocene, this genus split, and in the Pleistocene, all important lines of modern bovids were already represented. In the Pleistocene, bovids migrated across the then existing natural bridge from

Bovids are the largest, youngest and most progressive family of the artiodactyl order. Its name does not quite accurately reflect the structure of their horns. They are not hollow. On the outgrowths of the frontal bones in bovids there are bone rods, dressed from the outside with a horny sheath. Removed from the bone rods, they become hollow, as any case should be. It is customary in the Caucasus to make expensive cups from horn covers, decorating them with silver and sometimes with precious stones, in which wine is served to the most honored guests at feasts.

According to a long-established custom, bovids use one pair of horns. The only exception is the four-horned antelope. They have two small horns on their foreheads and two more, more

long, - on the crown. Both males and females can sport horns, although in the fairer sex they are usually somewhat smaller than in males. Horns grow all their lives, therefore, by their size, one can partly judge the age of animals. Horns grow from bottom to top. In none of the bovids, the horns do not branch and do not change during life, as it regularly happens in deer.

Horns can be formidable weapons. However, the use of horns for defense appears to be a secondary function. In some members of this family, they have an exotic shape and are not suitable for use as a pike or sword. In rams, they are so twisted that they hit the enemy

Antelope. marking territory.

Gazelle Grant.

Saber-horned antelope.

the tip of the horn is almost impossible. Not adapted for defenses and horns of the spinboards. Their tips are bent inward, and in chamois and takins - backward. Even among the owners of truly formidable weapons, not everyone uses them to protect themselves from predators. The original function of the horns, apparently, was the ritual fighting of males. And do not be surprised that military weapons are used in sports tournaments: the more dangerous they are, the stricter the rules for their use, excluding the possibility of inflicting serious injuries on the enemy. During tournaments, no one hits the opponent in the side. Long-horned antelopes fencing with their horns like rapiers, striking not on the body of the enemy, but striking flat blows on his horns. The sportsmanship of the competition is also evidenced by the fact that in many species of bovids, opponents are fighting,

kneeling down or, like goats, rears up and beat from top to bottom, trying to hit the horns with their horns. At first glance, only the battles of the rams seem deadly, which scatter and knock their heads together with a loud crash. The blows have really terrible power, but they are not dangerous for rams either. Their skull bones and cervical vertebrae have increased strength, and the brain does not suffer from concussion.

Some bovids do not use horns during tournaments. During the battle, males of large Nilgau antelopes kneel, rest their foreheads against each other and try to move the enemy or intertwine their necks and try to knock the competitor on its side. Fatal outcomes of battles are rare, since rivals, if one of them has a hard time, surrender to the winner, taking a pose of appeasement. In this case, they are guaranteed immunity. A pose of appeasement, a request for clemency can be a fall on your knees,

which is understandable even to us humans. Another way is used by Thomson's Gazelles. They lie flat on the ground, pressing against it with their head and outstretched neck. Only females do not consider it obligatory for themselves to follow the unwritten rules of conducting tournament battles. Representatives of those species that are not supposed to have horns, in conflicts with each other, beat each other with their heads in the side.

Of the other features characteristic of most bovids, it is especially important that they have no incisors and canines in the upper jaw and have skin glands that produce odorous substances. The glands can be found on the head, at the base of the tail, in the groin, between the hooves, and elsewhere on the body.

The bovid family includes 10 subfamilies and about 120 species, which are widespread throughout the world, which indicates its progressive development. They are absent only in South America and Australia. But they have completely mastered the rest of the continents - from low-lying arctic tundras to snow-covered highlands and from swamps and tropical rainforests to waterless steppes and deserts. However, Africa is undoubtedly their fiefdom. The largest number of bovine species lives here.

Not only are the bovids rich in species, the representatives of these species are very diverse. First of all, this is manifested in their size. Among the bovids, there are many very large animals, such as bulls (bison, bison, buffalo), and very small ones, the size of a cat, such as the royal pygmy antelope and dikdiks, reaching at the withers heights from 25 to 35 cm and weights from 3 to 10 kg.

