eConoMIC IMportAnCe
Beneficial mammals
Domesticated mammals
• Man has been domesticating various mammals for work
food, clothing, etc.
As food
• Meat is supplied by large even-toed ungulates, such as
cattle, buffaloes, pigs, goats, sheep, reindeer, etc.
• Milk provided by cows, buffaloes, goats, sheep, llamas,
camels, reindeers, etc. forms an important article of human
food. Ghee, butter, cheese and curd are prepared from milk.
Commercial products
• Hides of various domesticated as well as wild mammals
provide leather and fur, used for the manufacture of
clothing, suitcases, bags, shoes, harness, saddles, belts, purses,
etc.
• wool of sheep is the most important animal fibre, extensively
used for weaving into cloth for winter apparels. Goats,
alpaca, camels, etc. also yield wool.
• Ambergris, used as a base in fine perfumes, is a product of
intestinal canal of sperm whales.
• Musk, used in perfumes, is obtained from the glands of
muskdeer of Central and Eastern Asia.
• blubber of baleen whale and seal provides edible fat or oil.
• Oil of sperm whale is used as a base for cosmetics and in
manufacture of candles and lubricants.
• ivory, used for making toys and in decorations, is obtained
mainly from the tusks of elephant and walrus.
• whalebone or baleen, formerly an important commercial
article, is also obtained from toothless whales.
• glue and gelatin are obtained from the skin, horns, hoofs
and bones of cattle.
beasts of burden
• Transportation has been one of the most exploited use
of mammals such as horses, cattle, mules, sheep, etc. They
have played an important role in development of human
civilisation.
in agriculture
• Buffaloes, yak, horses and camels are employed for
ploughing fields.
• Manure supplied by them in the form of dung and urine
nitrifies soil and yields fuel biogas. bone meal is also a
good fertiliser.
As pollinators
• Arboreal mammals which visit one tree after another in
search of fruits such as bats, squirrels, monkeys, etc. help in
the pollination of flowers.
As scavengers
• Hyaenas, jackals and common pig are of great utility to serve
as scavengers in nature.
Laboratory animals
• Rats, guinea pigs, rabbits, cats, pigs, monkeys, apes, dogs, etc.
are the common mammals extensively used in laboratories
for research and scientific studies.
harmful mammals
Pests
• Most dangerous mammals to crops are the rodents. They
destroy crops in fields, commit ravages about houses and
buildings, consume all kinds of foodstuffs and destroy
property.
Predators
• Many wild carnivorous or predatory mammals (lions,
tigers, etc.) are constant menace to the lives of people and
livestock.Disease carriers
• Rodents are the worst carriers and distributors of the germs
of certain diseases.
• Important diseases transmitted to humans are bubonic
plague, typhus, relapsing fever, spotted fever, tularemia,
trichina, hydrophobia, etc.
• These are spread by rats, mice, pigs, cats, dogs, etc.Some important facts
• Hippopotamus is the second bulkiest land animal, living most of the time in water, hence called riverine horse.
• The only ape found in india is gibbon.
• blue whale is the largest living animal with a length of upto 30 -50 mts and a weight of 135 - 209 metric tonnes.
• The indian one-horned rhinoceros is the second largest land animal of india.
• The elephant has 40,000 muscles in its trunk. Not a single bone is found in it.
• Salivary glands are absent in whales and sea cows.
• Largest monkey is Mandrill. Smallest monkey is Pigmy marmoset.
• Sambar stag is the largest deer of india.
• Hangul (Kashmiri stag, red deer) is the world famous red deer.