Bvidae Characteristics

Order and General Overview:
The family of the Bovidae are mammals in the order Artiodactyla, which are even-toed hooved animals. This includes animals such as: antelope, cattle, bison, yaks, waterbucks, wildebeests, gazelles, springboks, sheep, musk oxen, and goats. Their size can range from 3 pounds to over a ton! They occupy virtually every kind of habitat available to terrestrial herbivores in Africa, Eurasia, and North America where they span a wide range of biomes from the rainforests of Africa to the arctic tundra.
Unique Characteristics: Bovids have unique characteristics that help set it apart from other families. One of these is the fact that bovids ruminate their food. That is, they have four chambers in their stomach to help

Unlike the antlers of a deer, bovid horns don’t branch and are never shed. Horns are present in males of all bovid species and some female. So, the horns they acquire at a young age are the ones they’re stuck with for life.

Genus and Geographic Location: The Bovidae are the most diverse group of living mammals, with 143 living species and over 300 known extinct species. The present classification scheme for bovids recognizes eight subfamilies; bovinae, antilopinae, reduncinae, hippotraginae, ancelaphinae, caprinae aepycerotinae, and cephalophinae, but all bovids possess some carefully related features. Species in the subfamily bovinae are native to Africa, North America, Eurasia, India, and Southern Asia. Size differences among sexes is quite prevalent in this subfamily, with males typically weighing nearly twice as much as females. Those in the subfamily antilopinae include antelopes, dik-diks, gazelles, and relatives. They are mostly found throughout Africa and some parts of Asia. Redunicanae’s are primarily found in parts of Eurasia and Africa. This includes medium to large-sized grazers that have a strong tie to the water, have long hair, and

In recent decades however, the buffalo population has declined due to over-hunting them for resources. Recently, there has been advances in the genome science of buffalo research. These advancements can be applied to provide knowledge and technologies to enhance the production potential to the optimum level; which will improve reproduction efficiency and even increase disease resistance in the buffalo. Therefore, these genomic resources can be used by researchers to apply biotechnology tools for the improvement of the buffalo. Muskoxen are widespread throughout the arctic. Chemicals are often used with these animals to immobilize them for transport or research. Research has been conducted to take a look at the stress levels these immobilization techniques cause for the species. The hormone that was looked at was cortisol—a stress hormone the body secretes to help organs function optimally and more effectively. Once all the studies were complete and the data was compiled, it was found that cortisol levels of muskoxen chemically immobilized from a helicopter were much higher than muskoxen chemically immobilized from snowmobiles or shot. This evidence of differences between hunted and immobilized muskoxen will contribute to further research on the effects of immobilization and other health assessments in this