The smallest bovids are united in the subfamilies of pygmy antelopes and duikers. Their size is indicated by the names of animals: dwarf antelope, baby suni antelope, baby antelope. Quite toddlers are some Dikdiks, whose skin is widely used in glove making. They are so small that it takes two antelope skins for a pair of women's gloves.

Merino sheep and fat tail sheep (below).

Bighorn sheep.

Ki. Dukers are not giants either. The smallest are as tall as a hare, and the largest are no larger than a roe deer. All males have horns, however, sometimes tiny, not exceeding 1-1.5 cm in length. The legs of babies are as thick as the little finger of an adult, and the hooves on them are slightly larger than a female marigold. However, mini-antelopes are fast and jumpy. They easily and naturally make jumps up to 3 m in length. The overwhelming majority of these animals live in forests or shrubs, and some of them like the plains, and some prefer mountains, some like arid forests, others are found only in humid regions. They do not gather in herds and live alone or in pairs. Males rub their muzzles against tree trunks, leaving odorous marks on the borders of the areas occupied by them, secretions of infraorbital glands. Some of them mark females in the same way, and those in turn mark their children. Babies feed on leaves, berries, fruits and are always ready to feast on a fat snail or caterpillar, eat a lizard or a frog, and if they are lucky, they catch birds as well. Dukers do not just grab the game that has turned up by chance, but really hunt, carefully sneaking up, and only when they are very close, they make a throw. A frog or gecko is grabbed directly by the teeth, and a bird taking off is knocked down by a blow of its front leg.

The subfamily of horned antelopes unites large animals. They are second only to bulls in size and weight. Their most characteristic feature is the spiraling horns; however, the degree of swirling in different species is far from the same. Large kudu is the most typical representative of this subfamily. This is a large animal, reaching a height of 1.5 m. The heads of the males are decorated with huge, up to 1.5 m, horns, and the females have no horns. Females with calves keep in small groups of 6-10 heads or herds of up to 30-40 animals. Bulls join them only during the mating season. At this time, stubborn fights arise between the males. Sometimes they cling so tightly with their horns that they can no longer disengage and die in the claws of the lions. Stony plains are chosen for kudu life, certainly with dense shrubs and good watering holes.

Sitatunga has an unusual lifestyle. It is not a very large dark-colored antelope. Despite the fact that it lives in the hottest regions of the planet, the body of the antelope is covered with long thick hair. But the most unusual thing for bovids is the strongly elongated sitatunga hooves, reaching 10 cm. Their structure is explained by the fact that the antelope lives in swamps and spends most of its life knee-deep, or even waist-deep in water. Sitatunga swims well, can dive and hide in water, as hippos do, with only their nostrils exposed above its surface. Here, in the middle of the swamps, she is not afraid of lions, or leopards, or a man with a gun.

The sitatunga's large hooves are able to spread widely, which allows it to feel confident in any bog. In the depths of African swamps, warmed by the sun and almost completely devoid of oxygen, all vegetation perishes and decays. The processes of decay are going on here with a cosmic speed, but the development of new plants on the surface does not lag behind the processes of their decomposition. The upper layer of marsh sod is usually a dense interlacing of thick stems that have not yet collapsed and no less durable rhizomes. The human leg does not find support here, slides off these slimy plant ropes, pushes them apart, and the person falls through to the waist. With sitatunga, marsh, water and reed goats, also belonging to the family of bovids, this does not happen. Their hooves act like grippers. The disorderly interweaving of plant residues is so dense that at each step between the hooves, some rhizome or stem that can withstand the weight of the animal, or even several "ropes" at once, will certainly fall between the hooves, and sitatunga calmly overcomes such areas where animals with a much larger area supports, but without cloven hooves, are hopelessly stuck.

When needed, sitatungs remain in water up to their necks for weeks. Interestingly, her long and thick fur does not get wet at the same time. The hair is protected from water by the secretions of the sebaceous glands. Only thanks to this, sitatungs are able to stay in bog bogs for a long time, without going out on land to dry out.

