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Concept
Pack animal
Summary
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 which pull loads but do not carry them.
Traditional pack animals are diverse including camels, goats, yaks, reindeer, water buffaloes, and llamas as well as the more familiar pack animals like dogs, horses, donkeys, and mules.
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 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.
Traditional pack animals include ungulates such as camels, the domestic yak, reindeer, goats, water buffaloes and llama, and domesticated members of the horse family including horses, donkeys, and mules. Occasionally, dogs can be used to carry small loads.
Arctic - Reindeer and sled dogs
Central Africa and Southern Africa - Oxen, mules, donkeys
Eurasia - Donkeys, oxen, Horses, mules
Central Asia - Bactrian camels, yaks, Horses, mules, donkeys
South and Southeast Asia - Water buffaloes, yaks, Asian elephants
North America - Horses, mules, donkeys, goats
North Africa and Middle East - Dromedaries, horses, donkeys, mules, oxen
Oceania - Donkeys, horses, dromedaries, mules, oxen
South America - Llamas, donkeys, mules
File:Eylcamel.jpg|A [[nomad]]'s pack [[camel]] in [[Eyl]], [[Somalia]]
File:Reindeer and pack, with Lapp driver.jpg|Pack [[reindeer]] with [[Sami people|Sami]] driver from ''The land of the midnight sun'', c. 1881
File:Fleischextrakt 0002773 m.
Official source
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