A new zoogeography of domestication and agricultural planning in Southern Ghana

Abstract

Animal behaviour is vital for livestock choices, but is less researched in West Africa than economic considerations. An animal geography framework is applied to the socio‐economic context of livestock behaviour in coastal Ghana, assessing the shared ‘actant’ behaviour of people and animals, and the contribution of such a study to animal geography and agricultural knowledge. Data were gathered on cattle, sheep and goat behaviour and the impact of these on human livelihoods, perceptions and the socio‐environmental context. Animal behaviour was more important in the choice of livestock species, but economic considerations were more important in the decision to acquire animals. Goats had more incidents with people in village centres than sheep and cattle. Cattle had more incidents in farmland and grassland than goats and sheep. Women and young people were more affected by livestock behaviour. These findings increase the understanding of livestock zoogeography and livelihood decisionmaking, and contribute to animal geography by documenting the relevance of individualised gender‐ and age‐based human behaviour, as well as intra‐ and inter‐species animal behaviour to a shared actancy perspective, and a more dynamic zoogeography.

How Japanese companion dog and cat owners’ degree of attachment relates to the attribution of emotions to their animals

“…Another interesting finding is that the independence of dogs can promote the good relationship between dogs and their owners. This result is in accordance with a previous finding on the relationship between livestock and owners [ 51 ]. We interpreted this result as likely resulting from the lower degree of trouble they cause their owners.…”

Biodiversity and Endangered Species: Issues of Significance

“…One focus is the increased attention to integrated environmental history, with offshoots towards human livelihoods, biogeography and political ecology [6][7][8]. There is also a greater attention to scale, structure, agency, allowing the documentation of nonlinear interactions and their contribution to the creation of patterns at small and large scales [1,5,9].…”

“…Some of these studies might be termed multidisciplinary or hybrid methodologies -the main strength of biodiversity studiesincorporating data and research methods from the documentation of economic, political, social change, as well as environmental dynamics. Topics include agricultural change [9][10][11][12][13] soils management [14] livestock and rangelands [15][16][17] mountain systems [8] national parks and wildlife issues [2,18] and water management [19][20][21]. The combination of these subjects appears daunting, but comprises the basis upon which a viable biodiversity study must be based.…”