The moufflon is a wild sheep from Corsica, Sardina and Cyprus. In 1957, a male and a female from Corsica were taken to another island, this one in the southern Indian Ocean, in an attempt to establish a herd for sport hunting. The pair thrived on Haute Island, and the resulting population peaked at about 700 head in the 1970’s, thereafter oscillating between 200 and 600. Ok, so far so weird, but so what? Well it turns out that genetic diversity hasn’t behaved as expected. By rights in such a small, isolated, inbred population it should have decreased markedly as a result of genetic drift. But according to this, it hasn’t. The reason is probably strong natural selection, according to the authors of the study, who compared DNA from the original founding couple to that of the present herd.
Swiss cows to go cold turkey
So apparently Swiss farmers will no longer be able to feed cannabis to their cows. Bummer.
Wanna farm snails?
Then head on over to Nigeria’s Daily Sun, where an interview with a retired director of the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation makes is sound like an ideal life for the farmer seeking to diversify. He does consultancy too, which could make getting into that line of work easier.
Longhorns registered
A surprisingly detailed – for this kind of thing – article in the News-Journal describes efforts to preserve the breed of cattle known as the Texas Longhorn. This apparently developed from cattle introduced from Spain to what is now Mexico around 1500. It was the mainstay of the Texan cattle industry until railroads replaced the traditional cattle drive (much seen in John Wayne movies) at the end of the 19th century. Their long horns meant you could fit fewer of them into the cattle-trucks. It has since been much altered by cross-breeding, and, predictably, this loss of “purity” has upset some people, while no doubt leaving others to mutter “So what?”, probably under their breath. Anyway, there’s a registry, and a DNA database is underway. Lots more interesting detail in the article.
Etruscan cattle
A new study tries to disentangle the mystery of the origin of the Etruscans by looking at the genetics of the cattle currently found in the area of central Italy which takes its name from that ancient civilization, Tuscany (or is it the other way around?). It turns out that, unlike cattle from other parts of Italy, cattle from the Etruscan lands shows genetic affinities with Anatolian breeds. According to the Italian researchers, the Etruscans came to Italy from Turkey, and they did so by sea. I wonder if it will be possible to recover DNA from the remains of ancient Etruscan cattle…