DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49271#0147
92
E. A. Hooton
tion of the tail and a deposition of fat on the buttocks instead of on that appendage.
Lydekker regards both of these groups as differentiated from a common domesticated
stock. There is an Asiatic type of which the range extends from the Black Sea and the
confines of Europe throughout Central Asia and the greater part of China and Siberia.
The most distinctive feature of this breed is the excessive development of fat on the rump,
which consists of two great cushions on the buttocks, between which is imbedded the
vestige of the tail.
The steppes on which these sheep are reared are for the most of the year dry and
comparatively barren, but in the spring they contain abundant vegetation. The flocks
are at the commencement of summer driven to higher grounds, where grow various sorts
of hard dry grasses, low bushes of the wormwood group, and plants rich in soda salts.
All the water is more or less brackish. Their sojourn here throughout the summer is
marked by the accumulation of fat on the rump, the maximum development occurring
in autumn, when the plants of the wormwood attain full growth. In the winter the
flocks are driven south into protected valleys and lose much of their fat, on account, in
the opinion of Lydekker, of the diminished supply of salts. This author states that
when they cannot get brackish water to drink they are said to lick up a saline dew
which collects on the leaves of plants during the night in certain districts, and that
when these sheep are kept in stalls and supplied with fresh water, their fat diminishes
rapidly. He therefore concludes that salts are the main factor in the development of
the gluteal fat characteristic of this breed. In a wether in good condition, of which
the total weight is about 200 pounds, the fatty cushions on the rump will weigh from 30
to 40 pounds.
In the early days the Hottentots of Cape Colony kept a breed of fat-rumped sheep,
and there are also breeds in Somaliland, Abyssinia, Arabia, Nubia, Kordofan, Sennar,
Madagascar, and elsewhere.
The fat-tailed and fat-rumped sheep seem to be found prevailingly in steppe, moun-
tain, and desert regions where the change of seasons involves alternate periods in which
food is plentiful and scarce. The fact that South Africa is the home of steatopygous
sheep and fat-tailed sheep, as well as steatopygous Bushmen and Hottentots, may be
significant. It is also interesting to note that steatopygia is persistently reported among
the Somalis who specialize in a fat-rumped breed of sheep. There seems little reason
for doubting that the deposits of fat on the tail or on the buttocks of these sheep are an
environmental adaptation providing for the accumulation of surplus fat in times of plenty
to be absorbed in subsequent periods of want.
Lydekker’s opinion that an abundance of salts in the diet causes the accumulation of
fat in the gluteal region in the case of sheep raises the question whether a salty dietary
E. A. Hooton
tion of the tail and a deposition of fat on the buttocks instead of on that appendage.
Lydekker regards both of these groups as differentiated from a common domesticated
stock. There is an Asiatic type of which the range extends from the Black Sea and the
confines of Europe throughout Central Asia and the greater part of China and Siberia.
The most distinctive feature of this breed is the excessive development of fat on the rump,
which consists of two great cushions on the buttocks, between which is imbedded the
vestige of the tail.
The steppes on which these sheep are reared are for the most of the year dry and
comparatively barren, but in the spring they contain abundant vegetation. The flocks
are at the commencement of summer driven to higher grounds, where grow various sorts
of hard dry grasses, low bushes of the wormwood group, and plants rich in soda salts.
All the water is more or less brackish. Their sojourn here throughout the summer is
marked by the accumulation of fat on the rump, the maximum development occurring
in autumn, when the plants of the wormwood attain full growth. In the winter the
flocks are driven south into protected valleys and lose much of their fat, on account, in
the opinion of Lydekker, of the diminished supply of salts. This author states that
when they cannot get brackish water to drink they are said to lick up a saline dew
which collects on the leaves of plants during the night in certain districts, and that
when these sheep are kept in stalls and supplied with fresh water, their fat diminishes
rapidly. He therefore concludes that salts are the main factor in the development of
the gluteal fat characteristic of this breed. In a wether in good condition, of which
the total weight is about 200 pounds, the fatty cushions on the rump will weigh from 30
to 40 pounds.
In the early days the Hottentots of Cape Colony kept a breed of fat-rumped sheep,
and there are also breeds in Somaliland, Abyssinia, Arabia, Nubia, Kordofan, Sennar,
Madagascar, and elsewhere.
The fat-tailed and fat-rumped sheep seem to be found prevailingly in steppe, moun-
tain, and desert regions where the change of seasons involves alternate periods in which
food is plentiful and scarce. The fact that South Africa is the home of steatopygous
sheep and fat-tailed sheep, as well as steatopygous Bushmen and Hottentots, may be
significant. It is also interesting to note that steatopygia is persistently reported among
the Somalis who specialize in a fat-rumped breed of sheep. There seems little reason
for doubting that the deposits of fat on the tail or on the buttocks of these sheep are an
environmental adaptation providing for the accumulation of surplus fat in times of plenty
to be absorbed in subsequent periods of want.
Lydekker’s opinion that an abundance of salts in the diet causes the accumulation of
fat in the gluteal region in the case of sheep raises the question whether a salty dietary