In the canna antelope, another representative of the scorchorn antelope, both males and females own horns. In males, they reach a length of 1 m, and in females they are much shorter. Kanna is the largest of the antelopes. Its height at the withers can reach 180 cm, and its weight is 943 kg. Cannes live in the arid regions of Africa, keep in small groups of 8-10 heads, but during migrations caused by drought, they can form large herds. Cannes feed mainly on grass, and when it turns into dry straw, they switch to the foliage of drought-resistant trees. These antelopes are able to do without water for a long time, but they clearly do not like such an existence, since in the presence of watering places they willingly drink water.

It is unclear why Cannes was not domesticated at one time. As a result of systematic persecution, these antelopes have now become very fearful and mortally afraid of humans, but, once in captivity, they gradually become tame. Nowadays, African farmers in the driest regions of the continent have begun to breed cannes in large, fenced-in pens. Cannes can exist on the most scarce forage that is not suitable for livestock, and in addition, they are not susceptible to many dangerous hoof diseases -

Buffalo.

Canna.

Wildebeest.

such as sleeping sickness raging in the African bush. Breeding cannes for meat (and they have excellent quality) is much more profitable than breeding cows and rams.

At the end of the last century, a large group of cannes was brought to the Askania-Nova steppe reserve. Since then, there has been a systematic formation of a herd of giant antelopes. Now Askanian cannes are quite domesticated animals. Unlike African farmers, our breeders have strived to create a breed of dairy cannes. Although antelopes produce significantly less milk than cows, it is four times fatter in them, and moreover, milk left in the sun does not turn sour for 10 days. This is due to the fact that it contains natural substances that kill microorganisms. The presence of these substances makes milk medicinal. In the Askania-Nova reserve, even a small hospital has been opened, where stomach ulcers and, more importantly, duodenal ulcers, which usually do not respond well to medical procedures, are treated without surgery with the help of cannes milk.

Representatives of the subfamily of bovine antelopes are also predominantly large animals. Of these, wildebeest are the most famous. They have a heavy head, a tousled beard and bizarrely curved horns, and a shaggy mane on their forehead, throat and shoulders.

There are two types of wildebeest. The white-tailed beetle was almost completely exterminated by the colonialists of South Africa and survived only in reserves. The blue wildebeest is the best preserved antelope. The favorite habitat of these animals is the savannah. The wildebeest's main food is grasses, but animals do not eat all plants.

contract. Therefore, the easily arising lack of forage and drought force them to undertake distant migrations twice a year. Scattered across the boundless steppe expanses, herds of wildebeests, walking in a chain stretching from horizon to horizon, can still be seen in many parts of Africa. In addition to lions and hyena dogs, adults are not particularly threatened by wildebeest. During the day, the mother can not only fight off the leopard herself, but also protect the calf. A hyena that dared to get close to the baby, she will chase for a long time across the steppe. But at night, in the turmoil raised by the attack of lions, the female often loses her newborn. This is widely used not only by hyenas, but also by jackals. If a young, inexperienced mother chases one of the attackers at dusk, his fellow tribesmen will not hesitate to take advantage of this to attack the calf.

The most beautiful antelopes, perhaps, belong to the saber-horned subfamily. They are large slender animals with huge beautiful horns. In the horse antelope, they are sickle-curved and reach a length of 90-95 cm, and in the smaller black antelope - even 170 cm. The long straight and sharp horns of the oryx serve them as an excellent weapon. There are cases when these antelopes killed lions. Oryxes are lovers of the arid regions of the planet. Oryxes are kept in small groups of 6-12 heads. They feed on grass, young shoots of shrubs, they know how to dig out the moisture-retaining roots of plants, their bulbs and tubers from the sand. Animals graze in the early morning and late evening, when the desert is cool, and the hot time of the day is spent lying in the shade of rocks, in deep ravines, looking for a hole or fencing off from the sun by the shade of bushes and trees.

Warthog.

reviev. But if the need arises, the oryx can flee from any pursuer in the very heat. On the run, they do not suffer from the heat. The air rushing into their wide nostrils cools the blood going to the brain, so that the vital centers of the animal are insured against overheating, and a slight increase in temperature is not dangerous for the muscles.

