Sheep, Pigs, Horses & Mules | Biology for Grade 12 PDF Download

SHEEP (Ovis aries) 

- Today sheeps are raised in all parts of the world.

- They are reared for wool & mutton, mostly in hilly tracts.

- Sheep graze on grass & herbs.

- Farm waste, mineral mixture, oil cake and other cattle feeds can also be given.

- High Quality soft wool shahtoosh is obtamed from the animal chiru

- A sheep lives for about 13 years.

Breeding of Sheep :

- Sheep begin breeding at the age of about two years & then have young ones every year.

- After that sheep feed on tender grass weeds of pasture & hill side.

- To improve the quality of a sheep cross breeding experiments are usually done.

- For this purpose, a good quality wool yielding or mutton producing sheep is chosen and cross breed with exotic breed like Dorset, Horn and Merino

Breeds

- Deccani & nellore breeds are raised only for mutton.

- Patanwandi provides wool for army hosiery.
Patanwandi Breed 

- Narwari yields coarse wool.

Four breeds yields good wool -

i. Rampur - Bushair ( Brown fleece for superior cloth)

ii. Lohi (Quality wool also milk)

iii. Bakharwal ( Undercoat for shawls)

iv. Nali (carpet wool)

Some breeds of Indian Sheep

GOAT (Capra capra)

- It is also called poor mans cow because it yields a small quantity of milk and feeds on a variety of wild plants even prickly ones.

- Goat destroy vegetation & forests if not kept under control.

- About 19% of world goat population occurs in India

- Goats are reared in open sheds.

Breeding of Goats :

- The wild goat Baluchistan and Sindh is the ancestral stock of all breeds of domesticated goats.

- An adult male goat is also called - billy goat or a buck and a female adult is a nanny goat or a doe. A goat less than a year is called Kid .

- The fine soft wool called PASHMINA is the underfur of Kashmir & Tibet goat.

Some Goat Breeds

Yak (Poephagus grunnies)

- It is reared in high mountainous regions for meat, wool, hide milk, transport & tilling.

PIG (Sus sacrofa)

- Pig is the most economical source of meat for human beings.

- Pig's meat is called PORK.

- Pig's fat is used as cooking medium and for preparation of soap.

- Its hide forms leather & its bristles are used for making brushes.

- Pigs are susceptible to extremes of heat & cold.

- The care & management of pigs is called PIGGERY.

Feeding of Pigs

Indigenous pigs survive  through scavenging on garbage & kitchen waste & farm by products & human faeces.

- Pig keepers raise them on grass. Straw roots and grains.

- As they can feed on human faeces, they serve as secondary host for tape worm.

Breeds & breeding

Pig breeding has now started on commercial scale. The improved exotic types, number of which is insignificant is maintained mostly at all the seven regional pig breeding stations of the country.

Domesticated

*Elephants (Elephas maximus)

- They have poor sight but sense of hearing & smell is highly developed.

- African elephants have longer tusks than Asian elephants. - Elephant is the largest land animal.

• The gestation period is 21-22 months.

- Puberty in elephants occurs at b/w 8 & 12 years.

Uses -.

i Elephants are used to lift & carry logs of wood across hilly patches and dense forests.

ii The tusks of elephants provides the precious ivory used for intricate carving by skilled craftsman.

• Elephants may live for upto 90-100 years.

•  Feeding - Working elephants are fed straw hay and crushed grain as a supplement.

- Daily water consumption is 140-230 litres.

•  Horses (Equus equus)

- Horse is firm footed fast runner, stout & intelligent.

- Initially it was used for hunting game.

- Later they were employed for pulling chariots transport & warfare.

- They are fast learners & faithful pests & able to adopt to all sorts of climatic conditions.

- They are reared for racing & polo.

- They are also used as laboratory animals for preparing vaccines.

- Horses are employed in circus too.

- Horses are fed on oats barley, grams & hay

- Common salt is also added to their diet.

- Green grass also be given

- As compared to other animals they have a low reproductive rate.

Important breeds of Indian horses

Donkeys (Equus asinus)

Two kinds of donkeys are found in India

i. Small grey

ii. Large white

- The wild ass of Ethiopia and Northern Africa is the ancestor of common domestic donkeys.

Mules

- It is a sterile hybrid b/w male donkey & female horse (Mule)

- In difficult terrain, mule is preferred because it is sturdier & more firm fooled than either of its parents.

- When a cross b/w a female donkey and a male horse (stallion) is called HINNY

- Army uses two types of mules 

i General service type

ii. Mountain artillery type

• Mules are fed on green fodder crushed gram, barley & salt

Camel (Camelus)

- Camel is used for riding, carrying loads ploughing, threshing grains pulling carts drawing water from wells.

- Camels hair is used for making warm garments cords & garments cords & brushes.

- Desert dwellers relish the camel's milk & meat

- Camel's hide is used for making saddles

• There are two kinds of camel

i. Arabian, one humped (Camelus dromedarus)

ii. Bactrian, two humped (Camelus bactrians)

• Disease like anthrax, pneumonia, camel pox & Surra affect camel.

Adaptation in camel (Ship of desert) 

1. It can easily lives in desert in sand where lot of food & water shortage persists.

2. It can easily move on hot & slippery sand because it uses whole of foot while walking

3. On sand it can run at a speed of 25 km. per hour.

4. The camel can cover about one hundred km. if needed.

5. It can live without food & water for about 10 days continuously

6. Hump at the back of camel contains fats in the form of reserve food.

7. When storage of water is less these passes very little urine (about 1/2 lit a day)