The ankole-watusi, or the ankole longhorn
Domestic cattle Bos taurus
It is now believed that all modern domestic cattle (including the zebu and other humped domestic cattle but excluding domesticated gayals, bantengs, yaks, and buffalos) evolved from the extinct Aurochs (Bos primigenius). Most researchers think that wild aurochs were domesticated in the Middle East about 8,500 years ago. There are about 300 breeds of domestic cattle in the world, which probably developed from different subspecies of Bos primigenius. Certain characteristics of the aurochs’ appearance are still seen in some primitive breeds including Scottish park cattle and Hungarian grey cattle. Animals of these spectacular breeds are kept at the Berlin Tierpark.
The ankole-watusi, or the ankole longhorn
The ancestors of these amazing representatives of cattle, which are often referred to as “Cattle of Kings”, were raised by Egyptian farmers in the Nile Valley 6,000 years ago. About four thousand years ago primeval wild bovids (turs) dispersed to Africa from the Nile Valley where they are still depicted in paintings on the Egyptian pyramid walls. At about the same time humped bovids, zebus, spread to Ethiopia and southern Africa from India and Pakistan and crossed with Egyptian cows to produce the species that became the ancestor of many breeds of the African cattle. In Rwanda and Burundi, the offspring of the Egyptian and Indian cattle was called the watusi, the Uganda tribe Nyancore called it the ankole. Since ancient times, both bulls and cows of the ankole-watusi were considered sacred in African religions. They were rarely used as a source of meat since the status of people was assessed by the size of the owned stock of live cattle. The ankole-watusi cows weigh 400 to 550 kg and bulls, 600 to 730 kg. Newborn calves weigh just 12 to 23 kilograms. In Rwanda, where the Tutsi ruled, watusi were known as inyambo, "the cows with very long horns". And indeed, the most striking feature of these animals is their astounding horns measuring 1.5 to 3.7 meters in length. The longer and the thicker at the base were the horns, the more respectful were the bulls and those with the largest and longest horns belonged to the king and were considered sacred. As to the ankole-watusi themselves, the value of the large horns is that they act as radiators; blood circulating through the horn area is cooled and then returned to the main body, which allows excess body heat to be dispersed. This quality is highly important in the habitats of this species where the temperatures may reach 500C. Ankoles are able to utilize poor quality forage and limited quantities of food and water. These survival abilities have allowed them to not only survive the centuries in Africa but to become established on other continents.
