Muturu

Cattle

`Muturu', meaning humpless, is the Hausa name for the West African Shorthorn in Anglophone West Africa. Since the second half of the first millennium B.C. Muturu cattle were the most widespread breed of Nigeria until the Fulani invasion, which started in 1820 (Felius 1995). The breed is a variety of West African Shorthorn. Generally, two types of Muturu cattle have been identified: a larger Savannah-type and a Dwarf-Forest type, which appears to have evolved through adaptation to the humid forest environment. Most of the Muturu cattle of Nigeria belong to the Savannah type, spread over the Benue plateau, and smaller numbers are found further to the Southwest in Oyo and Kware. This breed is also found in Southeastern coastal area of Ghana. ref: agtr.ilri.org