Cattle Breeding, Complexity and Mobility in a Structurally Unpredictable Environment: The Wodaabe Herders of Niger

Krätli, Saverio

doi:10.3167/np.2008.120102

Cited by 42 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 36 publications

(29 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Unsurprisingly, given the lack of attention to leucism in camels in the scientific literature, no investigation has up to now been conducted on the genetics of piebald camels. From the information we collected, only a tentative hypothesis can be put forward, and in order to have a deeper understanding of piebald camels' genetics, a 'herd analysis exercise' (Krätli 2008) among herds including piebald camels would be helpful.…”

Section: Genetics Of Piebald Camelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Piebald Camels

Volpato

Dioli²,

Nardo

2017

Pastoralism

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Animal breeds are the diverse outcome of the thousands-year-long process of livestock domestication. Many of these breeds are piebald, resulting from the artificial selection by pastoralists of animals bearing a genetic condition known as leucism, and selected for their productive, behavioural, or aesthetical traits. Piebald dromedary camels have not been studied or discussed before, and their same existence is often overlooked. Based on fieldwork in Western Sahara, direct observations across Northern and East Africa and the Middle East, and a literature review, we address the morphological and behavioural traits, geographical distribution, taxonomy, and material and cultural importance of piebald (painted) camels. They are a hundreds-year-old camel breed used for caravans, as mounts, and for aesthetical and cultural reasons across Sudan, Niger, Mali, Mauritania, Western Sahara, and Morocco. While they are increasingly bred out of a pastoral context for tourism and entertainment in the Canary Islands, mainland Europe, and the USA, in part of their original African range, piebald camels are under threat due to wars, droughts, and demise of pastoral livelihoods. More research is needed about these 'beautiful and dignified' animals.

show abstract

Section: Genetics Of Piebald Camelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Piebald Camels

Volpato

Dioli²,

Nardo

2017

Pastoralism

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…For example, some cattle prefer the pastures of the Logone Floodplain, whereas others prefer those of the Lake Maga area. These preferences develop over time as cattle are trained to graze specific species on specific pastures (Schareika 2003;Krätli 2008;Krätli and Schareika 2010). Because of habitude pastoralists are reluctant to change their habitual orbit because of the additional costs of animals that are not thriving on new pastures.…”

Section: Ideal Free Distribution Between Seasonal Grazing Areasmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ideal Free Distributions of Mobile Pastoralists in Multiple Seasonal Grazing Areas

Moritz

Hamilton

Scholte³

et al. 2014

Rangeland Ecology & Management

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…Early in the dry season water can be found throughout the floodplain, then only in depressions and rivers, and finally only in the rivers. In general, cattle graze more intensively when there is more and better forage (Krätli 2008;Schareika 2003). Grazing intensity is thus a function of forage quality and quantity.…”

Section: Developing a Diachronic Model Of Grazing Pressurementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Others have documented the in-depth knowledge that pastoralists have of their environment and how this shapes their everyday grazing strategies (Bollig and Schulte 1999;Krätli 2008: Schareika 2003. Bollig and Schulte (1999), for example, have shown that pastoralists' knowledge of their environment is fine-grained and complex and built up around the interaction between herds and vegetation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

An Integrated Approach to Modeling Grazing Pressure in Pastoral Systems: The Case of the Logone Floodplain (Cameroon)

Moritz

Soma

Scholte³

et al. 2010

Hum Ecol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The discussion about the impact of pastoral systems on ecosystems has been profoundly shaped by Hardin's "tragedy of the commons" argument that held pastoralists responsible for overgrazing the range. Recent studies have shown that grazing ecosystems are much more complex and dynamic than was previously assumed and that pastoralists adaptively manage these systems. However, we still have little understanding how everyday herding affects ecosystems at the landscape level. We conducted a study of daily herd movements and grazing strategies in a mobile pastoral system in the Logone floodplain, Cameroon. We integrated GPS/GIS technology, video recordings of animal behavior, and ethnographic methods to develop a more accurate measurement of grazing pressure that takes into account both livestock densities and grazing behavior. We used the resulting grazing pressure data to evaluate existing conceptual models of grazing pressure at a landscape level. We found that models that predict that grazing pressure is skewed towards the direction of water most accurately reflect the situation in the Logone floodplain in the dry season. However, we found that the higher grazing pressure is not only the result of a higher density of cattle but also a change in the grazing behavior of animals after watering. Finally, we caution that the models of grazing pressure in the dry season cannot simply be extrapolated to the landscape level because mobile pastoralists do not remain in one central place.

show abstract

Cattle Breeding, Complexity and Mobility in a Structurally Unpredictable Environment: The Wodaabe Herders of Niger

Cited by 42 publications

References 36 publications

Piebald Camels

Piebald Camels

Ideal Free Distributions of Mobile Pastoralists in Multiple Seasonal Grazing Areas

An Integrated Approach to Modeling Grazing Pressure in Pastoral Systems: The Case of the Logone Floodplain (Cameroon)

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About