A survey was undertaken to understand sheep management, breeding practices and selection criteria for Red Maasai sheep in Maasai pastoralist communities in Kajiado District, Kenya. Differences between North and South Kajiado District were investigated to gain knowledge about farmers having different prerequisites and how it can affect the sheep production. The reason for keeping sheep and the specific breeds show the multiple objectives of the Maasai farmers. Adaptive traits, such as resistance to diseases and droughts, and productive traits, such as increased growth and carcass weight, were both ranked highly. In addition to this, the sheep has a social and traditional value in Maasai culture.

The purpose of this study is to examine how the children in the Maasai villages in Tanzania are learning the Maasai?s musictraditions and ngoma. What is the importance of the school compared with the family?Tanzania has an old tradition of ngoma of many different cultures. The Maasai?s are a nomadic people and have traditions of their own.To get answers for the purpose of this study, these questions have been formed:How do the children learn the Maasai?s musictraditions?When do the children learn the Maasai?s musictraditions and start to practise them?What role and significance do the school have when it comes to teaching the Maasai?s musictraditions?For this study I have interviewed three informants who have good knowledge about the Maasai?s and their traditions.

With a growing human population as well as a changing lifestyle, the conflict of wildlife and humans is intensifying. In Kenya, Maasais and their livestock have for a long time coexisted with wildlife, but an adjustment to privately own land and cultivation might rapidly change the terms for this coexistence. To understand how the Maasais and their livestock affect the wildlife in the Maasai Mara National Reserve and the surrounding area, this study was undertaken. The purpose of this thesis is to examine how hippos are concerned..

To fence in pastures for sheep today is a major cost, especially because of the time required when using current methods. What takes most time is starting to fence off a new area, but to maintain a fence is also a continuous effort. The main function is to keep the sheep at the field.! !By interviewing and observing sheep farmers on how they work with fence today and what their problems was, I got a better understanding of the problem. Also looking at a number of other things like the context, statistics on sheep farming, laws and competition mapping gave a wider image. But the most important part in my research occurred when I talked to experts about sheep behavior.

Haemonchus contortus is the most important bloodsucking gastrointestinal nematode in small ruminants worldwide. It is often controlled by anthelmintics. Even though other methods to control are available, the most efficient way to treat an animal with clinically manifested haemonchosis is to use one of the available broad spectrum anthelmintics: benzimidazoles (BZ), macrocyclic lactones (ML) or imidothiazoles-tetrahydropyromidines or the narrow spectrum drugs salisylanilides or nitrophenols. Anthelmintic resistance (AR) against all groups of anthelmintics in nematode parasites has been reported from many countries, and even multiple AR has been observed. In this study I have investigated the resistance levels to all major classes of broad spectrum anthelmintics in a naturally infected flock of sheep of Red Maasai sheep (RM), Dorper sheep (D) and their offsprings on a research farm in Kenya.

Respiratory infections are one of the major causes of disease in sheep throughout the world. In the beginning of 2008 the Swedish National Veterinary Institute and the Swedish Animal Health Service together started a project about respiratory infections in Swedish sheep. This study is an initial part of that project and the aim of this study was to investigate different sampling possibilities with focus on nasal swabs. This study is composed partly of a literature review on causative agents of respiratory infections in sheep and existing sampling methods, and partly of an experimental study comprising 56 sheep. These sheep were sampled with both an ordinary nasal swab and a guarded nasal swab. Before the start of this study there was to our knowledge no described method for sampling sheep with a guarded swab.

The aim of this study is to find out if, and in what way the Maasai pastoralists affect the spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta) through Bomas (Maasai settlement) and keeping of livestock. The study was carried out in the Maasai Mara National Reserve and the adjoining group ranch, Koyake GR, in South-western Kenya.Data was assembled through transect driving, with instantaneous scan sample during two seasons, December 2003 and May-June 2004. Study area contained 12 bomas with three different type of transects each: T1 (0.5 km from boma), T2 (3 km from boma) and T3 (5.5 km from boma), to create a gradual decline in human and livestock impact. Results show that there are differences in the hyena's utilisation of transect type during the day and during the night. The spotted hyena tend to avoid transects close to the boma during the day time, but go there during the night time.

