The
Journal of Heredity
By American Genetic Association
Published by American breeders association [etc.]
1910, 1914
Origin of
Karakul Sheep
Black Danadar the
Original Fur-bearing Stock of Central Asia —
This Crossed with
White, Fine-wool Afghan Sheep Produced the Gray
Danadar Which in Turn
Crossed with Fatrump Sheep Produced the Small
Arabi or Karakul
Breed — Industry in Turkestan Being Ruined
by Natives.
DR. C. C. Young
Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada.
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did not oxidize into gray,
as is the case with the Arabi and also with the
Duzbai, so that the specimens in question
remained black. I therefore concluded that the
small Arabi was a hybrid (and not a very well
fixed type of hybrid at that) and that some black
longtail sheep (the blackest of all black sheep
on earth) played an important part in the
formation of the breed. Needless to say, I did
not exclude the presence of a fat- rump admixture
— otherwise, how could the small Arabi be a
broadtail?
The presence of fatrump
blood was easily traced in the Duzbai, which has
the long, pendulous, drooping ears that
characterize Ovis steatopyga, the convex nose
line, large head, very thick feet, enormous
weight, and a tail with fat accumulation that
weighs as much as the kurdiuk (fat sack) of a
fatrump. As Duzbai lambs frequently come fawn
(the natural color of the fatrump), it is easy to
understand why the fatrump's anatomical
characteristics appear so dominant in the Duzbai
breeds. If a small, black, longtail sheep is
crossed with an enormous fawn one (both fixed
types), Mendel's law leads us to expect that the
offspring will have the characteristics of the
latter.
I explained in a former
paper1 that I received most valuable information
from the oldest fur dealer in Bokhara, Karavan
Bashi Aziz, to whom I was introduced by F. N.
Petrov, dragoman of the Russian embassy at New
Bokhara. From this gray-haired, honest Muslim I
learned that some 60 years ago there were no
Arabi nor Duzbai sheep in Bokhara, but at that
time the only fur-bearing sheep which produced
beautiful, pea-like, tight, lustrous, black
curls, was the black longtail Danadar. It was not
my good fortune to see one of these sheep during
my extensive travels in Bokhara in 1912 and 1913,
and as I have already explained, the photographs
sent me by Mr. Petrov were not sufficient to
convince me that the breed really existed at the
present day. This spring I was more fortunate and
thanks to the Vice-Emir, who provided me with an
intelligent guide (Abdul Hamid Bek Mirza Bashi,
an officer high in the Emir's employ) I was able
to see the only herd of gray Danadar sheep which
still exists in the Khanate of Bokhara.
About 100 miles from Old
Bokhara city (the capital of the Khanate) there
is the district of Kejumek, where we were
received by the qazi (the highest judge of the
district) who introduced us to a very old sheep
breeder of the district, one Kana Abdsiu, who
pastured his father's herds of black Danadars and
also had his own herd. His grandfather, he said,
raised "dogtail" Danadars, and he not
only corroborated the story given by the Karavan
Bashi Aziz, but added still more interesting
information, stating that as the demand began to
increase for black Danadar lamb skins (after
Bokhara was conquered by Russia in 1865) the
natives began to cross their black sheep with
white, fine-wool Afghans. This in time produced
the gray Danadar breed, lambs of which produced
skins with small, gray curls the size of
pinheads, rather open and lusterless. One such
skin is now in my possession. This injection of
white blood, contaminated with fat- rump blood,
in time changed the black Danadar into the small
Arabi. The cross of the black Danadar on the fat-
rump breeds produced the Duzbai. The gray Shiraz
evolved from the gray Danadar, and possesses
larger curls and more luster than the gray
Danadar, because of its fatrump admixture. The
Zigai is a typically Russian breed that never
existed in Central Asia, and if Sinitzin saw any
there, it must have been because they were taken
there by Russian Tartars who settled in Turkestan.
Sinitzin’s large Arabi, according to Karpov,
who wrote the Russian government bulletin on
Karakul sheep in 1910, is the same animal as the
Duzbai, and I certainly agree with him.
INFLUENCE OF THE DANADAR.
We know now that the black
Danadar is to the sheep family what the negro is
to the species Homo sapiens. There can be no
doubt that the Tshushka and
1 Young, Dr. C. C. Breeding
Karakul Sheep. Journal of Heredity, V, 4, 170,
April, 1914. See also Strange Sheep of Asiatic
Russia, American Breeders' Magazine, IV, 4, 184,
Oct. -Dec., 1913, ibid, third quarter, 1912.
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