Dzo

Dzo

Dzo is the Tibetan name for hybrid creatures that are the cross between Yaks and domesticated Cattle. The name technically refers to only the male crosses (females are reffered to as Dzomo), but for the sake of ease we'll use Dzo today for a general term.

Dzo are used as pack animals in Tibet and other mountainous regions because they can survive at high elevations as well as Yaks do, but have more strength and size due to the Cattle ancestry. In general, these hybrids have the faces of Cattle, but the shaggy coats of Yaks.

As with many hybrids, a downside to the Dzo is that the males are sterile. Females are not always sterile though, which means that the animals can be bred back to other Cattle and Yaks, creating 3/4 crosses. It is speculated that many supposed purebred Yaks and Cattle actually have genes from the other species, due to this ability to back-cross.

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Status : Hybrid
Location : Asia
Size : Weight around 1,300lbs (580kg)

Classification : Phylum : Chordata -- Class : Mammalia -- Order : Artiodactyla
Family : Bovidae -- Genus : Bos -- Species : B. grunniens × B. primigenius

Kouprey

Bos sauveli (the only captive Kouprey)

Meet the Kouprey, one of the rarest hoofed mammals still alive on our planet-- in fact, it may actually extinct. These large bovines are close relatives  to the Guar and the extinct Aurochs, and could be found in only a very tiny range that includes parts of Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Koupreys live in partially forested areas, where they live in small herds and feed on grasses during the night time. (It is believed they may have been diurnal once, but they adapted to avoid human contact). They have long, narrow bodies, very long legs, and have small humps on their back. Males and females can be told apart by their size, their horns, and their necks. Males have larger bodies and much larger horns that branch upwards. They also have dewlaps on their necks. Females are smaller, have shorter curved horns, and no dewlap.

The Kouprey was only first discovered in 1937, and the only captive specimen was taken that same year. There have been no official sightings since 1988, though tracks have been found and bones have turned up. If they are still out there, there are probably less than 50 left. Koupreys are protected in all countries of their range, and were named the national animal of Cambodia in the 1960s. There are no captive Koupreys currently, so the wild bunch is all we have left.

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IUCN Status : Critically Endangered
Location : Southeast Asia
Size :  Body length up to 7.5ft (2.3m), Weight up to 2,000lbs (910kg)

Classification : Phylum : Chordata -- Class : Mammalia -- Order : Artiodactyla
Family : Bovidae -- Genus : Bos -- Species : B. sauveli

Milking Shorthorn

On the eighth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me... eight maids a'milking...

Milking Shorthorn

And now we come to the half the song proliferated by humans in various occupations. And because this is "Animal-A-Day" and not "Random-Profession-For-Hire-A-Day," we'll be getting a bit creative for the remainder of the entries.

Though to be honest, today's entry isn't that far out of the box. Milking maids? A dairy cow? Not altogether unexpected. At any rate, the Milking Shorthorn, which is also referred to as the Dairy Shorthorn depending on the country, is a relatively old breed of Cattle that was developed as an offshoot of the Shorthorn Breed. The Shorthorn and Milking Shorthorn have the same ancestry, but have been adapted to serve different purposes.

Milking Shorthorns were fist developed in Northern England during the late 18th century, and were exported to the United States, New Zealand, and Australia during the next few decades. At this time they were sometimes referred to as "Durhams," for the area in which they originated.

The breed is incredibly versatile; the calve easily and regularly, they grow very fast, graze efficiently, and they produce large volumes of nutritious milk. Milking Shorthorns also have long lifespans, and they have a high salvage value when they eventually pass away.

One interesting trait of the breed is that they come in a roan color, which is a speckled mixture of white and red. This color is not found in any other Cattle breed! They also comes in more solid shades of white and red. Milking Shorthorns have passed their color on to the handful of breeds that they have helped to create, including the Illawarra Cattle and the Swedish Red Cattle.