Representatives of the gazelle subfamily are small, slender and graceful long-legged animals with a head held high, decorated with black horns. They live in Africa and Asia. In the CIS, the most famous is the gazelle, found in Azerbaijan and Central Asia. These gazelles, painted in a sandy color, live in deserts and arid mountain valleys. Goitered gazelles feed on herbs, shrub shoots, bulbs. At the height of summer, they move closer to the water; according to gazelles, it should be at a distance of 10-15 km, and go to quench their thirst once every 3-7 days. They often drink water from bitter-salty lakes, the Aral and Caspian seas. Goitered gazelles graze at dawn and dusk, and during the day they seek shelter from the sun.

Marriage ceremonies take place in the fall. Males first of all arrange latrines on their sites: they dig holes with their front legs and leave their droppings in them. If another male stumbles upon such a latrine, he throws out the owner's droppings from it and replaces it with his own. Toilets serve as scent beacons. They are intended to indicate occupied territory and attract females. In April, when the time of birth comes, the female separates from the group and looks for a flat, bare area among the thickets of bushes.

Saiga antelope.

Two newborn babies lie apart, spread out on bare soil. They are so beautifully colored that it is difficult to notice them. The mother comes to feed the children 3-4 times a day, and after two weeks the babies can accompany her. Earlier, when gazelles were numerous, they were a favorite hunting object. Currently, the number of gazelles has sharply decreased, and hunting for them is completely prohibited.

The main representative of the saiga subfamily is the saiga, or saiga. In the era of mammoths, saigas inhabited the entire steppe part of Europe and Asia, and now they are preserved only in Kalmykia.

Pig-eared pig.

The horned goat.

Dairy goat (top) and downy breed.

and in the Central Asian steppes. In spring, females go to “maternity hospitals”, where they bring one cub from year to year. The kid lies on the bare ground, because at night dew does not fall on such areas of the soil. As soon as the newborns get stronger, the animals embark on new wanderings. Saigas are surprisingly hardy animals, capable of covering hundreds or thousands of kilometers in a short period of time. Nowadays they have become an important object of commercial hunting. They have tasty meat, good skin, and their horns are used to make medicines.

There is no need to list the main features of the representatives of the subfamily of goats and rams. These animals are easily recognizable. Their homeland is Eurasia, from where they settled in Africa and America. Among them are chamois, Caucasian tur, argali and mouflon, bighorn sheep living even beyond the Arctic Circle.

The goats are characterized by a gray inconspicuous color in the color of the rocks. Most of them have huge horns. In the bezoar and Siberian goats, they are bent back, as in the old days, the runners of the sled were bent, and in the horned goats there is a huge "corkscrew" on their heads up to 120 cm long. The muzzle of both males and females is most often decorated with a beard, and the exclusive accessory of males is a scent gland located under the tail, the stench from which is difficult to endure.

The tenth subfamily of bovids are bulls. These are the largest of the bovids. Bulls have a four-chambered stomach. In the pasture

Babirusa.

they hastily tear the grass and, without subjecting it to special processing, send it to the first two chambers of the stomach, and then, while resting half asleep, regurgitate it from there, chew it melancholy and send it to the next departments (see also the article "The Simplest"). This way of feeding allows bulls not to linger on pastures for a long time, where they can be attacked by predators. Now there are 10 species of bulls. Bulls live on all continents, except Australia and South America. Among them are bison, bison, tur - the wild ancestor of the domestic bull exterminated by man. The last round died in Poland in 1627. True, German zoologists, the Heck brothers, shortly before World War II tried to "put together" the genes scattered like fragments in the breeds of the domestic bull.

Buffalo and heron.

tour. And they succeeded - an animal was bred, outwardly indistinguishable from the tour. But this is not a "real" wild tour, but only a breed of livestock.

Yaks are close relatives of real bulls. These are large animals up to 2 m high at the withers. Their thick wool forms a kind of "skirt" under which mothers hide calves from the cold, and when they lie down in the snow, it serves as a bedding for them. Wild yaks living in the highlands of Tibet are not afraid of frost at all and swim in non-freezing reservoirs all winter. These are fierce creatures that do not retreat even in front of a person.

