Deleted member 97083
Yakutian horses and Yakutian cattle are interesting, polar-adapted breeds raised by the native Yakutian people of the Sakha Republic.
The Yakutian horse is noted for its adaptation to the extreme cold climate of Yakutia, including the ability to locate and graze on vegetation that is under deep snow cover, and to survive without shelter in temperatures that reach −70 °C (−94 °F). Yakutian horses are kept unstabled year-round, and in the roughly 800 years that they have been present in Siberia, they have developed a range of remarkable morphologic, metabolic and physiologic adaptions to this harsh environment.
The Yakutian cattle have a large abdomen and long digestive tract allow them to make efficient use both of grass and browse--presumably eat woodier vegetation that normal cattle can't eat. They grow subcutaneous fat very quickly during the short pasture season and survive under poor feed conditions in winter. Together with the Yakutian horse, it was the basis of the Sakha culture of meat and dairy livestock in the harsh conditions of the Russian Far North.
So, what if some enterprising Russian settlers of Siberia, or native Siberian peoples other than the Yakut trading with the Yakut, had wholesale adopted Yakutian cattle and horses, trading them along the taiga ecoregion of the Russian Empire until they are the predominant livestock in Siberia?
If all the Russian settlements in Siberia raised Yakutian cattle and horses well-adapted to boreal conditions, how might it affect the economic viability of Siberian trading posts and settlements? Would Siberia more quickly turn over to farming and pastoralism as opposed to its barebones fur trading economy of the early years? And how does this affect Russian presence in the Pacific, with areas like Kamchatka more able to be settled?
How does it affect the political relationship of native Siberian peoples to the Tsar, as well, with having higher populations?
The Yakutian horse is noted for its adaptation to the extreme cold climate of Yakutia, including the ability to locate and graze on vegetation that is under deep snow cover, and to survive without shelter in temperatures that reach −70 °C (−94 °F). Yakutian horses are kept unstabled year-round, and in the roughly 800 years that they have been present in Siberia, they have developed a range of remarkable morphologic, metabolic and physiologic adaptions to this harsh environment.
The Yakutian cattle have a large abdomen and long digestive tract allow them to make efficient use both of grass and browse--presumably eat woodier vegetation that normal cattle can't eat. They grow subcutaneous fat very quickly during the short pasture season and survive under poor feed conditions in winter. Together with the Yakutian horse, it was the basis of the Sakha culture of meat and dairy livestock in the harsh conditions of the Russian Far North.
So, what if some enterprising Russian settlers of Siberia, or native Siberian peoples other than the Yakut trading with the Yakut, had wholesale adopted Yakutian cattle and horses, trading them along the taiga ecoregion of the Russian Empire until they are the predominant livestock in Siberia?
If all the Russian settlements in Siberia raised Yakutian cattle and horses well-adapted to boreal conditions, how might it affect the economic viability of Siberian trading posts and settlements? Would Siberia more quickly turn over to farming and pastoralism as opposed to its barebones fur trading economy of the early years? And how does this affect Russian presence in the Pacific, with areas like Kamchatka more able to be settled?
How does it affect the political relationship of native Siberian peoples to the Tsar, as well, with having higher populations?
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