Are there goats in the desert

When the second vehicle finally arrives, I ask our driver how we will find our way across the endless sand. He works for the NGO and says he will follow the same track forged by the Isuzu trucks that transported the goats. But now we are driving into the dusk, unsure if we can reach our destination before we lose the light. He says he knows how to find it, but we cannot get there before night comes. It reminds me of driving in the snow and slush after a winter storm in Canada, as the tires spin and try to find traction.

He tells them we are their guests for the night, and they pull the sleeping mats outside of their home to help us set up camp on the sand nearby.

It is a night, an adventure, I will never forget. As the sun sets, our entourage beds down under a canopy of mosquito nets. We listen to the family chat and watch the stars overhead. With sunrise and a breakfast of water, sardines and bread, we are off again. After a short drive, a house appears on the horizon. Finally, we have found Namma Gubi. A family of pastoralists and several goats are there.

After a four day walk to the market, she earned enough to buy a half bag of grain. It was enough to feed the family for only a week. As Matthew snaps photos and a worker from the NGO translates, we hear what life has been like for year-old Aisha Darsa, her husband and three children.

As the drought progressed all of their cattle died. Over the last two years their remaining 20 goats died. The family made mats from palm leaves and whenever she could borrow a camel from a relative, Aisha loaded it up with mats.

He walked for days to a community where the government was distributing bags of grain. But in our culture, we have learned that whatever we have at the time must be enough, he tells me. So we share what we have and make do. We have milk for our children again, he says. Then a smile, as Mohammed talks about the goats that MCC delivered several months ago.

The Black Bedouin goats are adaptive and raised under nomadic extensive production systems under harsh environmental conditions of deserts. These breeds are mainly exploited for their meat.

They are known by other names such as Damanscence or Shami Goat. They originated in adjacent Syria and are imported to Jordan because of their high productivity of milk and twins [ 11 ]. They are used as dual purpose breeds for milk and meat. Damascus goat has a large body size. Their ear type is pendent and has a high leg. They are reared around towns and countrysides of the northern part of Jordan and are kept under sedentary production system [ 10 ]. They are also called by other names, namely Mountain Black goat or Balady local.

They are indigenous to Jordan and nearby countries. They are kept mainly in semiextensive and sedentary systems. Because of their ability to survive and reproduce under the prevailing arid and harsh environmental conditions, this breed was used to develop highly productive crossbreeds especially with Damascus breed in Jordan. They are indigenous to Syrian Badia desert.

It is also known in Jordan as northern desert goat. Figure 3 shows two large clusters, first cluster includes Damascus breed as a large group and two subclusters of Mountain breed and crossbred goats, whereas the second cluster includes the Desert and Dhaiwi breeds. Relationship between goat breeds based on morphostructural variables [ 8 ]. Table 3 accounts for the distribution of goat breeds in the country. No information is available on the estimated population of Bedouin and Desert goat breeds of Jordan.

However, Mountain Black and crosses accounted for the largest proportion of the current goat population. The body weight of males was significantly higher than those of females due to sexual dimorphism. The author also reported that the mean body weights of growing kids of 1—11 months age was Zaitoun et al.

The differences in body weight of goat breeds were also recorded due to a region and production system effects. In the middle and northern Badia region of Jordan that is characterized by low and erratic annual rainfall, goats are mostly important for milk during the dry season [ 15 , 9 ]. In general, goats have a lactation period of days and produce about kg of milk under extensive conditions [ 16 , 17 ].

Damascus goats exhibit a high level of prolificacy [ 18 ]. The information on the reproductive performance of goat breeds under transhumant and sedentary systems is displayed in Table 4 [ 20 ]. As indicated in Table 4 , the fertility and productivity rate per flock were similar between production systems. The proportion of barren does increases with age, regardless of the breed. Table 5 shows the overall data on the fertility of Damascus does using different type of reproduction hormones [ 22 ].

Overall kidding data from mating during the induced and spontaneous cycles in Damascus does. Treatment: No treatment CON , progestagen sponges and equine chorionic gonadotropin S , gonadotropin releasing hormone plus prostaglandin F2a GP or gonadotropin releasing hormone, and progestagen sponges and prostaglandin F2a GSP. Table 6 shows the details of the events and dates for goat production in Jordan. Feed shortage, diseases, water shortage, high feed prices, rangeland shortage, poor veterinary service, poor breeding, and poor marketing are among the major constraints and challenges limiting goat production in Jordan.

Under the arid climatic conditions such as Jordan, it is obvious that the aforementioned constraints namely shortage of water, feed, and occurrence of diseases can adversely affect the performance of animals. The breeding program for goats in Jordan has not been set up, yet considering breeding objectives, selection criteria, genetic parameter evaluation, etc. Many goat breeds are kept by goat owners throughout the country and few of them use progestagen sponges for estrus synchronization and artificial insemination is no longer undertaken at the farm level.

A high proportion of farmers owned crossbred goats as a result of either indiscriminate uncontrolled breeding or controlled upgrading of their does with Damascus bucks. At farm level, goat farmers mainly used subjective more than objective selection criteria to attain their breeding objectives.

While these conditions may seem harsh to humans, Death Valley is home to a great diversity of wildlife. Hard-learned, clever adaptations enable desert animals to thrive in this unlikely place. Desert Bighorn Sheep climbing mountain slopes. NPS photo Death Valley is one of the driest places on earth. Habitats with fresh water can be difficult to find, so some desert animals have evolved to simply drink less water.

Roaming through mountains and canyons, bighorn sheep are able to go without water for several days and can lose up to a third of their body weight due to dehydration. When water becomes available again, the sheep can drink several gallons at a time to rehydrate.

Like bighorn sheep, kangaroo rats do not have to worry about dehydration. In fact, they are so perfectly adapted to arid environments, they do not need to drink water their entire lives! They can survive on water digested from their seedy, vegetarian diet. They both climb trees, of course. While squirrels live amongst the branches, goats, or at least those in arid regions, climb them for dinner. Scientists have discovered that the domesticated goats in southern Morocco benefit the argan trees, Argania spinosa, by spitting out the seeds of the fruits they eat, which helps in seed dispersal.

Argan trees play an important role in southern Morocco acting as a barrier for the Sahara Desert, and providing locals with wood, food, medicine and other materials.

Tree-climbing goats play a crucial role dispersing nuts from argan trees, ensuring the success of future generations of this valuable resource. But how, exactly, do these goats get the job done? Fedriani — write in their paper published in May in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. But in hot regions where grasses are patchy, like Africa, Mexico and some parts of Europe, goats leap upon green shrubs and squat in trees for sustenance.