general characteristics

The bovid family includes 140 species ranging from the 5 kg dikdik to the 1000 kg bison. An important difference are horns: they are almost always one pair (an exception is the genus of four-horned antelopes), and the length can be from 2 cm to 1.5 meters. Some species have horns only in males, but most have them in both sexes. These are bony structures firmly connected to the skull. Unlike deer and pronghorns, bovids never have branched horns. Most big representative families - gaur (height at the withers up to 2.2 m and weighing more than a ton), and the smallest - dwarf antelope (weighs no more than 3 kg and is as tall as a large domestic cat).

The main part of the bovids lives in open areas. The African savannahs are an ideal living space 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 may eat animal food as well. Like other ruminants, bovids have a four-chambered stomach, which allows them to digest plant foods such as grasses 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 are all bovids, is able to digest such food.

Horns

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

Evolution

In historical terms, bovids are a relatively young group of animals. The oldest fossil that can be safely attributed to the bovids is the genus Eotragus(en:Eotragus) from the Miocene. These beasts 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 the important lineages of modern bovids were already represented. During the Pleistocene, bovids migrated across the then-existing natural bridge from Eurasia to North America. Bovids did not naturally make their way to South America and Australia, but domesticated species today exist in almost all countries of the world.

According to geneticists, the time of separation of ruminants ( Ruminantia) on bovids ( Bovidae) and giraffes ( Giraffidae) has been dated to 28.7 million years ago (Oligocene).

Classification

Bovids are currently subdivided into eight subfamilies:

  • Subfamily Aepycerotinae- Impala
  • Subfamily Alcelaphinae- Bubals, or cow antelope
  • Subfamily Antilopinae- Real antelopes
  • Subfamily Bovinae- Bulls and Markhorn Antelopes
  • Subfamily caprinae- Goat
  • Subfamily Cephalophinae- Duikers
  • Subfamily Hippotraginae- Saber-horned Antelopes
  • Subfamily Reduncinae- Water goats

This family also includes fossil genera:

  • † Pachytragus

see also

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Notes

An excerpt characterizing Bovids

- Sonya? do you sleep? Mum? she whispered. No one answered. Natasha slowly and cautiously got up, crossed herself and carefully stepped with her narrow and flexible bare foot on the dirty cold floor. The floorboard creaked. She, quickly moving her feet, ran like a kitten a few steps and took hold of the cold bracket of the door.
It seemed to her that something heavy, evenly striking, was knocking on all the walls of the hut: it was beating her heart, which was dying from fear, from horror and love, bursting.
She opened the door, stepped over the threshold and stepped onto the damp, cold earth canopy. The chill that gripped her refreshed her. She felt the sleeping man with her bare foot, stepped over him and opened the door to the hut where Prince Andrei lay. It was dark in this hut. In the back corner, by the bed, on which something was lying, on a bench stood a tallow candle burnt with a large mushroom.
In the morning, Natasha, when she was told about the wound and the presence of Prince Andrei, decided that she should see him. She didn't know what it was for, but she knew that the date would be painful, and she was even more convinced that it was necessary.
All day she lived only in the hope that at night she would see him. But now that the moment had come, she was terrified of what she would see. How was he mutilated? What was left of him? Was he like that, what was that unceasing groan of the adjutant? Yes, he was. He was in her imagination the personification of that terrible moan. When she saw an indistinct mass in the corner and took his knees raised under the covers by his shoulders, she imagined some kind of terrible body and stopped in horror. But an irresistible force pulled her forward. She cautiously took one step, then another, and found herself in the middle of a small cluttered hut. In the hut, under the images, another person was lying on benches (it was Timokhin), and two more people were lying on the floor (they were a doctor and a valet).
The valet got up and whispered something. Timokhin, suffering from pain in his wounded leg, did not sleep and looked with all his eyes at the strange appearance of a girl in a poor shirt, jacket and eternal cap. The sleepy and frightened words of the valet; "What do you want, why?" - they only made Natasha come up to the one that lay in the corner as soon as possible. As terrifying as this body was, it must have been visible to her. She passed the valet: the burning mushroom of the candle fell off, and she clearly saw Prince Andrei lying on the blanket with outstretched arms, just as she had always seen him.
He was the same as always; but the inflamed complexion of his face, the brilliant eyes fixed enthusiastically on her, and in particular the tender childish neck protruding from the laid back collar of his shirt, gave him a special, innocent, childish look, which, however, she had never seen in Prince Andrei. She walked over to him and, with a quick, lithe, youthful movement, knelt down.
He smiled and extended his hand to her.

