New book about Cattle of the Yakuts
The book Sakha Ynaga - Cattle of the Yakuts, tells the story of the survival of the Yakutian cattle in the land of permafrost
Siberia's last remaining indigenous breed of domestic cattle, the Sakha Ynaga, or Yakutian cattle, inhabit the lands surrounding the Lena River in Russia's remote Sakha Republic (Yakutia). During the Soviet era, the Yakutian cattle were driven to virtual extinction, but thanks to dogged preservation efforts this remarkable, hardy breed has endured to the present day.
A multidisciplinary team of researchers from MTT Agrifood Research Finland and the University of Helsinki's Aleksanteri Institute explored the genetic uniqueness of the Yakutian cattle and the effect of social and cultural factors on the survival of the breed through periods of major upheaval in Russia's history. The findings of this insightful study have now been published in the book . The book champions the call for preservation of biodiversity, at a time when countless indigenous breeds around the world are facing the brink of extinction.
Read more here. Read also an article about the Yakutian Cattle in this months edition of GlobalDiv, page 3.
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