Even 3 thousand years ago, they were tamed by people. Domestic yaks are smaller and quieter than wild ones. They are also used in our country for the transportation of heavy loads. Yaks have excellent wool, milk and meat, they do not require special care and are able to be content with the scarce vegetation of the mountains.

Buffaloes are not considered real bulls. There are only 3 types of them. The smallest, calf-sized, dwarf buffalo anoa - an inhabitant of the swampy forests of the island of Sulawesi. The Indian buffalo is one of the largest bulls. Its huge horns, sometimes more than 2 m long each (these are the longest horns in the world), are directed backwards. Animals are attached to water and are found only near rivers and swamps, willingly feed on aquatic plants and spend the whole day in the water, immersed in liquid mud. The Indian buffalo has been domesticated since time immemorial and is widely used in countries with hot climates. They ride on buffaloes, plow, cultivate rice paddies. Big

buffalo milk is in demand. It contains 2-3 times more fat than cow's. The African buffalo is the most powerful of the bulls. They live in forests, mountains and, of course, in savannas. Like other buffaloes, they avoid appearing in areas of cultivated land, therefore, in large numbers, they survived only in reserves. Buffaloes keep in small groups, and in the dry season they unite in large herds. These animals are quick on their feet. The avalanche of galloping buffaloes is impressive. They are ferocious, and hunting them is fraught with considerable danger. It is a pity that we will never again see thousands of herds of African buffaloes, rushing in a cloud of dust raised by them on the endless savanna!

DOMESTIC SHEEP

At the end of the Stone Age - 6-8 thousand years BC. NS. somewhere in Western Asia, people domesticated mountain sheep. Scientists do not yet know what species this ram, tamed and domesticated by man, was - mouflon or argali. Several decades later, the rams were domesticated by the Europeans. Since then, humans have worked to improve the source material and have created over 150 breeds. As a result of the influence of pastoralists, the appearance of the sheep and their behavior have changed. Domestic sheep have a herd instinct more pronounced than their distant ancestors. Try to split the flock in two. This task is almost impossible. It is only from animals with such a pronounced herd instinct that it is possible to form large flocks and manage with 2-3 shepherds.

Sheep provide people with milk, meat and fat, wool, sheepskin, and lamb. The most valuable thing is wool. It has significant strength, extensibility, hygroscopicity and is indispensable in the manufacture of fabrics.

Sheep are divided into 4 groups according to the shape of the tail. The Romanov sheep, which are widespread in our country, belong to the short-tailed. The skins of these sheep are used for sheepskins and fur coats.

Long-tailed sheep are both beef and merino breeds, yielding up to 10 kg of wool per year. They were used in the creation of many fine-wool breeds of sheep. Fabrics can be made from coarse hair or from down, but 5-6 thousand years ago, clothes made of fine woolen fabrics won the sympathy of fashionistas of Babylon and Egypt. This stimulated the creation of appropriate sheep breeds.

The fat-tailed sheep include, in particular, the karakul sheep bred on the territory of Uzbekistan. These are unpretentious animals that can live in the desert and do with scarce food. Karakul (kara gul) in translation into Russian means "black rose". However, their coat can be black or white. These sheep give a lot of milk, and their meat is excellent.

Finally, fat tail sheep. A fat tail is a fatty deposit in the form of large bags on the sides of the tail. It can contain up to 16 kg of fat. It is curious that none of the wild rams has a fat tail.

Meat and fat are important foods, but sheep's main value is their wool. It was she who once glorified Georgia throughout the world, and made England a rich country. It is not without reason that a ram was worshiped in Georgia quite recently, and the head of one of the chambers of the English parliament, presiding over its sessions, still traditionally sits on a sack of sheep's wool.

ZUBR

Only one species of wild bulls now lives in Europe - bison. These are the largest bulls in existence today. The body length of these forest giants is up to 3.5 m, the height at the withers is up to 195 cm, and the weight is up to 1200 kg.