For Prince Andrei, seven days have passed since he woke up at the dressing station in the Borodino field. All this time he was almost in constant unconsciousness. The fever and inflammation of the intestines, which were damaged, in the opinion of the doctor who was traveling with the wounded, must have carried him away. But on the seventh day he ate with pleasure a piece of bread with tea, and the doctor noticed that the general fever had decreased. Prince Andrei regained consciousness in the morning. The first night after leaving Moscow was quite warm, and Prince Andrei was left to sleep in a carriage; but in Mytishchi the wounded man himself demanded to be carried out and to be given tea. The pain inflicted on him by being carried to the hut made Prince Andrei moan loudly and lose consciousness again. When they laid him down on a camp bed, he lay for a long time with eyes closed motionless. Then he opened them and whispered softly: “What about tea?” This memory for the small details of life struck the doctor. He felt his pulse and, to his surprise and displeasure, noticed that the pulse was better. To his displeasure, the doctor noticed this because, from his experience, he was convinced that Prince Andrei could not live, and that if he did not die now, he would only die with great suffering some time later. With Prince Andrei they carried the major of his regiment Timokhin, who had joined them in Moscow, with a red nose, wounded in the leg in the same Battle of Borodino. They were accompanied by a doctor, the prince's valet, his coachman and two batmen.

Bovids are the largest, youngest and most progressive family of the artiodactyl order. Its name does not 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 on the outside with a horn sheath. Removed from the bone rods, they become hollow, as any cover should be. From horn covers, decorating them with silver and sometimes with precious stones, it is customary in the Caucasus to make expensive goblets, in which wine is served at feasts to the most honored guests.

According to a long-established custom, bovids use one pair of horns. The only exception are 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 flaunt horns, although in the fairer sex they are usually somewhat smaller than in males. Horns grow throughout life, so their size can partly judge the age of animals. The growth of the horns occurs from the bottom up. None of the bovids have antlers that branch and do not change during life, as is the case with deer on a regular basis.

Horns can be formidable weapons. However, the use of horns for defense seems to be their 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. The horns of spinboks are not adapted for defense either. Their tips are bent inward, while those of chamois and takins are turned back. Even among the owners of a truly formidable weapon, not everyone uses it to protect themselves from predators. The initial function of the horns, apparently, was the ritual fights of males. And do not be surprised that sports tournaments use military weapon: the more dangerous it is, the stricter the rules for its use, excluding the possibility of causing serious injuries and injuries to the enemy. During tournaments, no one hits the opponent in the side. Long-horned antelopes fencing with horns, like rapiers, striking not at the body of the enemy, but with flat blows at his horns. The sportiness of the competition is also evidenced by the fact that in many species of bovids, opponents are fighting,

kneeling down or, like goats, they rear up and beat from top to bottom, trying to hit the horns with their horns. At first glance, only the fights of 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 sheep either. The bones of their skull and cervical vertebrae have increased strength, and the brain does not suffer from concussion.

Some bovids do not use horns during tournaments. Males of large nilgai antelope during the fight kneel, rest their foreheads against each other and try to move the enemy or intertwine their necks and try to knock the competitor on their side. Fatalities battles are rare, since rivals, if one of them is having a hard time, surrender to the winner, assuming a pose of appeasement. In this case, they are guaranteed immunity. A pose of appeasement, a request for mercy can be falling to your knees,

which is understandable even to us humans. Thomson's Gazelle is used in another way. They flatten out on the ground, clinging to it with their heads and outstretched necks. Only females do not consider obligatory observance of the unwritten rules for conducting tournament fights. Representatives of those species that are not supposed to have horns, in conflicts with each other, hit each other with their heads in the side.

Of the other features characteristic of most bovids, the absence of incisors and fangs in the upper jaw and the presence of skin glands that produce odorous substances are especially important. 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, widely distributed throughout the world, which indicates its progressive development. They are not only in South America and Australia. But they completely mastered the rest of the continents - from lowland arctic tundra to snow-covered highlands and from swamps and wet rainforest to waterless steppes and deserts. However, their fiefdom, of course, is Africa. The largest number of species of bovids live here.