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Status : Domesticated, but listed as a critical breed by the ALBC
Location : Originated in England
Size : Height up to 55in (1.4m), Weight up to 1,500lbs (680kg)

Classification : Phylum : Chordata -- Class : Mammalia -- Order : Artiodactyla
Family : Bovidae -- Genus : Bos -- Species : B. primigenius

Banteng

Banteng Cow and Calf

Banteng are wild cattle that can be found in South and Southeast Asia. They have even been domesticated in some parts of their range, and it is estimated that there are around 1.5million domesticated individuals in the world, as compared to only a few thousand of their wild counterpart. In their domestic form, they are often referred to as Bali Cattle.

Banteng Bull

Though there are many Banteng in captivity, their wild populations are dwindling, and the species is considered to be Endangered. Hunting, habitat loss, and interbreeding with Cattle have caused the population to decline, and they are becoming regionally extinct.

One neat little tidbit about the Banteng involves their coat coloration. Males and females are sexually dimorphic; though they are both born with reddish coats, over time the females will stay red and develop white stockings, while the males' coats will darken to an almost black color.

Another even more amazing fact is that the Banteng is the second endangered species to ever be cloned. A couple dozen embryos were implanted into female Cattle in 2003. Two calves made it through the entire pregnancy and were delivered by C-Section. The ability to clone endangered, and possibly extinct species presents new ways of maintaining the planet's biodiversity, though it is also important to maintain genetic diversity within the species as well.

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IUCN Status : Endangered

Location : South and Southeast Asia
Size : Height up to 5.25ft (1.6m), Weight up to 1750lbs (794kg)

Classification : Phylum : Chordata -- Class : Mammalia -- Order : Artiodactyla
Family : Bovidae -- Genus : Bos -- Species : B. javanicus

Zubron

Zubron

Meet the Zubron, a hybrid creature that is the result of crosses between European Bison (Wisent) and Cattle. Think "Beefalo" but with a longer history and a slightly different Bison in the mix.

The first Zubron dates all the way back to 1847, when a Polish man named Leopold Walicki created crosses between male Wisent and female Cattle. The result was a hardy animal that was less susceptible to disease. Other benefits? Zubron would graze on less desirable tracts of land that didn't need a huge farm infrastructure. They also required far less human interaction. Downsides? First generation males were infertile, though the females weren't. So a female Zubron could be bred back to either Cattle or Wisent, creating fertile male offspring.

Zubron breeding continued through the 19th century and into the 20th. By 1958 the work was taken on by the Polish Academy of Sciences, and several dozen animals were born in those first few years. In 1969 a contest was held by the newspaper Przekroj, and the name Zubron was chosen for the hybrids.

By the late 1980s, however, the results of the crosses were no longer considered desirable and state farms were losing interest. There was also fear that the hybrids would contaminate the gene pools of the purebred Wisent, a Vulnerable species.

There are a few Zubron left now in Bialowieski National Park, and there is still some work being done to create the hybrids, but on a far more limited scale.

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Status : Hybrid
Location : Developed in Poland
Size : Weight up to 2,600lbs (1,200kg)

Classification : Bos taurus × Bison bonasus

Antique Bison

Bison antiquus fossil at the Page Museum

Meet the ancestor of the modern North American Bison- the Antique or Ancient Bison. These huge herbivores were some of the most common mammals found on the continent during the end of the last Ice Age.

Antique Bison themselves most likely evolved from the Eurasian Steppe Bison that had crossed over to North America through the Bering Land Bridge. The species then spread across the entire continent, and could be found from Canada to Mexico, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific, though they were most abundant in the American Southwest.

American Bison and Antique Bison share some differences. The Antique Bison had a larger body size overall, and was about 1/3 larger than its descendant. They also had much large shoulder humps, and longer horns.

Antique Bison went extinct around 10,000 years ago. The spread of the modern Bison most like contributed to their decline. Fossils have been found at numerous sites, sometimes with as many as 200 individuals at one location. This suggests that they were hunted in large numbers, which may have also been a cause of their extinction.

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Status : Extinct for 10,000 years
Location : North America
Size : Shoulder height 7ft (2.1m)

Classification : Phylum : Chordata -- Class : Mammalia -- Order : Artiodactyla
Family : Bovidae -- Genus : Bison -- Species : B. antiquus