Once bison lived throughout Europe and were considered the most tempting object of hunting, and therefore were mercilessly destroyed everywhere and pushed to the most remote corners of the continent. As a result, the last European bison died in Belovezhskaya Pushcha at the hands of a hunter in 1921, while the Caucasian bison survived it by only 2 years. There are no more wild bison in nature. But a miracle happened. Due to the fact that 56 animals were kept in zoos in different countries, it became possible to start work on the restoration of bison. Now you don't have to worry about them, but they all, without exception, live in reserves, that is, in protected areas. In winter, they are fed here with hay at the rate of 8 kg per day per adult bull.

Bison graze in the morning and in the evening, and the rest of the day they rest, lying in secluded places, and are engaged in chewing. In summer, bison live in small family groups, and in winter they gather in herds. They are shy animals. Smelling the smell of a person, the bison leave, but they are curious, and if the breeze pulls from them, and blind eyes do not allow to determine who disturbed their peace, the bison, having formed a half-ring, peer anxiously at the person. Inexperienced tourists perceive this behavior as preparation for an attack, but once the herd guesses that there is a man in front of him, and the animals are hiding in the thicket of the forest. In Belovezhskaya Pushcha, where most of the purebred bison now live, there have been no cases of attacks on humans.

BUFFALO

Bison is a close relative of the bison. He is outwardly similar to him. At the beginning of the 18th century, when Europeans intensively populated North America, about 60 million bison lived on its expanses - more than people! Bison were then, perhaps, the most numerous ungulates on Earth. Countless locust-like herds of bison trampled the prairies and forests from northern Mexico to the Great Slave Lake in Canada. More than one third of North America was occupied by the territory inhabited by them.

Bison trails ran across the continent. The first American railroad tracks were mainly laid along them. They brought death to the buffalo. In the 60s. XIX century. construction began on the transcontinental Pacific Railroad from Chicago to San Francisco. The railway companies kept detachments of professional hunters in their service, who supplied them in tons of free meat.

At that time, William Cody, nicknamed Buffalo-Bill, became famous all over the world, who caught 4280 buffalo in a year and a half. Once in a day, he shot 69 bulls.

Often, bison were killed only to cut a small piece of meat from the carcass of the bull for a roast for breakfast. Sometimes only tongues were cut out, leaving hundreds of bull corpses to rot in the steppe. By the beginning of the 19th century. not a single free buffalo remained in the United States.

The initiative to save the bison belongs to the Indians, whom for centuries these animals not only fed and clothed, but also provided them with almost everything they needed in their modest use: tendons for bows, skins for beds; from bull horns the Indians made cups and spoons, from leather - shoes, roofs and walls of their homes.

In 1873, an Indian named Wandering Coyote caught two young bison - a bull and a heifer. He looked after them, hid hungry vagrants from gangs. After 23 years, there were already 300 bison in the Coyote herd. At the beginning of the XX century. the herd was purchased by the US government, and the animals were relocated to Yellowstone National Park.

Now in the whole world there are already more than 20 thousand bison. Undoubtedly, the extinction of the bison genus is no longer threatened. He's saved!

Bison live in small herds, females - separately from males. They are fast and agile, capable of traveling at a speed of 50 km / h.

When a calf is about to be born, the mother does not leave the herd, and all its members joyfully greet the newborn, sniffing and licking it. The baby quickly rises to his feet and is ready to follow his mother.

PIGS

The pig family unites only 8 species of animals. All of them in the shapes of their bodies resemble a domestic pig. They have a massive body and short legs with four toes equipped with hooves. The muzzle is decorated with protruding fangs that grow all life.

Pigs are omnivores. For ungulates that are vegetarians, this is quite unusual. However, pigs with their quite simply arranged stomach, unable to repeatedly chew the food they eat, as ruminants do, unable to grow a host of microorganisms in the digestive tract in order to then use the protein substances of their bodies, are not able to exist on coarse plant feed alone and constantly need in a protein supplement. They involuntarily have to supplement the plant menu with worms, insects, molluscs, as well as larger animals if they get on their teeth. They get this part of food by digging in the ground and forest litter.