Not only is the bovid family 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 (bisons, bison, buffaloes), and very small ones, the size of a cat, such as the royal pygmy antelope and dik-diks, reaching a height of 25 to 35 cm at the withers and a weight of 3 to 10 kg.

The subfamilies of pygmy antelopes and duikers combine the smallest bovids. Their size is indicated by the names of animals: pygmy antelope, baby suni antelope, baby antelope. Quite toddlers are some dikdiks, whose skin is widely used in the manufacture of gloves. They are so small that two antelope skins go into a pair of women's gloves.

Merino sheep and fat-tailed sheep (below).

Snow sheep.

ki. Duikers aren't giants either. The smallest are as tall as a hare, and the largest are no larger than a roe deer. All males have horns, although sometimes they are 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 swift and jumpy. They easily and naturally jump up to 3 m in length. The vast majority of these animals live in forests or bushes, and some of them like the plains, while some prefer mountains, some like dry forests, others are found only in humid areas. They do not gather in herds and live alone or in pairs. Males rub their muzzles against tree trunks, leaving odorous marks and secretions of infraorbital glands on the borders of the areas they occupy. 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 eat a fat snail or caterpillar, eat a lizard or a frog, and if they are lucky, they catch birds. Duikers do not just grab randomly turned up game, but really hunt, carefully sneaking up, and only when they are very close, make a throw. A frog or a gecko is grabbed directly with its teeth, and a flying bird is knocked down with a blow of the front leg.

The subfamily of markhorn antelopes unites large animals. In size and weight, they are second only to bulls. Them most hallmark are horns twisted into a spiral; however, the degree of twist in different species is far from the same. Greater kudu is the most typical member of this subfamily. This is a large animal, reaching a height of 1.5 m. The heads of males are decorated with huge, up to 1.5 m, horns, while females do not have horns. Females with calves are kept in small groups of 6-10 animals or herds of up to 30-40 animals. Bulls join them only in mating season. At this time, stubborn fights arise between males. Sometimes they cling so tightly with their horns that they can no longer disengage and perish in the claws of lions. For life, kudu choose rocky plains, certainly with dense shrubbery and good watering places.

An unusual way of life is inherent in sitatunga. This 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 hooves of the sitatunga, 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 perfectly, knows how to dive and hide in the water, as hippos do, exposing only their nostrils above its surface. Here, in the center of the swamps, she is not afraid of either lions, or leopards, or a man with a gun.

The large hooves of the sitatunga are able to spread widely, which allows it to feel confident in any quagmire. In the depths of African swamps warmed by the sun and almost completely deprived of oxygen, all vegetation dies and rots. The processes of decay are going on here with space speed, but the development on the surface of new plants does not lag behind the processes of their decomposition. The top layer of marsh sod is usually a dense interweaving of thick stems that have not yet had time to collapse and no less strong rhizomes. The human leg does not find support here, slips off these slimy vegetable ropes, pushes them apart, and the person falls to the waist. With sitatunga, marsh, water and reed goats, also belonging to the bovid family, this does not happen. Their hooves act like grips. The chaotic interweaving of plant remains is so dense that at each step between the hooves some rhizome or stem will certainly fall that can withstand the weight of the animal, or even several “ropes” at once, and sitatunga calmly overcomes such areas where animals with a much larger area supports, but not having cloven hooves, are hopelessly stuck.

In case of need, sitatungas remain up to their necks in water for weeks. Interestingly, her long and thick fur does not get wet. Hair protects the secretions of the sebaceous glands from water. Only thanks to this, the sitatungs are able to stay in the marsh bogs for a long time, without going out to dry land.

In the eland antelope, another representative of the markhorned antelopes, both males and females own horns. In males, they reach a length of 1 m, while in females they are much shorter. Eland is the largest of the antelopes. Its height at the withers can reach 180 cm, and weight - 943 kg. Cannes live in 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 move 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, because in the presence of watering places they willingly drink water.

It is not clear why cannes were not domesticated at one time. These antelopes, as a result of systematic persecution, have now become very shy and are 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 pens. Cannes can survive on the scarcest feed that is not suitable for livestock, and besides, they are not subject to many dangerous diseases hooves-

Buffalo.

Kanna.

Wildebeest.

