Blacks and Whites

As I've begun familiarizing myself with heritage and endangered breeds of animals, I've noticed the beauty of these no-longer-mainstream animals and wondered about their histories. Each one has its own particular unique set of characteristics and appeal.


An example of this is the Randall Lineback type of cattle. A history of this breed can be found here: http://www.randall-linebacks.org/history.html


I was disappointed to find that Randall Linebacks don't thrive in warm climates such as Florida. I'm attracted to multi-purpose heritage cattle, but I'll confess I was drawn mostly to this breed's distinctive coloration...something quite different than most cattle I've seen. It grew on me. The pattern is more broken and is not the standard black and white pied color like you see on Holsteins. Often, they have black ears. And black noses. Interesting!


As I've whisked through so many websites and Google searches for this and that over the months, I've begun to notice something. Maybe it's just a coincidence. The broken black/white coloration so distinctive in the Randalls is also found in other breeds worldwide, though each breed has specific points of difference. Some breeds are Bos Taurus and some are not. There seems to be an international occurence of breeds with similar coloration. Here's a sampling of pics, including their home links, so you can see what I mean.



Note the coloration similarities despite geographic locale:

1. White Galloway













2. Randall Lineback















3. American White Park












4. Black-sided Troender and Nordland Cattle












5. Swedish Fjall Cattle












6. Swedish Bohus Polled Cattle












7. Swedish Mountain Cattle












8. Colombian Blanco Oreginegro












9. South African Nguni












10. British White Park














11. Kenyan Boran Cattle












12. Lithuanian White-Backed Cattle












13. Nigerian White Fulani

















14. Florida Cracker Cattle (not the only coloration and pattern in this breed, but it does occur both in this and in Texas Longhorn breeds occasionally)
























Photos are borrowed for educational purposes only. Photo credits for all pictures above (in differeing order):

http://www.ansi.okstate.edu/breeds/cattle/whitepark/

http://www.ansi.okstate.edu/breeds/cattle/nguni/index.htm

http://www.ansi.okstate.edu/breeds/cattle/blancoorejinegro/index.htm

http://www.ansi.okstate.edu/breeds/cattle/americanwhitepark/index.htm

http://www.hamiltonrarebreeds.org/randall.html

http://neurocad.lva.lt/Breeds/NorwegianBreeds.htm(black-sided Sided

Troender and Nordland cattle)

http://neurocad.lva.lt/Breeds/SwedishBreeds.htm (Fjall breed and Bohus

Poll and swedish mountain cattle)

http://www.borankenya.org/photo-gal06.htm

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://neurocad.lva.lt/Breeds/Im

ages/Polish/Polish%2520black%2520and%2520white.jpg&imgrefurl=http://neu

rocad.lva.lt/Breeds/PolishBreeds.htm&h=804&w=1229&sz=111&hl=en&start=18

&um=1&tbnid=7PZqegAKY6HmJM:&tbnh=98&tbnw=150&prev=/images%3Fq%3DPolish%

2Bcattle%26svnum%3D10%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den Lithuanian White-BAcked

http://www.heracles.com/nigeria/foto/d0019.jpg Nigerian White Fulani

http://sheepandcattle.com/galloway.html white galloway


http://www.ansi.okstate.edu/breeds/horses/floridacracker/