154 Fun Facts About Farm Animal

How many compartments does a cow's stomach have?

Food is regurgitated and chewed again as cud.

What is the name of the first and largest compartment of a cow's stomach?

The rumen is the first and largest compartment; its microbes ferment grass the cow cannot digest alone, and ruminants take their name from it.

What is a cow doing when it chews the cud?

Chewing the cud means re-chewing regurgitated food: partly fermented grass is brought back up from the stomach and ground again, as all ruminants do.

Roughly how many cattle were there in the world in 2022?

Over 940 million. India, Brazil and China kept the three largest national herds in 2022, together accounting for well over half a billion head.

What is a female pig called before she has had her first litter?

A gilt is a young female pig that has not yet farrowed; once she has produced a litter she is called a sow.

How long is a cow pregnant for?

About nine months: a cow's gestation averages around 283 days, close to the human figure, and calves can stand within hours of birth.

From which wild animal were cattle domesticated?

It happened about 10,500 years ago in Anatolia, the Levant and western Iran. The wild ancestor died out in 1627.

How many toes does a cow walk on?

Two, the third and fourth digits, forming the cloven hoof; sheep, goats and pigs share the arrangement.

Roughly how many chickens were alive in the world in 2023?

Over 26.5 billion chickens were alive in 2023, and more than 50 billion are reared each year for meat and eggs; no other bird comes close.

Which wild bird are chickens mainly descended from?

It still lives in the forests of South and Southeast Asia. Domestication happened thousands of years ago.

What is a young female chicken under a year old called?

A pullet is a female chicken under a year old, becoming a hen once mature; the word is standard in the poultry trade.

What is a castrated male chicken called?

The meat is prized for being fattier and more tender. The other three words belong to sheep, horses and pigs.

How long does a fertile chicken egg take to hatch?

About 21 days: a hen's eggs hatch after three weeks of incubation, while duck eggs take about 28 days and goose eggs about 30.

What are the fleshy flaps hanging under a chicken's beak called?

Wattles are the fleshy flaps under the beak; the crest on top of the head is the comb, and both help the bird shed heat.

What is the highest authenticated rate of egg-laying by a hen?

371 eggs in 364 days, set by a hen in a 1979 official laying test; that required more than one egg on some days.

How many teeth does an adult pig have?

44: an adult pig has 44 teeth, including four canine tusks that grow continuously, a dozen more than an adult human's 32.

How intelligent are pigs said to be?

Roughly on par with dogs: pigs learn tasks quickly, remember them for years, and in tests have used mirrors to find hidden food and worked a joystick for rewards.

How long is a pig pregnant for?

About 114 days: farmers remember a sow's gestation as three months, three weeks and three days. Litters commonly number ten or more piglets.

What is 'rooting' in pigs?

It is an instinctive comforting behaviour as well as a way of finding food. The snout is an acute sense organ.

What is a castrated male sheep called?

An intact male is a ram, sometimes a tup. Females are ewes and the young are lambs.

Roughly how many domestic sheep are there in the world?

About 1.2 billion sheep are kept worldwide, China alone holding well over 100 million; they were domesticated around 11,000 to 9000 BC in Mesopotamia.

What shape are a sheep's pupils?

They give a field of vision of 270 to 320 degrees. A sheep can see behind itself without turning its head.

Which wild animal are sheep most likely descended from?

The mouflon, a wild sheep of Iran and Anatolia; domestication happened around 11,000 to 9000 BC, with Iran at the centre of the zone.

Which sheep, born in 1996, was the first mammal cloned from an adult cell?

Dolly, born at the Roslin Institute near Edinburgh in July 1996, was the first mammal cloned from an adult body cell; her birth was announced in February 1997.

What is a group of sheep called?

A flock: the flocking instinct is so strong that a lone sheep becomes distressed, and shepherds rely on it to move hundreds of animals with a single dog.

Which wild animal is the likely ancestor of domestic goats?

The bezoar ibex, a wild goat that survives in the Zagros Mountains; genetic studies confirmed it as the ancestor of domestic goats, tamed around 10,000 years ago.

Why will a goat chew on cardboard, paper or clothing?

Goats are browsers rather than grazers, and extremely curious. That is where the tin-can cartoon comes from.

What share of the world's milk supply comes from goats?

About 2%: cows supply more than four-fifths of the world's milk and buffalo most of the rest. A dairy goat gives 540 to 1,180 kg over a 284-day lactation.

How long is a goat pregnant for?