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

At the end of the last century, the Askania-Nova steppe reserve was brought large group cann. Since then, there has been a systematic formation of a herd of giant antelopes. Now the Askanian cannes are quite domesticated animals. Unlike African farmers, our breeders sought to create a breed of dairy cannes. Although antelopes give much less milk than cows, they have four times more fat, and besides, 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. A small hospital has even been opened in the Askania-Nova Reserve, where, without surgical intervention, with the help of canna milk, stomach ulcers and, more importantly, duodenal ulcers, which usually respond poorly to medical procedures, are treated.

Representatives of the subfamily of cow 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 is almost completely exterminated by the colonialists of South Africa and is preserved only in reserves. The blue wildebeest is better preserved than any other antelope. The favorite habitat of these animals are savannahs. The main food of wildebeest is grasses, but animals do not eat all plants.

contract. Therefore, the easily occurring lack of food and drought make them undertake long migrations twice a year. Herds of wildebeest, scattered across the boundless steppe expanses, walking in a chain stretching from horizon to horizon, can now be seen in many parts of Africa. In addition to lions and hyena dogs, no one is particularly threatened by adult wildebeest. During the day, the mother can not only fight off the leopard herself, but also protect the calf. A hyena that ventured to get close to the baby, she will drive across the steppe for a long time. But at night, in the confusion 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 fail to take advantage of this to attack the calf.

The most beautiful antelopes, perhaps, belong to the saberhorn subfamily. These are large slender animals with huge beautiful horns. In the horse antelope, they are sickle-curved and reach a length of 90-95 cm, while in the smaller black antelope - even 170 cm. The long straight and sharp horns of the oryx serve as an excellent weapon for them. There are cases when these antelopes killed lions. Oryxes are lovers of arid regions of the planet. Oryxes keep in small groups of 6-12 heads. They feed on grass, young shoots of shrubs, they are able to dig up moisture-retaining plant roots, their bulbs and tubers from the sand. Animals graze early in the morning and late in the evening, when coolness reigns in the desert, and they spend the hot time of the day lying in the shade of rocks, in deep ravines, looking for a hole or blocking themselves from the sun with the shade of bushes and de-

Warthog.

reviews. But if the need arises, oryxes can run away 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 for the muscles a slight increase in temperature is not dangerous.

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

Marriage ceremonies take place in autumn. 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 comes across such a latrine, he throws out the owner's droppings from it and replaces it with his own. Restrooms serve as scent beacons. They are designed to mark the occupied territory and attract females. In April, when the time of birth comes, the female separates from the group and searches for a flat bare area among the thickets of bushes.

Saiga.

Two newborn babies lie apart, sprawled on bare patches of soil. They are so well painted that it is difficult to notice them. The mother comes to feed the children 3-4 times a day, and after two weeks the kids can already accompany her. Previously, when goitered gazelles were numerous, they were a favorite object of hunting. Currently, the number of goitered 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

Bushy pig.

Markhor goat.

Dairy goat (above) and down breed.

and in the Central Asian steppes. In spring, females go to "maternity hospitals", where they bring one cub from year to year. The baby lies on bare ground, because at night dew does not fall on such areas of 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 time if necessary. Currently, they have become an important object of commercial hunting. They have tasty meat, a solid skin, and the 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 tours, argali and moufflons, snow sheep that live even beyond the Arctic Circle.

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

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

Babirussa.

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

Buffalo and heron.

tour. And they succeeded - an animal was bred that was 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 bedding for them. Wild yaks living in the highlands of Tibet are not at all afraid of frost and bathe in non-freezing reservoirs all winter. These are ferocious creatures that do not retreat even before a person.

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

Buffaloes are not considered real bulls. There are only 3 types. The smallest, calf-sized, dwarf anoa buffalo is an inhabitant of the marshy 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 marshes, willingly feed on aquatic plants and spend the entire bright part of the day in the water, immersed in liquid mud. The Indian buffalo has been domesticated since time immemorial and is widely used in countries with a hot climate. They ride buffaloes, plow, cultivate rice plantations. 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 the savannas. Like other buffaloes, they avoid appearing in areas of cultivated land, therefore they are preserved in large numbers only in nature reserves. Buffaloes keep in small groups, and in the dry season they unite in large herds. These animals are fast on foot. 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 buffalo rushing in a cloud of dust raised by them across the endless savannah!

