Supporting conservation of livestock biodiversity through multidisciplinary studies: a case study of the Yakutian cattle in Siberia, the far east of Russia
2012
Li, M.-H. | Osva, A. | Kantanen, J.
The Society for Conservation Biology has highlighted the vital importance of social sciences in animal conservation. For farm animals, their close association with humans over many centuries makes it more sensible and necessary to incorporate social sciences and humanity studies into the conservation efforts. In this review, we report a multidisciplinary study for the conservation of a unique native cattle population, the Yakutian cattle, which are the last remnants of the Turano-Mongolian Bos taurus cattle from Siberia, the far east of Russia. These cattle, which are well adapted to the severe climate and environmental conditions in the northeast Siberian territory, are gaining popularity as a hardy, adapted and useful genetic resource, particularly when man is facing the challenge of global climate change. However, the population is categorized by the FAO as “rare and endangered”. Our multidisciplinary collaborative study has proved to be successful through animal genetics, anthropology, geography, history, sociology and bio-art, and could be applied also in developing conservation programmes for other livestock, wild animals or plants.
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