About 150 days: a doe carries her young for roughly five months, and twins are common; the newborns can stand and nurse within an hour of birth.

What is a castrated male horse called?

A gelding is a castrated male horse; an uncastrated male of four or older is a stallion and a female of that age is a mare.

At what age does a young horse stop being called a foal?

One year: a horse is a foal until its first birthday, and a foal can be of either sex; stallions and mares are so called from four years old.

What is the V-shaped, rubbery pad on the underside of a horse's hoof called?

The frog is the V-shaped pad on the underside of the hoof; it cushions impact and pumps blood back up the leg each time the horse steps.

Which of these is one of the four natural gaits of a horse?

The canter: the four natural gaits are the walk, trot, canter and gallop. The pace, rack and tölt are ambling gaits particular to certain breeds.

Can a horse sleep standing up?

Yes, and lying down too: a locking mechanism in the legs makes standing sleep possible, but horses still need to lie down for deep sleep.

How long is a mare pregnant for?

About 340 days: a mare's gestation averages roughly eleven months, ranging from 320 to 370 days, and foals can stand within hours of birth.

What is the fleshy protuberance on top of a turkey's beak called?

The snood is the fleshy protuberance over the beak; the flap under the beak is the wattle, and both change colour with the bird's mood.

What is a baby turkey called?

A poult is a young turkey; adult females are hens and, in North America, males are toms. Cygnet, squab and gosling belong to swans, pigeons and geese.

Why are commercial turkey breeds bred by artificial insemination?

Males are too large to mate: broad-breasted commercial toms have been bred so heavy in the chest that natural mating is impractical, so hens are inseminated artificially.

What does 'polled' mean when describing cattle?

Polled cattle are naturally hornless, a dominant inherited trait; breeds such as the Aberdeen Angus are polled, which spares farmers from dehorning calves.

The word 'cattle' derives from a Latin word for what?

Capital, meaning head: 'cattle' comes via Anglo-Norman catel from Medieval Latin capitale, 'property', itself from caput, 'head'; it once meant movable wealth of any kind.

How many recognised breeds of cattle are there?

Over 1,000 breeds of cattle are recognised worldwide, falling into taurine, zebu and sanga types; some are kept for milk, others for beef or draught.

What is a freemartin?

A freemartin is a female calf born twin to a male; hormones shared in the womb leave her infertile, so about nine in ten such females never breed.

Which breed lays most of the white eggs sold in American supermarkets?

The Leghorn, a light Italian breed that lays 280 or more white eggs a year; Rhode Island Reds, Plymouth Rocks and Orpingtons lay brown eggs.

What is a hen called when she sits on eggs to hatch them?

Broody: a broody hen stops laying and sits tight on her eggs until they hatch, turning them and leaving only briefly to eat and drink.

Why did 'rooster' become common in 18th-century North America?

To avoid the crude sense of an older name: 'rooster' spread in 18th-century America as a polite substitute for 'cock', which had acquired a vulgar meaning.

How many pigs are raised worldwide each year?

Around 1.5 billion pigs are slaughtered each year, yielding some 120 million tonnes of meat; roughly a billion are alive at any one time.

Which country is the world's largest pork producer?

China, which raises roughly half the world's pigs and produces around 50 million tonnes of pork a year; the EU is second, followed by the United States.

What special feature strengthens a pig's snout?

A prenasal bone, a small extra bone at the tip of the snout, stiffens the disc so the pig can root through hard ground; the snout is also an acute sense organ.

In which two Neolithic regions were pigs independently domesticated?

The Near East and China: pigs were domesticated separately in both regions around 9,000 years ago, and Chinese stock was later imported to improve European breeds.

What is an intact male sheep called?

A ram, occasionally called a tup, is an intact male sheep kept for breeding; a single ram can serve around 50 females in a season.

How do lamb and mutton differ as meats?

One is from younger sheep, the other from older: lamb is the young animal's meat, mutton the older's, and meat from mid-aged sheep is sometimes called hogget.

What is the most widely used animal fibre?

Sheep's wool: more than a million tonnes are shorn each year, far more than cashmere, angora or alpaca, and it goes into everything from suits to carpets.

What is a young llama or alpaca called?

A cria is the young of a llama or alpaca; it is almost always born in daylight and can stand within an hour of birth.

How many goats were there in the world in 2022?

More than 1.1 billion: the world goat herd passed 1.1 billion in 2022, with India alone keeping about 150 million and China next.

Which goat breed produces the lustrous fibre called mohair?