DOMESTIC SHEEP

At the end of the Stone Age - 6-8 thousand years BC. e. somewhere in Western Asia, people domesticated mountain sheep. Scientists do not yet know what kind of ram this ram, tamed and domesticated by man, was - mouflon or argali. A few decades later, Europeans also domesticated sheep. Since then, people have worked to improve the source material and have created more than 150 breeds. As a result of the influence of pastoralists, the appearance of sheep and their behavior have changed. In domestic sheep, the herd instinct is more pronounced than in their distant ancestors. Try to divide the flock into two parts. This task is practically impossible. Only from animals with such a pronounced herd instinct can one form large flocks and manage with 2-3 shepherds.

Sheep give people milk, meat and fat, wool, sheepskin and fur. The most valuable 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 short-tailed sheep include the Romanov sheep, which are widespread in our country. The skins of these sheep are used for sheepskins and fur coats.

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

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

Finally, fat-tailed sheep. Kurdyuk - fat deposits 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 sheep has a fat tail.

Meat and fat are important products, but the main value of sheep is their wool. It was she who once glorified Georgia to the whole world, and made England a rich country. It is not for nothing that a ram was worshiped in Georgia until relatively recently, and the head of one of the chambers of the English parliament, presiding over its meetings, still traditionally sits on a sack of sheep's wool.

BISON

Only one species lives in Europe now wild bulls- teeth. 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 upon a time, bison lived throughout Europe and were considered the most tempting object of hunting, and therefore they were ruthlessly destroyed everywhere and pushed back 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 him by only 2 years. There are no more wild bison left in nature. But a miracle happened. Due to the fact that in zoos different countries 56 animals were kept, it was possible to start work on the restoration of bison. Now there is no need to worry about them, but they all, without exception, live in reserves, that is, in protected areas. In winter, they are fed with hay at the rate of 8 kg per day for an adult bull.

Bison graze in the morning and evening, and the rest of the day they rest, lying in secluded places, and chew. In summer, bison live in small family groups, and in winter they gather in herds. These are shy animals. Having smelled a person, the bison leave, but they are curious, and if the breeze pulls from them, and the blind eyes do not allow to determine who disturbed their peace, the bison, forming a semicircle, peer at the person with alarm. Inexperienced tourists perceive such behavior as preparation for an attack, but as soon as the herd guesses that there is a person in front of it, the animals hide in the thicket of the forest. In Belovezhskaya Pushcha, where most of the purebred bison now live, there were no cases of attacks on humans.

BUFFALO

The bison is a close relative of the bison. He looks like him too. V early XVIII century, when Europeans intensively settled North America, about 60 million bison lived in its open spaces - more than people! Bison were then perhaps the most numerous ungulates on Earth. Herds of bison, countless as locusts, trampled the land of 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.

Paths laid by bison stretched across the entire continent. Along them lay the first American railroad tracks. They brought death to the bison. In the 60s. 19th century Construction began on a transcontinental Pacific railroad from Chicago to San Francisco. The railroad companies kept squads of professional hunters in their service, who supplied them with free meat by the ton.

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

Often bison were killed only to cut a small piece of meat from the carcass of a bull for a breakfast roast. Sometimes only tongues were cut out, leaving hundreds of bovine corpses to rot in the steppe. By the beginning of the XIX century. There are no free bison left in the USA.

The initiative to save the buffalo belongs to the Indians, who for centuries these animals not only fed and clothed, but also delivered to them almost everything they needed in their modest everyday life: tendons for bows, skins for beds; Indians made cups and spoons from bull horns, shoes, roofs and walls of their dwellings from leather.

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

Now there are already more than 20 thousand bison all over the world. Undoubtedly, the buffalo genus is no longer threatened with extinction. He's saved!

Bison live in small herds, females - separately from males. They are fast and agile, able to run 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 its feet and is ready to follow the mother.

PIGS

The pig family includes only 8 species of animals. All of them resemble a domestic pig in the shape of their body. They have a massive body and short legs with four toes equipped with hooves. The muzzle is decorated with fangs sticking out, which grow throughout life.

Pigs are omnivores. For ungulates that are vegetarians, this is quite unusual. However, pigs, with their fairly simple stomachs, are unable to repeatedly chew the food they eat, as ruminants do, unable to grow in digestive tract hosts of microorganisms, in order to later use the protein substances of their bodies, are not able to exist on some rough vegetable feed and constantly need a protein supplement. They inevitably have to supplement the plant menu with worms, insects, mollusks, as well as larger living creatures if it gets on their teeth. They get this part of the feed by rummaging in the ground and forest litter.