Of the pigs, the boar is the most famous. Its fangs grow in males up to 10-12 cm, and the body is covered with brown elastic bristles, which bristle on the back, imitating a mane. Wild boars live sedentary and keep in small groups, uniting in winter in larger herds. On the area they occupy, they have dug benches covered with rags, where animals rest, and there are also baths - pits filled with water and liquid mud. Boars love damp, wetlands.

Boars dig most of the food in the ground. In addition to animals living in the soil, they eat roots and rhizomes, tubers and bulbs. A great help is the carrion of fruit trees, acorns, all kinds of nuts, including pine nuts.

Females give birth to 4 to 12 piglets. For children, an insulated den with thick walls and good bedding, most often with a roof, is equipped. Piglets spend the first two weeks of their lives in the den. When leaving to feed, the mother covers them with a litter. Little striped pigs lie close to each other and wait for their wet nurse to return. Every 3-4 hours the mother returns to the den and feeds the children. Later, they begin to accompany her and learn to eat pasture.

Winter is the hardest time of the year. It is not easy to find food under the snow, and when there is a lot of snow, it becomes difficult for boars with their short legs even to walk. But the worst thing is crust, you will rip your legs about it, and you cannot get food from under it.

Where there are not very many wild boars, animals bring tangible benefits to the forest. Pigs loosen the soil by planting seeds in the soil and kill many pests such as beetle larvae and pine moth pupae. However, making forays into fields and vegetable gardens, climbing into haystacks left in hayfields in winter, they can also bring significant harm. The wild boars have few enemies, but the enemies are serious. First of all, these are wolves, and in the Far East, and a tiger. The wild boar is the ancestor of domestic pigs. It was domesticated at the end of the Stone Age and was already considered a common breeding object in Ancient Egypt.

There are 3 types of wild pigs in Africa. The smallest of them are warthogs, so named for the fact that their muzzle is strewn with huge skin warts, which turn into solid bumps in old males. The average length of their canines is 30 cm, but they can grow up to almost 70 cm.

Warthogs live throughout Africa. As a refuge, they use spacious burrows with several cameras, which they dig themselves or occupy ready-made ones. Escaping from enemies, they raise their tails high. Piglets are the first to hide in the hole, and females move backwards into it, blocking the entrance with their impressive head. Males do the same.

The female brings 3-4 cubs, occupying a separate chamber with them in the burrow. There is no bedding, but it is dry and warm, and the piglets do not freeze. The mother leaves the children for the whole day, and by nightfall she returns and feeds them only once. After a week, the piglets begin to crawl out of the burrow and accompany the mother to the pasture. The family lasts up to a year, until the female feels that she will have new children.

Warthogs are diurnal animals. Among pigs, they are the most strict vegetarians and feed mainly on grass. They nibble the grass, kneeling down, and in such an unusual position they move through the pasture, since they have thick calluses on their wrists, which protect their legs from injury. In captivity, these are funny creatures. A couple of animals from the St. Petersburg Zoo dozed for hours during the day, patiently waiting for the visitors to leave them alone, and in the evening they started a fun game. They arranged catch-ups, jumped one on top of the other or flopped down on their knees against each other, peering into the partner's “face” for a long time, in order to suddenly jump off the spot and bury themselves in a pile of hay at the same time. And all this fuss took place in complete silence, not disturbed even by the stamping of feet on the floor strewn with sawdust.

Bristle-eared pigs are very impressive, brightly colored animals. Unlike their closest relatives, warthogs, brush-eared pigs are convinced predators. Short, no longer than 15 cm, but sharp fangs help them to easily deal with any prey. They willingly eat carrion, during the calving period they attack newborn ungulates, have a fierce hatred of dogs and kill them mercilessly. In zoos, for the animals to feel normal, they have to be fed mainly with meat and fish. Bristle-eared pigs are cautious nocturnal animals. They lead a gregarious lifestyle and do not use permanent day shelters. Only females, when they have children, keep them in the burrow for some time. Bristle-eared pigs are persecuted everywhere, because they often go out into the fields and rampage there. A herd of 30-40 heads is capable of causing significant damage to crops. However, it has not been possible to significantly reduce the number of pigs. Previously, the growth of their livestock was restrained by leopards, but now they are exterminated in many parts of Africa.

