Origin A Pillar of Ashoka, dating to the 3rd century BCE, depicting a zebu Zebu pictured on a coin of the Indo-Scythian king Azes II, late first century BC The American Society of Mammalogists also considers it to be a species. In 2011, Colin Groves and Peter Grubb classified it as a distinct species again. The zebu was classified as a distinct species by Juliet Clutton-Brock in 1999, but as a subspecies of the domestic cattle, Bos taurus indicus, by Peter Grubb in 2005. The scientific name Bos indicus was introduced by Carl Linnaeus in 1758 for humped cattle in China. In some regions, such as parts of India, zebu are among the cattle that have significant religious meaning. In 1999, researchers at Texas A&M University successfully cloned a zebu. Some small breeds such as the miniature zebu are also kept as pets.
Zebu are used as draught and riding animals, dairy cattle, and beef cattle, as well as for byproducts such as hides and dung for fuel and manure. They are well adapted to withstanding high temperatures, and are farmed throughout the tropical countries, both as pure zebu and as hybrids with taurine cattle, the other main type of domestic cattle. Zebu are characterised by a fatty hump on their shoulders, a large dewlap, and sometimes drooping ears. The zebu ( / ˈ z iː b( j) uː, ˈ z eɪ b uː/ Bos indicus or Bos taurus indicus), sometimes known in the plural as indicine cattle or humped cattle, is a species or subspecies of domestic cattle originating in the Indian sub-continent.
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