Of the pigs, the wild 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 larger herds in winter. On the site they occupy, they have dug beds covered with rags, where the animals rest, and there are also baths - pits filled with water and liquid mud. Wild boars love damp, wetlands.

Wild boars dig up most of their food in the ground. In addition to animals living in the soil, they eat roots and rhizomes, tubers and bulbs. The scavenger is a great help fruit trees, acorns, all kinds of nuts, including pine nuts.

Females bring from 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 bedding. Little striped boars lie huddled close to each other, waiting for the return of their nurse. Every 3-4 hours, the mother returns to the den and feeds the children. Later, they begin to accompany her and are trained 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 wild boars with their short legs to even walk. But the worst thing is the crust, you will scrape your legs about it, and you won’t get food from under it.

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

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

Warthogs live throughout Africa. Spacious burrows with several chambers are used as a shelter, which they dig themselves or occupy ready-made ones. Running away from enemies, tails are raised high. The piglets are the first to hide in the hole, and the females back into it, blocking the entrance with their impressive head. So do the males.

The female brings 3-4 cubs, occupying a separate chamber with them in the hole. 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 returns at night and feeds them only once. A week later, the piglets begin to crawl out of the hole 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 grass, kneeling down, and in such an unusual position they move around the pasture, since they have thick calluses on their wrists that protect their legs from injury. In captivity, these are funny creatures. A pair 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 started a fun game. They arranged catch-ups, jumped one on top of the other or flopped down against each other on their knees, peering at the “face” of their partner for a long time, in order to suddenly break away at the same time and bury their heads in a pile of hay. And all this fuss took place in complete silence, not disturbed even by the clatter of feet on the floor strewn with sawdust.

Bush-eared pigs are very imposing, brightly colored animals. Unlike their closest relatives, warthogs, bush-eared pigs are staunch predators. Short, no longer than 15 cm, but sharp fangs help them easily deal with any prey. They willingly eat carrion, during the calving period they attack newborn ungulates, experience a fierce hatred for dogs and ruthlessly kill them. In zoos, in order for the animals to feel normal, they have to be fed mainly with meat and fish. Bush-eared pigs are cautious nocturnal animals. They lead a flock of life and do not use permanent daytime shelters. Only females, when they have children, keep them for some time in a hole. Bush-eared pigs are persecuted everywhere, because they often go out into the fields and outrage there. A herd of 30-40 heads can cause significant damage to crops. However, it is not possible to significantly reduce the number of pigs. Previously, the growth of their livestock was held back by leopards, but now they have been exterminated in many parts of Africa.

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

The smallest pigs the size of a hare - pygmy - live in the foothills of the Himalayas. They live in herds of 5-20 heads: one male, females and their children. Dwarf pigs are the most warlike of the pigs. Protecting his family from enemies, the male attacks any enemy without hesitation. Intensive pig hunting tasty meat and the development of the original habitats of dwarfs led to their extermination. In the mid-1970s, zoologists

it was 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, because it does not have a real beard, in our understanding of the word. 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 boar. They live on the Malay 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 the spring, these migrations are especially massive. Animals go in separate small herds, but adhere to a strictly defined route, as a result, in a short period great amount pigs. The Dayaks, the natives of Kalimantan, during this period have long hunted them, killing animals with spears in the water when they crossed numerous rivers. With the appearance on the island firearms hunting has become easier and more productive.

Bearded men 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, families of bearded men accompany gibbons wandering in the crowns of trees and herds of macaques. Monkeys, as you know, are finicky creatures and, having bitten a rosy-cheeked fruit once, they throw it to the ground in order to immediately try another one. Connoisseurs of nature say that monkeys often amuse themselves by throwing specially plucked fruits at pigs and watching their behavior with interest.

In families of bearded pigs, up to 8 piglets are born. The mother builds a house ahead of time for them out of branches, grass and large palm leaves. It turns out an impressive nest a meter high, where the kids 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 a normal pig at all. She has a small head, short ears, a tiny snout, an arched back and long thin legs. The most memorable in her appearance are 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 from the mouth, but sticks out directly 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 fangs, but the lower ones have a decent size. This amazing pig, feeding almost exclusively on leaves, green shoots and grass, lives only in the mangroves, tropical rainforests and reed beds of the island of Sulawesi. Its digestive system copes with its task 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 last resort small families. In the Sunda language, they are called "deer pigs" - so much in common in the nature of the food of these animals.