The Angora, a breed from the Ankara region of Turkey whose whole body grows lustrous mohair with no guard hairs; it is shorn twice a year.

What is a male duck called?

A drake is a male duck; the female is simply a duck or hen, and the young are ducklings. Drakes of many breeds carry a curled tail feather.

What term describes the distinctive smell of a male goat?

Both hircine and caprine mean goat-like, but hircine stresses the smell.

From which small multi-toed ancestor did the horse evolve over 45-55 million years?

Eohippus, a dog-sized browser with four toes on its front feet, lived about 50 million years ago and stands at the root of the horse family tree.

When did humans begin domesticating horses in Central Asia?

Around 4000 BCE: the earliest evidence of horse keeping comes from the Botai culture of northern Kazakhstan around 3500 BCE, and domestication was widespread by 3000 BCE.

What is the joint just above a horse's hoof, marked by a tuft of hair, called?

The fetlock is the joint between the cannon bone and the pastern, just above the hoof; the tuft of hair behind it is called the feather.

At what age do horses typically reach full adult development?

Five: horses are physically mature at around five years, though training under saddle usually begins between two and four.

From which wild bird is the domestic duck mainly descended?

The mallard: nearly all domestic duck breeds descend from it, and the drakes' curled tail feather is a giveaway of that ancestry.

Which duck breed is prized for laying over 300 eggs a year?

The Indian Runner, an upright breed that can lay over 300 eggs a year; the White Pekin, Aylesbury and Rouen are raised mainly for meat or show.

Where was the domestic turkey first domesticated over 2,000 years ago?

Central Mesoamerica: turkeys were domesticated there at least 2,000 years ago, and Spanish ships carried them to Europe in the 16th century.

Why were most domestic turkeys bred to have pale plumage?

The pin feathers barely show on a dressed carcass: white plumage leaves no dark feather stubs in the skin, so most commercial turkeys are white; bronze varieties are also raised.

The turkey may be named after the country Turkey because it was confused with which bird?

Guineafowl: the bird reached England through Turkish merchants and was called a 'turkey-cock', and the American bird inherited the name; its species name gallopavo means 'chicken peacock'.

From which two wild geese are domestic geese derived?

The greylag goose and swan goose: European breeds descend from the greylag, while Chinese and African geese descend from the swan goose.

What is a male goose called?

A gander is a male goose; the female is simply a goose and the young are goslings. A group on the ground is a gaggle, in flight a skein.

Which untamed equine gave rise to the donkey?

The African wild ass, whose Nubian and Somali subspecies were tamed in northeast Africa some 5,000 to 7,000 years ago.

What is an adult female donkey called?

A jenny, or jennet, is an adult female donkey; the male is a jack or jackass.

What is the offspring of a male donkey and a female horse?

A mule, the offspring of a jack donkey and a mare; mules are hardier than horses and have been bred as pack animals for thousands of years.

What is a female horse under four years old called?

A filly is a female horse under four years old, after which she is a mare; the male equivalent is a colt.

Roughly how many donkeys are there in the world?

More than 40 million: the world donkey population is around 50 million, most working as draught or pack animals in developing countries, with Ethiopia keeping the largest number.

What is the loose fold of skin hanging beneath the neck of cattle called?

The dewlap is the loose fold of skin under the neck and chest, especially large on zebu breeds; it adds surface area that helps the animal shed heat.

Which feature marks out zebu cattle such as the Brahman?

A shoulder hump: zebu cattle carry a fatty, muscular hump over the shoulders and drooping ears, and tolerate heat better than European breeds.

Which two ruminant stomach chambers have such similar tissue that they are treated as one unit?

The rumen and reticulum, together called the reticulorumen; their lining is so alike that they function as a single fermentation vat.

Roughly how many species of ruminant are there?

About 200: ruminants include cattle, sheep, goats, deer, antelope and giraffes, roughly 200 living species of grazing and browsing artiodactyls.

What is the first milk, rich in antibodies, called?

Colostrum, the thick yellowish first milk produced for a few days after birth, is rich in antibodies that protect a newborn's immune system.

Which enzyme is needed to digest the main sugar in milk?

Lactase, made in the small intestine, splits lactose into glucose and galactose; people who stop producing it after childhood become lactose intolerant.

Which breed is the most common dairy cow in the UK, Europe and US?

Its milk becomes butter, cheese and yogurt.

How does wool differ chemically from plant fibres like cotton?

It is made of protein, not cellulose: wool is keratin, the same protein as hair and horn, which is why it behaves like silk rather than cotton.

