Vetwork Image Gallery - Southern Sudan

Young bulls, particularly those with well patterned coats, are often selected at an early age to be 'song bulls'. They are usually castrated (so they are really 'song bullocks'), and their horns are pared away just above the base so that the left one grows forwards, and the right one grows backwards. When they get older, a tassle is hung through holes in the tips of its horns for decoration. Dinka in particular select cattle for the size of their horns. Song bulls are highly valued and very well treated. Their owners groom them, sing songs to them, and develop a close and special relationship with them. 'Horn surgery', as the shaping of cow horns is known, is recorded in the hieroglyphics of ancient Egypt, so has obviously been practices along the Nile for thousands of years.

A tassle horned song bull