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Home , Indian aurochs, Zebu

CHAPTER FIVE

BOS INDICUS, THE

5.1 The Living

5.1.1 Zoology or humped are the typical cattle of the South Asian sub- continent. They share most characteristics with their closest relative, the Eurasian or taurine domestic cattle ( taurus), which are a large size, a massive body, stout limbs, and a long tail which is tufted at the tip. Both sexes bear hollow horns, which are larger in males. Zebus differ essentially from the other Eurasian cattle by a number of unique features, most probably related to the tropical climate in which they live. These features are a distinct hump over the shoulder, an elongated head, elongated eyes, large pendulous ears, and a large dewlap (fi g. 70). In males, the prepuce or the skin sheath covering the penis, hangs free from the belly over its larger part, forming a triangular skin fl ap (fi g. 71). All this additional skin helps the zebu to maintain its body temperature. The body is usually covered with short hair for the same reason. As all large herbivores, zebus graze approximately eight hours a day; the remaining time is spent resting or chewing the cud. of the zebu may have begun between 8,000 and 6,000 year B.C.E. in the Indus Valley of Pakistan. It is not entirely clear whether the zebu has been domesticated independently1 of Bos taurus or not,2 though genetic analyses strongly suggest the fi rst option.

1 G. Corbet and J. Hill, The of the Indomalayan region: a systematic review (Oxford: Oxford University, 1992); R. Loftus, D. MacHugh, D. Bradley, P. Sharp and P. Cunningham, “Evidence for two independent domestications of cattle,” PNAS 91 (1994), 2757–2761; D. MacHugh, M. Shriver, R. Loftus, P. Cunningham and D. Bradley, “Microsatellite DNA variation and the evolution, domestication and phylogeogra- phy of taurine and zebu cattle (Bos taurus and Bos indicus),” in Genetics 146 (1997), 1071–1086. 2 H. Epstein and I. Mason, “Cattle,” in Evolution of domestic , ed. I. Mason (London: Longman, 1984), 6–27. zebu 89

The wild (B. banteng) or some nearly allied extinct type is mentioned as a possible ancestor or contributor. The zebu may further be a descendant of an Indian form of (B. namadicus),3 or may have interbred with the to a considerable extent as was the case in .4 The zebu is easily distinguished from not only by its exterior appearance—hump, dewlap, elegant and slender built—, by their markedly different physiology—resistance to heat, ticks and insects—, and by some osteological differences in the backbones5 and the skull.6 The zebu is distributed over the entire subcontinent, except for the Himalayas above two km of altitude. The zebu is endemic to the sub- continent in the broad sense, including Pakistan and Afghanistan, but is nowhere known in the wild state. Azerbaijan (Iran) is the westernmost region where pure-bred zebus occur, which are very similar to the mountain breeds of Afghanistan and northern Pakistan. Zebus have been exported to already since the seventh century; in recent times it was also introduced into the New World. Hybrids of zebus with local cattle are sometimes called zeboid.7

5.1.2 Zebu Breeds At present, there are thirty or more zebu breeds in . The rec- ognized breeds differ mainly in the shape and fi rmness of the hump, horn size, ranging from long-horned to very short-horned or even almost rudimentary horns, and horn shape, ranging from lyre-shaped

3 J. Clutton-Brock, op. cit. (1981), 64; C. Grigson, “Size and sex: evidence for the domestication of cattle in the ,” in The Beginnings of Agriculture, ed. A. Milles, D. Williams and N. Gardner, British Archaeological Reports 496 (Oxford, 1989), 77–109. 4 A. Götherström, C. Anderung, L. Hellborg, R. Elburg, C. Smith, D. Bradley and H. Ellegren, “Cattle domestication in the Near East was followed by hybridization with aurochs bulls in Europe,” PRS B 272 (2005), 2345–2351. 5 The thoracic vertebrae after the hump have a distinctively cleft dorsal spine, as described by S. Olsen, “Post-Cranial Skeletal Characters of and Bos,” Papers of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University 35, 4 (1960), 1–61. This, however, occurs occasionally in Bos taurus breeds as well. 6 C. Grigson, “The Comparative Craniology of Bos taurus L., B. indicus L., B. primi- genius Boj., and B. namadicus Falc.,” Ph.D. thesis (London University, 1973). 7 H. Epstein and I. Mason, “Cattle,” in Evolution of domestic animals, 6–27. Zeboid cattle are found in South East Asia, for example, the Southern Chinese and the Indo- Chinese zebu type.