Abstract
Animal breeds are the diverse outcome of the thousands-year-long process of livestock domestication. Many of these breeds are piebald, resulting from the artificial selection by pastoralists of animals bearing a genetic condition known as leucism, and selected for their productive, behavioural, or aesthetical traits. Piebald dromedary camels have not been studied or discussed before, and their same existence is often overlooked. Based on fieldwork in Western Sahara, direct observations across Northern and East Africa and the Middle East, and a literature review, we address the morphological and behavioural traits, geographical distribution, taxonomy, and material and cultural importance of piebald (painted) camels. They are a hundreds-year-old camel breed used for caravans, as mounts, and for aesthetical and cultural reasons across Sudan, Niger, Mali, Mauritania, Western Sahara, and Morocco. While they are increasingly bred out of a pastoral context for tourism and entertainment in the Canary Islands, mainland Europe, and the USA, in part of their original African range, piebald camels are under threat due to wars, droughts, and demise of pastoral livelihoods. More research is needed about these ‘beautiful and dignified’ animals.
Highlights
A breed is a group of domesticates that has specific characteristics or traits artificially selected by man and transmitted through inheritance (Driscoll et al 2009; Larson and Fuller 2014)
Morphological, physiological, and behavioural characteristics Piebald camels have a white and solid coloration that varies between individuals in the relative cover of white or solid and in the shape that the patches assume on the body
There is a high variation in the amount of white in the body, from individuals who are all solid-coloured but the snout to others that are totally white or all white but the hump (Cauvet 1925; Mahaman 1979; Dioli 2013). This variation relates to the degree of leucism of the animal, which, with all evidence, has a genetic basis
Summary
A breed is a group of domesticates that has specific characteristics or traits artificially selected by man and transmitted through inheritance (Driscoll et al 2009; Larson and Fuller 2014). Breeds are the diverse outcome of the thousandsyear-long process of livestock domestication (Francis 2015) They have been selected in accordance to productive, cultural, and aesthetical traits and are often a key element of pastoral livelihoods and identities. In-depth fieldwork was conducted in inland Western Sahara, northern Mauritania, and the part of Algeria to the south and south-east of the Hamada of Tindouf, which are the customary nomadic territories of Sahrawi pastoralists. Across this area, the climate is continental: summer daytime temperatures pass 50 °C, while winter night-time temperatures may drop to 0 °C. For a background on the Sahrawi refugees and nomads and on their camel husbandry, see Volpato and Howard (2014) and Caro Baroja (1955)
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