This essay describes and compares the extensive reindeer management to the more intensive, but grazing based, sheep management system in Sweden. Differences and similarities between the two production systems will be investigated by elucidating the economy, land use and possibilities to influence production and economy through breeding, feeding and product development. The reindeer management area covers the northern part of Sweden whilst the sheep management is dispersed over the country. Both reindeer and sheep are ruminants and have relatively high demands on the quality and digestibility of the feed however reindeers graze on mountain-and forest lands whilst sheep often graze inaccessible areas or cultivated grasslands. Selection intensity is generally lower in the reindeer management compared to the intensity in sheep breeding.

This essay describes and compares the extensive reindeer management to the more intensive, but grazing based, sheep management system in Sweden. Differences and similarities between the two production systems will be investigated by elucidating the economy, land use and possibilities to influence production and economy through breeding, feeding and product development. The reindeer management area covers the northern part of Sweden whilst the sheep management is dispersed over the country. Both reindeer and sheep are ruminants and have relatively high demands on the quality and digestibility of the feed however reindeers graze on mountain-and forest lands whilst sheep often graze inaccessible areas or cultivated grasslands. Selection intensity is generally lower in the reindeer management compared to the intensity in sheep breeding.

The difficullty to distinguish between sheep and goats is a well-known problem in archaeology and osteology. Distinguishing sheep and goats in archaeological animal remains takes time and time is often limited for osteologists. Because of this difficulty osteologists and archaeozoologists often use the term sheep/goat or ?ovicaprids? in their analytical reports. But even if the term sheep/goat comprise both species, this is often not the case when archaeologists and osteologists interpret and present archaeological findings.

In the Maasai Mara National Reserve the native people, the Maasai, have lived for a long time following their own traditions. Their traditional lifestyle is that of a nomadic people, leading their cattle to the best grazing. Sharing their land with a large variation of different animals, one of them being the African Elephant (Loxodonta africana), the Maasi people have since long adapted to a life side by side with these giants, as well as the fierce predators living in the area.The aim of this study is to determine whether the Maasai settlement, known as Boma, has any impact on the elephants in the surrounding area. In order to conclude whether the bomas has an impact or not, observations of the wildlife were carried out. Observations were conducted in two different seasons, in December 2003 and May/June in 2004.

Sheep breeding contributes not only with wool, hides, meat and milk but also with openlandscapes. The sheep?s wool is a good raw material thanks to a lot of different qualities as itis water rejecting and easy to form. The wool production today is concentrated to specificplaces in the world which leads to environmental problems and a distorted market. InJämtland, a province in Sweden, there is right now a staking going on for local production andrefining of wool in a project called Ullforum.

Sheep have played a very important part in rural history. In Sweden there were many kinds of small native breeds, kept for their meat and fleece. Women cared for the flock that often had very little to feed on during the cold and sometimes harsh winter months. This meant that these sheep over time acquired special phenotypic properties depending on the environment they lived in, and easily fed compared to modern breeds kept for meat. Most of these sheep have since become extinct.

Sheep breeding contributes not only with wool, hides, meat and milk but also with openlandscapes. The sheep?s wool is a good raw material thanks to a lot of different qualities as itis water rejecting and easy to form. The wool production today is concentrated to specificplaces in the world which leads to environmental problems and a distorted market. InJämtland, a province in Sweden, there is right now a staking going on for local production andrefining of wool in a project called Ullforum.

Sheep breeding contributes not only with wool, hides, meat and milk but also with openlandscapes. The sheep?s wool is a good raw material thanks to a lot of different qualities as itis water rejecting and easy to form. The wool production today is concentrated to specificplaces in the world which leads to environmental problems and a distorted market. InJämtland, a province in Sweden, there is right now a staking going on for local production andrefining of wool in a project called Ullforum.