Which breed produces the fine, costly fibre used in pashmina shawls?

The Cashmere goat: its fine undercoat, combed out each spring, is the cashmere also known as pashmina, and the finest grades come from Himalayan herds.

Which sheep breed dominates the world wool industry?

Merino: the Spanish-origin breed whose fine, soft fleece makes up the bulk of the world's apparel wool, with Australia the largest producer.

How many castes make up a honey bee colony?

Three: queen, drones and workers. A colony has one queen, up to a few thousand drones and tens of thousands of workers.

What do male honey bees, the drones, develop from?

Unfertilised eggs: a drone develops from an unfertilised egg and is haploid, carrying only the queen's genes, while queens and workers come from fertilised, diploid eggs.

What are honey bee larvae first fed?

Rich royal jelly: every larva is fed the glandular secretion for its first three days; workers and drones then switch to honey and pollen, while future queens get royal jelly throughout.

Besides honey, which of these is a hive product beekeepers collect?

Propolis, the resinous 'bee glue' that bees gather from tree buds to seal the hive; beeswax, bee pollen and royal jelly are other hive products.

Where is a group of beehives kept?

An apiary, from the Latin apis, 'bee'; a rookery is for rooks, a warren for rabbits and a byre for cattle.

Which wild species gave rise to farmed and pet bunnies?

The European rabbit, native to Iberia and southern France, is the only rabbit species ever domesticated and has been introduced on every continent except Antarctica.

How long is a rabbit's gestation period?

27 to 30 days: a doe's pregnancy lasts about a month, and litters range from four to twelve kits.

On a farm, what is a group of baby rabbits produced from a single mating called?

A litter; a group of domestic rabbits living together is sometimes called a herd.

The alpaca and llama are domesticated members of which animal family?

The camelids: llamas and alpacas are South American camelids, sharing the family with the Old World camels and the wild guanaco and vicuña.

Which wild camelid is the ancestor of the domestic llama?

The guanaco: DNA analysis shows the llama was domesticated from the guanaco, while the alpaca descends from the vicuña.

How much of its body weight can a llama carry as a pack animal?

About 25 to 30%: a llama can carry a quarter to a third of its own weight, roughly 30 to 50 kg, for 8 to 13 km a day.

What are the two modern breeds of alpaca?

Suri fibre grows in straight locks; Huacaya is crimped and wavy.

Roquefort cheese is made from the milk of which animal?

Sheep: Roquefort is made from raw ewe's milk, mainly from the Lacaune breed, and ripened in the limestone caves of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon in southern France.

In which religion are cattle considered sacred animals?

Hinduism: the cow is revered as a symbol of life and giving, and cow slaughter is banned in most Indian states.

The separate domestication of cattle in India gave rise to which type?

Zebu: cattle domesticated separately in the Indus Valley around 8,000 years ago, suited to heat and found across South Asia and the tropics.

What is the tuft of hair falling between a horse's ears over its forehead called?

The forelock is the part of the mane that falls forward between the ears over the forehead; the poll is the top of the head just behind it.

What is the slowest horse gait, a four-beat movement?

The walk: a four-beat gait averaging about 6 km/h in which each hoof lands separately, the slowest of a horse's natural paces.

Where on a horse is its height measured?

The withers is where the neck meets the back.

What are the three temperament categories of horse breeds?

Hot bloods, cold bloods and warmbloods: hot bloods are spirited light breeds like the Arabian, cold bloods are calm draft horses, and warmbloods are crosses between them.

What is the usual minimum height of a heavy or draft horse?

16 hands: heavy or draft horses usually stand at least 16 hands (64 inches) at the shoulder and can reach 18 hands.

Pigs were traditionally used in France and Italy to sniff out which delicacy?

Truffles: sows can smell the fungi a metre underground because truffles contain a compound resembling a boar's sex pheromone; dogs have largely replaced them since they eat fewer finds.

What is a castrated male pig called?

A barrow is a male pig castrated before maturity, usually in its first weeks, which keeps the meat free of boar taint; an intact male is a boar.

Which scientist described the chicken 'pecking order' in 1921?

Thorleif Schjelderup-Ebbe, a Norwegian zoologist, set out the pecking order in his 1921 dissertation after years of watching hens; dominant birds get first access to food and nests.

What are chickens farmed for meat called?

A modern Ross 708 broiler can weigh over 1 kg by day 35.

What is the practice of shortening a lamb's tail called?

