Raya Cattle
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The long-horned Raya cattle are a breed of cattle common in the
Tigray Region The Tigray Region (or simply Tigray; officially the Tigray National Regional State) is the northernmost Regions of Ethiopia, regional state in Ethiopia. The Tigray Region is the homeland of the Tigrayan, Irob people, Irob and Kunama people. I ...
of Ethiopia. The Raya cattle have red and black coat colours. Bulls and oxen have thick and long horns and a cervicothoracic
hump Hump, The Hump, or humping may refer to: Biological * Hump, the fleshy mass on the back of a camel containing its fat reservoir ** For other examples, see the list of animals with humps * Humping, slang for sexual intercourse ** Dry humping, a fo ...
; cows have medium, thin horns. Raya cattle are closely related to the Afar cattle; this is a result of historical
cattle raiding Cattle raiding is the act of stealing live cattle, often several or many at once. In Australia, such stealing is often referred to as duffing, and the perpetrator as a duffer.Baker, Sidney John (1945) ''The Australian language : an examination ...
by the Raya people. The Raya cattle are however adapted to draught animals for tillage in the croplands of the highlands.


Closely related types

* Afar cattle


Origin of the cattle breed

Ethiopia has been at a crossroads for cattle immigration to Africa due to * proximity to the geographical entry of Indian and Arabian
zebu The zebu (; ''Bos indicus''), also known as indicine cattle and humped cattle, is a species or subspecies of Bos taurus, domestic cattle originating in South Asia. Zebu, like many Sanga cattle breeds, differs from taurine cattle by a fatty hump ...
* proximity to Near-Eastern and European
taurine Taurine (), or 2-aminoethanesulfonic acid, is a naturally occurring amino sulfonic acid that is widely distributed in animal tissues. It is a major constituent of bile and can be found in the large intestine. It is named after Latin (cogna ...
* introgression with West African taurine due to
pastoralism Pastoralism is a form of animal husbandry where domesticated animals (known as "livestock") are released onto large vegetated outdoor lands (pastures) for grazing, historically by nomadic people who moved around with their herds. The anim ...
Furthermore, the diverse agro-ecology led to diverse farming systems which, in turn, made Ethiopia a centre of
secondary diversification Secondary may refer to: Science and nature * Secondary emission, of particles ** Secondary electrons, electrons generated as ionization products * The secondary winding, or the electrical or electronic circuit connected to the secondary winding i ...
for livestock : * The
Sanga cattle Sanga cattle is the collective name for indigenous cattle of some regions in Africa. They are sometimes identified as a subspecies with the scientific name ''Bos taurus africanus''. Their history of domestication and their origins in relation to ...
(including the Raya breed) originated in Ethiopia. They are a major bovine group in Africa – a cross-breeding of local long-horned taurines and Arabian zebus * The
Zenga ''Zenga'' is a term for the practice and art of Zen Buddhist painting and calligraphy in the Japanese tea ceremony and also the martial arts. Zenga is a style of Chinese and Japanese calligraphy and painting, done in ink. The term is most o ...
(Zebu-Sanga) breeds, which resulted from a second introduction and crossing with Indian zebu


Breeding and genetic resource management

The lowlands of
Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...
are good for cattle breeding: there is abundant feed in the rangelands, and
pastoral The pastoral genre of literature, art, or music depicts an idealised form of the shepherd's lifestyle – herding livestock around open areas of land according to the seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture. The target au ...
communities have a good knowledge and practice of selective and controlled breeding. Hence, the breed reproduction is much better for the agro-pastoral Raya breeds than for the generalist
Arado cattle The red and black coated Arado cattle are small and hardy. They are the most common cattle variety in the north Ethiopian highlands. The Arado breed is part of the Zenga breed group. It is essentially reared for draught power, particularly tilla ...
breed of the Highlands. Raya breeders use traditional methods of animal identification and intra-breed selection. They also
cull Culling is the process of segregating organisms from a group according to desired or undesired characteristics. In animal breeding, it is removing or segregating animals from a breeding stock based on a specific trait. This is done to exagge ...
unwanted male calves based on information on their genitors. Raya breeders have a sense of collective breed ownership. They only sell off oxen to outsiders, in order to protect and maintain the genetic resource from
interbreeding In biology, a hybrid is the offspring resulting from combining the qualities of two organisms of different varieties, subspecies, species or genera through sexual reproduction. Generally, it means that each cell has genetic material from two di ...
with adjacent breeds.


Stresses on the cattle breed

* socio-political: urbanisation, and civil wars *
panzootic A panzootic (from Greek παν all + ζόιον animal) is an epizootic (an outbreak of an infectious disease of non-human animals) that spreads across a large region (for example a continent), or even worldwide. The equivalent in human populati ...
:
cattle plague Rinderpest (also cattle plague or steppe murrain) was an infectious viral disease of cattle, domestic water buffalo, and many other species of even-toed ungulates, including gaurs, African Buffalo, buffaloes, large antelope, deer, giraffes, wilde ...
* environmental: destruction of ecosystems and droughts


References

{{Reflist Cattle breeds originating in Ethiopia Tigray Region