A pig with the manners of a real herbivore, capable of doing without tubers, grain additives, oilcake and compound feed, would be indispensable in our economy. And this is not the only advantage of babirussa. Its meat has an excellent taste and is not very fatty. In addition, the pigs themselves are not susceptible to many infectious diseases, dangerous for farm animals, are not afraid of heat, easily tolerate high humidity, swim well, are able to get aquatic plants and generally exist on pasture, but they never dig in the ground, which is important for the 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 piglet. Sulawesi hunters never kill babies. They are brought to the village and kept along with other farm animals. Babirussyata quickly become tame and do not cause trouble to their owners.

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

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

The main part of the bovids lives in open areas. The African savannahs are an ideal living space 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 may eat animal food as well. Like other ruminants, bovids have a four-chambered stomach, which allows them to digest plant foods such as grasses 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 are all bovids, is able to digest such food.

Horns

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

Evolution

Historically, bovids are a relatively young group of animals. The oldest fossil that can be safely attributed to the 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 the important lineages of modern bovids were already represented. In the Pleistocene, bovids migrated along the then existing natural bridge from

  • Suborder: Ruminantia = Ruminants
  • Family: Bovidae (Cavicornia) = Bovids

    • Characteristics of the POLOR family.

    Sizes from small to large. So, Neotragus pygmaeus has a height at the withers of about 25 cm and a weight of 2-3 kg, and a bison has a height at the withers of up to 200 cm and a weight of up to 1000 kg. General build from light and slender to heavy and massive. Limbs are usually high. Males, and in many species also females, have a pair of unbranched horns (Tetracerus has two pairs). The horns are permanent, non-replaceable bone outgrowths of the frontal bones, covered on the outside with a horny sheath of epidermal origin. The growth of the horn, in contrast to deer, comes from its base. Thus, the top of the horn represents its oldest part. Periodic intensification and deceleration of the growth of horns is characteristic, as a result of which peculiar rings form on its horny surface. The shape of the horns is extremely varied - from completely straight, long and thin to short, thick and strongly curved or spirally twisted. If the direction of bending or twisting of the horn is inward, towards the horn opposite side, then such horns are called homonymous, if the right horn is folded or bent to the right, and the left horn to the left - heteronymous. In cross section, the horns are round, oval or triangular. On their surface there are often protrusions, transverse folds and rings or longitudinal ribs.

    The coloration is very diverse - from white to almost black, usually without sharp color patterns. Many species have a white field on the thighs - a “mirror”. There are usually many specific glands in the skin: preorbital, interhorn, inguinal, interdigital, caudal and etc. Nipples 1-2 pairs.

    There are 4 (rarely 2) fingers on the limbs, but the lateral (II and V) fingers are greatly shortened and, although they have small hooves, they usually do not touch it when walking on hard ground. From the metacarpal bones of the lateral fingers, only the proximal and distal parts are preserved.

    The frontal bones are strongly developed in the skull. The parietal bones are shifted back. The lacrimal bone has a strongly developed facial part with or without a fossa for the preorbital gland. Usually there is only one opening of the lacrimal canal. Ethmoid openings are absent or poorly developed. The bones of the skull are strongly pneumatized. The premaxilla is usually relatively small, the maxillary is very large. Sometimes the second premolars in the lower, and occasionally in the upper jaws do not develop or fall out early. The cheek teeth are hypselodont and tetraselenodont (four-lunar).

    The stomach is complex, clearly divided into 4 sections: scar, mesh, book and abomasum. The gallbladder is usually present. The placenta is policoti-icy.

    Widely distributed throughout the globe. The restored range covers Africa (without Madagascar), Europe (except for the British Isles), goes north to the south of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Gulf of Finland, Upper Volga, Samarskaya Luka and the south of the Urals. Beyond the Urals, the range includes the south of Western Siberia and most of Central and Eastern Siberia and Far East. In the southeast and south of Asia, the range covers the entire southern part Asian mainland with most of the adjacent islands. In the New World, the range covers most of North America south to California, Florida and northern Mexico, the Arctic archipelago, and the northern and eastern coasts of Greenland. As a result of excessive fishing or for other reasons, the ranges of most species have been significantly reduced.