Docking: a lamb's tail is shortened in its first weeks, usually with a tight rubber ring, to keep the rear clean and reduce flystrike.

What is a young goat called?

A kid: young goats are kids until about a year old, and a doe giving birth is said to be kidding; twins are the norm.

Which two goats pull the Norse god Thor's chariot?

Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjostr, 'teeth-barer' and 'teeth-grinder', pull Thor's chariot; he can eat them and revive them with his hammer if their bones stay whole.

In Greek myth, who or what was Amalthea, linked to goats?

A nymph or goat who fed the infant Zeus: Amalthea suckled him on Crete, and her broken horn became the cornucopia, the horn of plenty.

Which untamed species is the pig usually classed as a subspecies of?

The wild boar: the domestic pig is usually classed as Sus scrofa domesticus, a subspecies of the boar Linnaeus named Sus scrofa in 1758.

What sound does a contented llama make?

Humming: llamas hum to their young and to each other, a soft sound that signals contentment or mild unease; a high, rhythmic alarm call warns the herd of predators.

What role do well-reared llamas serve in some nursing homes and hospitals?

Certified therapy animals: well-socialised llamas are calm enough to visit patients in nursing homes and hospitals; on farms they also work as guards for sheep.

What is raw fleece straight off a sheep, before any washing, called?

Greasy wool: fleece as shorn, carrying its natural wax, sweat residue and vegetable matter; scouring removes them before carding and spinning.

What valuable waxy substance is found in unwashed raw fleece?

Lanolin, the wax secreted by the sheep's skin glands, is recovered when fleece is scoured and used in cosmetics, ointments and rust-proofing.

How is a horse or pony's competition age reckoned in the Northern Hemisphere?

A year is added every 1 January: for competition every Northern Hemisphere horse turns a year older on New Year's Day, whatever its birthday; in the Southern Hemisphere the date is 1 August.

On what basis is a pony distinguished from a horse for competition?

By how tall it stands: a pony is usually an animal under 14.2 hands (58 inches) at the shoulder, whatever its breed, though some small breeds are called horses regardless.

Which goose product fills duvets and winter jackets?

Soft down feathers: the fluffy under-plumage of geese traps air, making it a prized filling for duvets, pillows and jackets, gathered after slaughter.

Alongside chickens and dogs, pigs were carried across the Pacific by which people?

The Austronesians: their Lapita descendants carried pigs, chickens and dogs island to island across Oceania, beginning over 3,000 years ago.

An ox is typically which kind of cattle?

A castrated adult male: an ox is usually a male castrated and trained for draught work, mature from about four years old; castration makes it docile and safe to handle.

How are working oxen usually harnessed?

Yoked in pairs: oxen are usually worked two abreast under a wooden yoke, and heavy loads simply add more pairs, sometimes nine or ten.

When were oxen first harnessed and put to work?

They are used for ploughing, transport and threshing.

What British and Indian English word also means a working ox?

Bullock: in British, Australian and Indian English the working ox is a bullock, a word also used there for young male cattle; the bullock cart is a common sight in rural India.

What are the three main parts of a bird's egg?

Shell, albumen and yolk: the hard shell encloses the albumen, or white, which surrounds the yolk; thin membranes separate shell from white.

What are the spiral bands of tissue that suspend an egg yolk in the white called?

Chalazae: the two twisted cords of albumen anchor the yolk in the centre of the egg; the name comes from the Greek for 'hailstone'.

What is 'candling' an egg?

Candling means shining a light through an egg: held against a bright lamp it shows whether it is fertile, how the embryo is developing and any cracks; the name comes from the candles once used.

In which year did the European Union ban battery husbandry of laying hens?

2012: the EU's 1999 welfare directive outlawed conventional battery cages from 1 January 2012, allowing only enriched cages, barns or free range.

What is the shell of a hen's egg mostly made of?

Calcium carbonate makes up about 95% of an eggshell; a hen draws the mineral from her diet and bones and lays down a new shell in around 20 hours.

Which red-bodied, white-faced breed is one of the classic British beef cattle?

The Hereford, from Herefordshire in England, is red with a white face and has been exported to ranches worldwide since the 19th century.

Which hormone triggers milk let-down in a cow at milking?

Oxytocin, released from the pituitary when the udder is stimulated, makes the milk-secreting cells contract and let the milk down; adrenaline from stress blocks it.

Roughly how many dairy cows does the United States have?

About 9 million: the United States milked roughly 9.4 million cows in 2022, fewer than in 1950 but yielding far more milk per cow.

