Sheep in the Sahara

Nowadays, Imuhar (Tuareg) nomads breed more and more sheep despite sheep being difficult to breed in the Central Sahara desert.

 Ram

CHARACTERISTICS

The sheep of the Imuhar (Tuareg) nomads are short-haired and long-legged. They have long noses, long tails and long, wide and hanging ears. The coat colors differ between white, brown and black. Some animals are bi-colored. Rams have bent horns.

NUTRITION

The sheep in the Sahara desert are as picky eaters as goats are. They prefer different plants than goats eg. tulult.

They feed on plants several hours each day at the pastures. At night they stay at the nomads’ camp. When there has been a lot of rain in summer or fall the sheep have a lush pasturage during winter season. Hence, the herds do not have to water every day. At midsummer the sheep herds have to eat dried plants (hay). The nomads have to water the sheep every day during summer season.

Often, nomad women have to add some extra food for the mother sheep to feed them enough. Hence, they feed them with leftover bread or flour.

USE

Milk
The nomad women make butter and cheese out of the milk. But mother sheep give only a little milk. Therefore, the women often leave the milk for the lambs. They mix the milk with goat milk and add water to stretch it. Milk is one of the main elements of nutrition among Sahara nomads.

Skin
The women make bags for food supplies out of the sheep’s skin.

Meat
The people in the surrounding villages prefer to eat sheep meat over goat meat. Hence, the nomads are able to sell the sheep in the villages quite fast. They prefer to sell the sheep for a good price in the villages rather than eat them themselves.

DIFFICULTIES

The sheep herd always sticks together. They pasture in the morning and often come back to the camp at noon. Then they rummage through the tents, looking for food. The mother sheep look for their lambs so that the lambs can feed of the milk. Hence, it is very difficult to chase the sheep away so that the sheep spend enough time pasturing.

The sheep are bigger and stronger than the goats. A young larking ram can be quite dangerous for young children due to his horns and the young rams often bump into kids.

Sheep are deemed to be dumb because eg. they stick together even in a dangerous situation. When a jackal kills a sheep, the rest of the group stays and the jackal can kill one sheep after another. Goats do not stick together but run away. Therefore, the nomads suffer great losses if a jackal attacks the sheep herd.

But the nomads endure the difficulties because of the greater demand for sheep meat.

Still, the nomads own many more goats than sheep.

SHEEP BREEDING

Mother sheep give birth to lambs in fall or winter. Not every nomad women owns a ram as the rams can be very dangerous. The rams always accompany the herd.