    They live in a wide variety of places - from dense forests to steppes, semi-deserts and deserts on the plains, in the foothills and high in the mountains - above almost all other mammals (up to 5500 m above sea level). However, the largest number of species inhabits open spaces. They live in herds, sometimes very large - up to several thousand heads. Much less common in small groups or alone. They feed on plants, mainly herbs.

    Most species are polygamous, although some are monogamous. Males of some bovids during the breeding season have a harem of females. The inhabitants of the tropics, as a rule, have no seasonality in reproduction. The duration of pregnancy is 4-11 months. In the litter from one to 4-5 cubs.

    Many species of bovids are of significant importance as game animals from which meat and skin are obtained. A number of species served as the ancestors of the most important domestic animals.

    Males, and mostly females, have horns. The horns of the bovids are permanent, irreplaceable outgrowths. The absence of horns (hornless) in males is sometimes observed as a domestic sign of the frontal bones, dressed on the outside with horny covers from a modified epidermal layer of the skin.

    Unlike the pronghorn family (Antilocapridae), the horn covers do not fall off and do not change throughout the life of the animal. The growth of the horn, in contrast to deer (Cervidae), does not occur at the top, but at the base; the apex represents its oldest part, formed in the first stages of formation. Periodic intensification and deceleration of the growth of horns is characteristic, 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 diverse, but never branched. The horns may look like simple matches; are arcuately bent forward or backward; cochlear; coiled or twisted; straight, upright or pointing backwards. The twisting and folding of the horns can be homonymous or heteronymous. The length of the horns may be small, not exceeding half the length of the skull, or, conversely, several times greater than the latter.

    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. V home condition distributed throughout the world.

    Bovid evolution

    The bovid family is phylogenetically the youngest and most numerous of the modern groups of ungulates, which has not yet survived its heyday. The roots of the bovids lead to the Lower Oligocene deer (Tragulidae). Their immediate ancestor or original form is not known, but the genus Gelocus Aymard, which lived in Europe in the Lower Oligocene, was probably very close to it. Gelocus had no horns, his ulna was independent, but the fibula was greatly reduced. The lateral fingers, when walking, probably touched the ground. 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 metapodia. The molars were of an extremely brachyodont type, the upper saber-shaped 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.

    Forms intermediate between deer and true bovids are not yet known. In the middle Miocene of Europe, antelopes lived, possessing non-replaceable horns, but still with extremely primitively arranged brachiodont molars of the skull and a long, horizontally located horn part. They could be considered the initial 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 have already been found, which lead us to assume that the departure of the ancestors of the bovids from the common stem of the Resoga occurred no later than the Upper or even Middle Oligocene. The homeland of the bovids should be considered the Eurasian continent, where at the junction of it with Africa lay the primary center of settlement of this group. The secondary centers were, on the one hand, Central Asia, and on the other hand, the regions adjacent to India, to the west of the latter.

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

    Bovid classification

    The division of bovids into bulls, goats, rams and antelopes that has existed since the time of Pallas does not correspond modern ideas about their phylogenetic relationships and is therefore abandoned by most zoologists at present. The apparently 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, agreement on the issue of relations with each other individual groups Bovidae and the related division of the entire family into subordinate groups is absent, 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 few exceptions, are present only in males; the bases are located above the orbits, massive, without internal cavities inside the rods. The nostrils are close together; the distance between them is more height upper lip(from its lower edge to the nostrils). The mammary gland has four nipples. The lateral 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. Auditory vesicles swollen. The middle pair of incisors is greatly expanded compared to the others and has the shape of asymmetric blades. Distribution: Africa, Front, Middle, Central and South Asia, some areas southern Siberia(Altai, Tuva, southern Transbaikalia).

    2. Duikers(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 not 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 arranged small openings on a hairless area of ​​skin. Distinctive features in the skull there are also very large preorbital fossae, in the formation of which the nasal bones are greatly expanded in the posterior half, and the bases of the horn processes are shifted far beyond the orbits, while not extending to the sides beyond the boundaries of the brain box. The lateral part of the skull is much shorter than the length of the forehead. The frontals are long, more than 36% of the main length of the skull. Auditory vesicles swollen. The middle pair of incisors is greatly expanded compared to the others and has the shape of asymmetric blades. Distribution: Africa south of the northern tropic. Over 30 species of duikers 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, Ungulate animals" Publishing house of the Academy of Sciences, Moscow, 1959.