Introduction. Sakha Ynaga, Cattle of the Yakuts

• Main Authors: Granberg, Leo, Soini, Katriina, Kantanen, Juha
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: English
• Published: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia - Finnish Academy of Science and Letters 2009
• Subjects: Arctic; Batagay-Alyta; Bytantay; Kustur; Sakha; Jakut*; Republic of Sakha; Yakutia; Yakuts
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10138/15166

In the three remote Siberian villages of Batagay-Alyta, Dzhargalakh and Kustur in the Eveno-Bytantay district of the Republic of Sakha, a region of the Russian Federation known also as Yakutia, there exists a small population of Yakutian Cattle (Sakha Ynaga in the Yakutian language). The villages are located about 150 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle. Both cattle and people inhabit the coldest permanently settled region on earth, enduring the harshest of climates and environmental circumstances. Yakutian Cattle accompanied the Yakuts and their horses as they drifted to the region centuries ago. The cattle adapted well to the Siberian environment and helped the Yakuts to settle in these distant northern territories, producing milk and meat, providing hides and supplying draft power in the villages. Yakutian Cattle were once ubiquitous in Yakutia, but currently represent an endangered population. In 2007 there were 1212 head, including 525 milking cows (Table 2.1), but the population is now near to risk status as according to the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO), ‘a breed is categorized as endangered if the total number of breeding females is … less than or equal to 1000 or the total number of breeding males is less than or equal to 20…’ (FAO 2007b, 37). Siperian viimeinen alkuperäinen nautarotu, jakutiankarja eli Sakha ynaga elää Venäjällä, Lenajoen maassa Sahan tasavallassa. Neuvostoaikana jakutiankarja oli vaarassa hävitä kokonaan, mutta karjaa myös puolustettiin rodun sitkeyden ja sen historiallisen tärkeyden vuoksi. Kylien elämästä ja karjan kohtalosta Venäjän muutosten pyörteissä ja sen jälkeen kerrotaan kirjassa Sakha Ynaga- Cattle of the Yakuts. Kirjan ovat kirjoittaneet ja toimittaneet MTT:n ja Helsingin yliopiston Aleksanteri-instituutin monitieteinen tutkimusryhmä.