Dzo
A Dzo ( Tibetan མཛོ་ mdzo tso ; Mongolian хайнаг Khainag ), also transcribed as Zho or Zo , is a cross between a yak and a domestic cattle . The term Dzo actually only refers to the male offspring of such a cross. Females are known as Dzomo or Zhom . The term yakow , derived from English, is occasionally used for this crossbreed , in which the words yak and cow have been drawn together.
The crossing of yaks and various local cattle breeds has a long tradition in the yak holding areas, even if there are individual regions in which such hybridization is rejected for religious reasons. Mating between free-range cattle and yaks is relatively rare, as their sexual behavior differs somewhat. If, on the other hand, yaks and domestic cattle are kept in a herd, mating is more common because the animals are used to each other.
background
Yaks have a very long history of domestication. Targeted breeding has largely not taken place until today. A distinction is made between yak races . However, these only arose due to geographical isolation from one another. The animals therefore vary considerably in their milk and meat production. Basically, the yak is of great importance for the Central Asian peoples who live on the high plateaus of Asia. Yak milk , yak meat and products such as yak leather and wool are of great economic importance. However, yaks ripen very slowly and give relatively little milk, which can only be obtained with great effort , since the calf usually has to be nearby to be prepared during milking.
When yaks are crossed with cattle, the performance of the F1 hybrids is usually well above the parent species. Unlike yaks, these hybrids get along better with warmer weather, but like the original species they have a high level of surefootedness and also utilize the reduced food supply of the high plateaus better than cattle. However, this heterosis effect is lost if the hybrids are bred further.
Others
Similar to the crossing of domestic cattle with bison (see Żubroń ), the male hybrids of the 1st and 2nd generation of yak-cow crosses are sterile, while the female offspring remain fertile.
There have been several attempts to create an intermediate species through combination crosses that combines the milk yield of domestic cattle with the resistance of the yak to adverse weather conditions and its ability as a pack animal. These attempts have so far been largely unsuccessful and have been discontinued.
literature
- Jürgen Lensch, Peter Schley, Rong-Chang Zhang (eds.): The Yak (Bos grunniens) in Central Asia (= Giessen treatises on agricultural and economic research in the European East . Volume 205 ). Duncker and Humblot, Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-428-08443-8 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Lensch et al., P. 111
- ↑ Bataagiin Bynie: Mongolia: The Country Refort on Animal Genetic Resources . Ulaanbaatar 2002, p. 11 (English, fao.org [PDF; 1.4 MB ]).
- ↑ Diki Tsering: Dalai Lama, My Son . Penguin Books, 2002, ISBN 0-7865-2260-7 .
- ↑ Lensch et al., P. 106
- ↑ Lensch et al., P. 117