The giant forest pig is the biggest pig ever. Its size can be judged at least by the fact that the pig's piglet reaches 16 centimeters in diameter! They live in dense, impenetrable African forests, in such wilds, where Europeans rarely get, therefore, scientists learned about their existence only at the beginning of our century.

The smallest hare-sized pigs - dwarf - live in the foothills of the Himalayas. They live in herds of 5-20 heads: one male, females and their children. Pygmy pigs are the most warlike pigs. Protecting his family from enemies, the male does not hesitate to attack any enemy. Intensive hunting for pigs for tasty meat and the development of the original habitats of dwarfs led to their extermination. In the mid-70s, zoologists

believed that there were no more than 100-150 heads left. How many have survived to this day is unknown.

A bearded pig should rather be called a sideburn, since, in our understanding of the word, it does not have a real beard. Light bristles grow on the sides of the head from the corners of the mouth to the ears. The growth of a bearded man from a European wild boar. They live on the Malacca Peninsula and on the islands of Kalimantan, Sumatra, Java. This is the only pig that tends to lead a nomadic lifestyle, however, only pigs from Kalimantan show a taste for annual migrations. In spring, these migrations are especially widespread. Animals go in separate small herds, but adhere to a strictly defined route, as a result, a huge number of pigs pass along it in a short period. The Dayaks, the natives of Kalimantan, have long hunted them during this period, killing animals with spears in the water as they crossed the numerous rivers. With the advent of firearms on the island, hunting has become easier and more prey.

Bearded people live in small family groups. Like all pigs, they are omnivorous, and fruits take a serious place in their diet. But since they do not grow on the ground, and pigs are not able to climb trees, bearded families accompany gibbons and herds of macaques wandering in the crowns of trees. Monkeys, as you know, are fastidious creatures and, having bitten a pink-cheeked fruit once, throw it on the ground in order to immediately try another. Connoisseurs of nature claim that monkeys often amuse themselves by throwing specially picked fruits at pigs and watching their behavior with interest.

Up to 8 piglets are born in families of bearded pigs. The mother builds a house for them ahead of time from branches, grass and large palm leaves. It turns out an impressive nest with a height of a meter, where babies spend the first 10-20 days of their lives in warmth and comfort.

Babirussa is the most interesting of the pigs. She doesn't look like an ordinary pig at all. She has a small head, short ears, a tiny patch, an arched back and long thin legs. The most memorable in her appearance is two pairs of large fangs, curved back and intended for decoration. The lower pair takes its usual place between the teeth of the lower jaw. The upper one does not grow out of the mouth, but sticks out right on the muzzle. In old males, their tips reach the forehead or bend 180 ° and grow back into the skin of the snout. In length, they reach 40 cm. Females do not have upper canines, but the lower ones have a decent size. This amazing pig, which feeds almost exclusively on leaves, green shoots and grass, lives only in mangroves, tropical rainforests and reeds of the island of Sulawesi. Its digestive system is doing its job only because it has acquired the features inherent in typical ruminants. Babirussa has the same complex stomach as theirs, where fiber is successfully digested with the help of small "cooks" - special microorganisms. Babirussa is a hermit. Animals do not like to gather in large herds and often wander in the jungle all alone or in extreme cases in small families. In the Sundy language, they are called "deer pigs" - there is so much in common in the feeding habits of these animals.

A pig with the manners of a real herbivore, able to do without tubers, grain additives, cake and compound feed, would be irreplaceable in our farm. And this is not the only advantage of babirussa. Its meat has excellent taste and is not very fatty. In addition, the pigs themselves are not susceptible to many infectious diseases dangerous for farm animals, they are not afraid of the heat, they easily tolerate high humidity, they swim well, they are able to get aquatic plants and generally exist on grazing, but they never dig in the ground, which is important for preservation of pastures.

Alas, babirussa has a significant drawback. Her mammary glands have only two nipples, and she cannot feed more than two piglets. Breeding infertile animals is difficult, although no one would refuse such a pig. Sulawesi hunters never kill babies. They are brought to the village and kept along with other farm animals. Babirusyats quickly become tame and do not cause trouble to their owners.