In 2017, as a veterinary intern at the Uganda Wildlife Conservation Education Centre (UWEC), I saw what might well have been an elephant draped in an arsenal flag, balancing on the tip of a blade of grass, in the giraffe enclosure.
I was simultaneously fascinated, shocked and confused at the sight.
But then again, this was the zoo where on the first day of arrival to start our internship, during the daily morning meeting, a caretaker from the reptile section casually mentioned that two black mambas had disappeared from their enclosure and requested that in case any one spotted any one of them, they should let him know. Straight-up wildness from the outset.
The next day, I had it being talked of, in lowly whispers, an incident in the very recent past where the zoo had had to be evacuated when a chimpanzee somehow managed to get out of its enclosure. Again, what an introduction!
Thus, that was how strange it was to see domestication, in the form of an Ankole long-horned bovine in the giraffe enclosure, grazing noiselessly and comfortably with the rest of the animals in there; some antelopes, a pair of elands and the three giraffes. So strange was the sight of the bovine in there that had it in fact been an elephant atop a blade of grass, I would have reacted the same way anyway.
My most immediate answer to myself was an academic one; perhaps it was there to “balance the ecosystem”, or to provide company to the giraffes in line with some unspecified animal welfare objective. The truth could not have been any more ordinary.
“It is there as a tourist attraction,” the guide said, when I inquired about it. “Many people, especially from Europe, the United States of America and several other places have never seen anything like it before, so we put it here for them to see it.” He went on to explain.
“Hm,” I said.
With my question satisfactorily answered, I forgot all about it and ignored the long-nosed, tan bovine to focus my attention on making sure no wretched black mamba came anywhere near me. That is, until I googled the internet very recently and found out that the breed of cattle known as the “Ankole-Watutsi” is now classified as an American breed of cattle, with its origins in the United states of America.
If I had thought the presence of an Ankole cow in the zoo an elephant on the tip of a blade, then the Ankole-Watutsi breed of cattle was the said elephant wearing a tutu and dancing ballet on the blade of grass.
Regal, athletic and haughty.
The long-horned Ankole is an African phenomenon, and specifically, a Ugandan-Rwandan phenomenon of their respective Ankole and Watusi tribes. They are of dual nomenclature; being known as Ankole cattle in Uganda and Watutsi cattle in Rwanda. Both names are used interchangeably even though the Ankole name is more popular.
Interestingly, herds of Ankole cattle that were transported to the USA in the 1960s have somehow become a “modern” “American” breed of cattle, renamed to the hyphenated “Ankole-Watusi” cattle. Their origins are also being formally referred to as American. There is a breed society as well, called the “Ankole-Watusi International Registry” that was set up in 1983 with the role to protect the breed in its distinctness.
Which begs the question: “To whom does this breed of cattle really belong?”
