A pack animal, also known as a sumpter animal or beast of burden, is an individual or type of working animal used by humans as means of transporting materials by attaching them so their weight bears on the animal's back, in contrast to

draft animals A working animal is an animal, usually domesticated, that is kept by humans and trained to perform tasks instead of being slaughtered to harvest animal products. Some are used for their physical strength (e.g. oxen and draft horses) or for tr ...

which pull loads but do not carry them. Traditional pack animals are diverse including

camel A camel (from: la, camelus and grc-gre, κάμηλος (''kamēlos'') from Hebrew or Phoenician: גָמָל ''gāmāl''.) is an even-toed ungulate in the genus ''Camelus'' that bears distinctive fatty deposits known as "humps" on its back. C ...

s, goats,

yak The domestic yak (''Bos grunniens''), also known as the Tartary ox, grunting ox or hairy cattle, is a species of long-haired domesticated cattle found throughout the Himalayan region of the Indian subcontinent, the Tibetan Plateau, Kachin Sta ...

s, reindeer, water buffaloes, and llamas as well as the more familiar pack animals like dogs, horses,

donkey The domestic donkey is a hoofed mammal in the family Equidae, the same family as the horse. It derives from the African wild ass, ''Equus africanus'', and may be classified either as a subspecies thereof, ''Equus africanus asinus'', or as a ...

s, and

mule The mule is a domestic equine hybrid between a donkey and a horse. It is the offspring of a male donkey (a jack) and a female horse (a mare). The horse and the donkey are different species, with different numbers of chromosomes; of the two pos ...

Nomenclature

The term ''pack animal'' is traditionally used in contrast to ''draft animal'', which is a working animal that typically pulls a load behind itself (such as a

plow A plough or plow ( US; both ) is a farm tool for loosening or turning the soil before sowing seed or planting. Ploughs were traditionally drawn by oxen and horses, but in modern farms are drawn by tractors. A plough may have a wooden, iron or ...

, a cart, a sled or a heavy log) rather than carrying cargo directly on its back. For instance, sled dogs pull loads but do not normally carry them, while working elephants have been used for centuries to haul logs out of forests. The term ''pack animal'' can also refer to animals which naturally live and hunt in packs in the wild, such as wolves, hyenas, dogs etc., i.e. pack hunters.

Diversity

Traditional pack animals include ungulates such as

s, the domestic yak, reindeer, goats, water buffaloes and llama, and domesticated members of the horse family including horses,

s, and

s. Occasionally,

dogs The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it is derived from the extinct Pleistocene wolf, and the modern wolf is the dog's nearest living relative. Do ...

can be used to carry small loads.

Pack animals by region

* Arctic - Reindeer and sled dogs * Central Africa and Southern Africa - Oxen,

s * Eurasia -

Donkey The domestic donkey is a hoofed mammal in the family Equidae, the same family as the horse. It derives from the African wild ass, ''Equus africanus'', and may be classified either as a subspecies thereof, ''Equus africanus asinus'', or as a ...

s, oxen,

Horses The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million yea ...

s ** Central Asia - Bactrian camels,

s **

South South is one of the cardinal directions or Points of the compass, compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Pro ...

and Southeast Asia - Water buffaloes,

s, Asian elephants *

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

- Horses,

s, goats * North Africa and Middle East - Dromedaries, horses,

s, oxen * Oceania -

s, horses, dromedaries,

s, oxen * South America - Llamas,

s File:Eylcamel.jpg, A nomad's pack

Eyl Eyl ( it, Eil) is an ancient port town in the northeastern Nugal region of Somalia in the autonomous Puntland region, also serving as the capital of the Eyl District. Eyl, also called Illig, was the capital of the Dervishes from 1905 onwards, unt ...

, Somalia File:Reindeer and pack, with Lapp driver.jpg, Pack reindeer with Sami driver from ''The land of the midnight sun'', c. 1881 File:Fleischextrakt 0002773 m.jpg, 1900 advertisement showing pack

s in Tibet File:Lloyd the Llama.jpg, Pack llama, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Bimanees met lastkarbouwen Res. Timor Soembawa TMnr 10013888.jpg, Pack water buffalo, Sumbawa, Indonesia, early 20th century File:Pack donkeys, Bucks Mills, Devon.jpg, Pack donkeys, Devon, England, c. 1906

Uses

Marines train resupply techniques with pack animals 140831-M-ED261-010

Hauling of goods in wagons with horses and oxen gradually displaced the use of packhorses, which had been important until the Middle Ages, by the sixteenth century. Pack animals may be fitted with pack saddles and may also carry saddlebags. Alternatively, a pair of weighted materials (often placed symmetrically) are called panniers. While traditional usage of pack animals by nomadic tribespeople is declining, a new market is growing in the tourist expeditions industry in regions such as the High Atlas mountains of Morocco, allowing visitors the comfort of backpacking with animals. The use of pack animals "is considered a valid means of viewing and experiencing" some

National Park A national park is a nature park, natural park in use for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state dec ...

s in America, subject to guidelines and closed areas. In the 21st century,

special forces Special forces and special operations forces (SOF) are military units trained to conduct special operations. NATO has defined special operations as "military activities conducted by specially designated, organized, selected, trained and equip ...

have received guidance on the use of horses, mules, llamas, camels, dogs, and elephants as pack animals.

Load carrying capacity

The maximum load for a camel is roughly 300 kg. Yaks are loaded differently according to region. In Sichuan, is carried for 30 km in 6 hours. In Qinghai, at 4100 m altitude, packs of up to are routinely carried, while up to is carried by the heaviest steers for short periods. Llamas can carry roughly a quarter of their body weight, so an adult male of can carry some . Loads for equids are disputed. The US Army specifies a maximum of 20 percent of body weight for mules walking up to 20 miles a day in mountains, giving a load of up to about . However an 1867 text mentioned a load of up to . In India, the prevention of cruelty rules (1965) limit mules to and ponies to . Reindeer can carry up to 40 kg for a prolonged period in

mountains A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher th ...

References

External links

Llama Backpacking
Documentary produced by Oregon Public Broadcasting {{Authority control Domesticated animals Animal-powered transport Military animals