Ankole-Watusi

Ankole-Watusi is a long-horned cattle breed of the Ankole region spanning parts of Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, traditionally herded by Ankole and related pastoralist peoples of the African Great Lakes region. The breed is best known for its extremely large, wide-spreading horns, which can measure several feet from tip to tip and were traditionally valued as much for their cultural and social significance, including their role in marriage payments and status display, as for the breed's contribution of milk and beef. Traditionally managed as a semi-nomadic pastoral herd rather than intensively farmed, Ankole-Watusi cattle were selectively bred over centuries by their pastoralist keepers for horn size and hardiness on the region's rangeland. Small numbers were exported to the United States and elsewhere in the twentieth century, where the breed is now kept mainly as an exotic or novelty animal on farms and in zoos rather than for commercial beef or dairy production.