Ankole-Watusi
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| Conservation status | FAO (2007): not listed[1]: 125 |
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| Country of origin | United States of America |
| Traits | |
| Weight | |
| Coat | usually red |
| Horn status | horned, large thick horns |
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The Ankole-Watusi is a modern African breed of domestic cattle. It derives from the Ankole group of Sanga cattle breeds of east and central Africa. It is characterized by very large horns.
History
[edit]The Ankole-Watusi derives from cattle of the Ankole group of Sanga cattle breeds of east and central Africa. Some of these were brought to Germany as zoo specimens in the early twentieth century, and from there they spread to other European zoos. Some were imported to the United States, and in 1960 a herd was started in New York State by cross-breeding some of them with an unrelated Canadian bull.[2]: 110 A breed society, the Ankole Watusi International Registry, was set up in 1983,[2]: 110 and in 1989 a breed standard was drawn up.[4]
The total number of purebred animals was estimated in 1984 at 120 head;[5]: 260 in 2016 the total population was thought to be approximately 1500 head, some 80% of them in the United States.[2]: 110 In 2025 the conservation status of the breed was listed in DAD-IS as "at risk/critical maintained" – based on a population estimated at 100 to 500 for the year 2022[3] – while on the watchlist of the American Livestock Conservancy it was listed as "recovering".[6]
Characteristics
[edit]The coat may be of a number of different colors, but is usually red. Body weights are in the range 410 to 550 kg for cows and 450 to 730 kg for bulls.[2]: 110 The horns are unusually large, with a wide spread[2]: 110 and the largest circumference found in any cattle breed. Guinness World Records lists a bull named CT Woodie with a horn circumference of 103.5 cm (40.7 in) and a steer named Lurch, with horns measuring 95.25 cm (37.50 in), as record-holders.[7][8]
First parturition in heifers is usually at about 24 months.[3] Calves weigh some 15 to 25 kg at birth.[6]
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In a safari park near Cambridge, Ontario, in Canada -
Bulls at the Living Desert Zoo and Gardens in California -
At a zoo
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References
[edit]
- ^ Barbara Rischkowsky, Dafydd Pilling (editors) (2007). List of breeds documented in the Global Databank for Animal Genetic Resources, annex to: The State of the World's Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. Rome: Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. ISBN 9789251057629. Archived 23 June 2020.
- ^ a b c d e f g Valerie Porter, Lawrence Alderson, Stephen J.G. Hall, D. Phillip Sponenberg (2016). Mason's World Encyclopedia of Livestock Breeds and Breeding (sixth edition). Wallingford: CABI. ISBN 9781780647944.
- ^ a b c d Breed data sheet: Ankole-Watusi / United States of America (Cattle). Domestic Animal Diversity Information System of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Accessed July 2025.
- ^ Ankole-Watusi Cattle. Ankole Watusi International Registry. Accessed June 2017.
- ^ Robert Ellis Taylor (1984). Beef Production and the Beef Industry: A Beef Producer's Perspective. Minneapolis, Minnesota: Burgess Publishing Company. ISBN 9780808736523.
- ^ a b Ankole-Watusi Cattle. Pittsboro, North Carolina: The Livestock Conservancy. Archived 19 September 2025.
- ^ Largest horn circumference – bull. Guinness World Records. Archived 11 October 2019.
- ^ Largest horn circumference – steer. Guinness World Records. Archived 19 October 2019.
| Authority control databases: National |
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