Niata

What do Niata cattle look like?

The Niata was called a dwarf breed, yet the dwarfism sat almost entirely in the face. The upper jaw and muzzle were cut very short, giving the head a blunt, pushed-in look; nothing else in the skeleton betrayed the underlying growth fault, achondroplasia, a form of dwarfism. Despite the squashed profile the animal breathed without difficulty. Gibson recorded the usual coat as dun, a grey-brown, with black legs. Writers could not agree on temper: Darwin and Ramón Lista found the cattle fierce, close to wild, while Gibson described a small herd as exceedingly tame. A mounted skeleton can still be seen in the Museo de La Plata in La Plata, Argentina.

Where does the Niata come from?

Charles Darwin came across these cattle twice and wrote the first full account of them in November 1833. He judged them a true breed: put a Niata cow to a Niata bull and the calves came out the same. Modern science agrees. A 2018 study measured museum bones and read their DNA, and concluded the animals fit the definition of a breed used today. George Ernest Gibson bought two in 1889, and entered one of the pair in the 1890 Buenos Aires livestock exhibition, the Segunda Exposición Internacional de Ganadería y Agricultura. Darwin thought estancieros, the big ranch owners, had wiped the breed out because they found it ill-matched to the land and all but useless. By the first years of the twentieth century it had nearly or wholly died out.

What the Niata is known for

Two verdicts on its temper have come down to us. Darwin and Ramón Lista both called the Niata fierce, even wild; Gibson, who wrote of a small herd, found those animals exceedingly tame, so handling may have made the difference. On hardiness the ranchers of the day had made up their minds: they held that the breed coped badly with local conditions and was worth little, and they removed it rather than breed it on. The strange head seems not to have troubled the animal itself. With the short muzzle came no laboured breathing, for the skull's shape left the airway clear, and the body showed no other sign of the dwarfing condition.

How the Niata is bred and kept

Darwin counted the Niata a breed in the full sense: a Niata cow mated to a Niata bull produced calves of the same short-faced type, so the look passed reliably from parents to young. Modern science backs him. In 2018 researchers measured museum bones and studied their DNA, and the animals fitted what breed specialists today would recognise as a breed. The end came through rejection rather than a plan: Darwin heard that estancieros considered the type poorly matched to the country and good for little, and they did away with it. Gibson bought his pair in 1889, in the breed's closing years.

What the Niata is kept for

Darwin heard from the ranchers of the region that the Niata was ill-fitted to their country and worth little, and their verdict sealed its fate: they stopped keeping it, and it died out. Its one documented public appearance came in April 1890, when Gibson entered one of his two animals in the great Buenos Aires livestock show, the Segunda Exposición Internacional de Ganadería y Agricultura. There visitors could study the blunt face at first hand. In the end the breed proved most useful to science: museum bones allowed researchers in 2018 to confirm, by measurements and genetics, that it was a genuine breed, as Darwin had said.

The land and climate of the Niata

The Niata belonged to the cattle country of Uruguay and Argentina, running with ordinary stock on the estancias, the big grazing ranches of the region. Its own keepers doubted it belonged there: Darwin recorded that estancieros judged the type poorly fitted to local conditions, and, acting on that belief, they did away with it. The land suited other cattle well enough; the fault, in the ranchers' eyes, lay with this one.

Who keeps the Niata

Three names keep the Niata's story alive. Charles Darwin, travelling in the region in the 1830s, saw the type twice and gave the first written description in November 1833. George Ernest Gibson bought two animals in 1889 and wrote of a small herd whose members were exceedingly tame; his account is where the dun coat with black legs is recorded. Ramón Lista also described the cattle, and he agreed with Darwin in calling them fierce. The people who owned the land, the estancieros, had no patience with the breed: convinced that it suited neither the country nor their work, they eradicated it.

The Niata at fairs and festivals

One cattle show fixed the Niata in the record. In April 1890 the Segunda Exposición Internacional de Ganadería y Agricultura opened in Buenos Aires, and among its exhibits stood a Niata, one of the pair Gibson had bought the year before. A photograph of a cow of the breed, taken about 1890, survives from those years. The showing came near the end of the breed's story: by the opening of the new century the Niata was nearly or wholly gone.

Numbers, conservation and the herd book

Few breeds end so completely. Darwin reported in the 1830s that estancieros were clearing the Niata away because they deemed it ill-suited and useless; by the first years of the twentieth century it was nearly or quite gone, and none are kept today. Its conservation status is the starkest there is: extinct. What remains is paper and bone. Darwin's description of 1833, Gibson's notes on colour and temper and a photograph of a cow taken about 1890 preserve the animal's appearance, and a skeleton rests in the Museo de La Plata in La Plata, Argentina. In 2018 that museum material did fresh work, supplying measurements and DNA that confirmed the Niata as a breed in the modern sense.

Questions people ask about Niata

Good reading and sources

• Niata cattle on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data