Which country has the largest average dairy herd, over 375 cows?

UK farms average about 100 cows.

To which continent are guinea fowl native?

Africa: guinea fowl are native to sub-Saharan Africa, where wild flocks roam savanna and scrub; the birds reached Europe by way of the Guinea coast, hence the name.

Which of these guineafowl has been domesticated widely as a farm bird?

The helmeted species, named for the bony casque on its crown, is the one farmed worldwide for meat and eggs; the vulturine, plumed and crested species remain wild.

What distinguishes a guinea fowl's head from a partridge's?

It is featherless: guinea fowl have bare heads and necks, often with bright red or blue skin, while partridges are feathered; most guinea fowl have grey plumage with dense white spots.

What is a young male chicken called?

A cockerel is a male chicken under a year old; once mature he is a cock or, in North America, a rooster.

Which South American wildfowl was domesticated separately from all other farm ducks?

The Muscovy, a perching duck of Central and South America, was domesticated separately by indigenous peoples and crossed with common farm ducks to produce the meaty mulard.

Why is the donkey's subspecies name Equus africanus asinus rather than asinus asinus?

The ancestor species takes priority: a 2003 ruling of the zoological naming commission gives wild ancestors' names precedence over those of their domestic forms, so the donkey became Equus africanus asinus.

What is true of mules and hinnies as breeding animals?

They are usually sterile: a mule has 63 chromosomes, an odd number from the horse's 64 and the donkey's 62, so it cannot form proper sex cells.

On which continent did the horse originally evolve before spreading?

North America: the horse family evolved there over some 50 million years, crossed to Eurasia over the Bering land bridge, and died out in its homeland about 10,000 years ago before the Spanish brought it back.

Which city's tomb painting from about 1420 BCE shows a man carrying bowls of eggs?

Thebes, Egypt: the tomb of Haremhab, from about 1420 BCE, shows a man carrying bowls of ostrich eggs and other large eggs as offerings.

Roughly how many hens made up the world laying flock in 2009?

About 6.4 billion hens laid some 62.1 million tonnes of eggs in 2009, over a third of them in China.

What did the Romans break up in their plates, believing it stopped evil spirits hiding?

Crushed eggshells: after eating an egg the Romans broke the shell into their plates, believing evil spirits could otherwise lurk inside it.

How do pasture-raised hens' eggs compare with cage-raised ones nutritionally?

They are relatively enriched in omega-3 fats: hens foraging on greens and insects lay eggs with more omega-3 and vitamin E, though the varied diet makes flavour less predictable.

Which two types of domestic water buffalo are recognised?

River and swamp: the river type, domesticated in western India about 6,300 years ago, spread as far as Egypt and Italy, while the swamp type was domesticated in southern China or Southeast Asia.

Where did a large feral water buffalo population establish itself in the late 19th century?

Northern Australia: buffalo brought to the Northern Territory in the 1820s and 1830s went feral when settlements were abandoned, and tens of thousands roamed the floodplains by the late 1800s.

Linnaeus's 1766 scientific name for the domestic yak translates as what?

'Grunting ox'; the wild yak is now called Bos mutus, 'mute ox', after an ICZN ruling in 2003.

For what product are ostriches particularly farmed around the world, besides their lean meat and leather?

Feathers: ostrich plumes have been farmed since the 1860s in South Africa for fashion and feather dusters; males stand up to 2.75 metres tall.

Roughly how many people across the North make their living herding reindeer?

100,000: reindeer herding is practised in nine countries by roughly 100,000 people, mostly indigenous groups such as the Sámi and Nenets; a small herd even lives in Scotland's Cairngorms.

What is an adult female sheep called?

A ewe is an adult female sheep; she usually bears one or two lambs a year after a pregnancy of about five months.

The domestic silkworm's preferred food is the leaves of which tree?

White mulberry: Bombyx mori caterpillars eat almost nothing else, and sericulture began in China at least 5,000 years ago; the domestic moth can no longer survive without humans.

Guinea pigs were first domesticated for meat around 5000 BC by peoples of which region?

The Andes: Andean peoples domesticated guinea pigs for meat around 5000 BC; known as cuy, from the Quechua quwi, they were a favoured Inca sacrificial animal.

Genetically pure wild rock doves now survive mainly in which remote island group?

The Outer Hebrides: a 2022 genetic survey found the islands' rock doves largely free of feral-pigeon ancestry, unlike birds elsewhere in Britain and Ireland, where centuries of interbreeding have made pure birds rare.