Sexual dimorphism in morphological characteristics of two Nigerian indigenous goat breeds

Abstract

Themorphological traits of 594 indigenous goats comprised of 316 and 279 Red Sokoto goat (RSG) and West African dwarf (WAD) goats, respectively, were measured to determine the presence or otherwise of sexual dimorphism in the morphological characteristics of the two indigenous goats. The morphological traitsmeasured were body length (BL), withers height (WH), rumps height (RH), heart girth (HG), body depth (BD), tail length (TL), head length (HL), head width (HW), ear length (EL), and horn length (HL). Also recorded were body weight (BW) and sex of each animal.The data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics and analysis of variance of fixed effect of sex on themorphological characteristics. The result revealed the presence of marked sexual dimorphism in morphological characteristics of both the RSG and WAD goats. The adult females were significantly (P< 0.05-0.01) heavier and larger in size than the males. The respective coefficients of variation (CV) between breeds were high in most of the morphological traits suggesting high heterogeneity, an indication of the amount of opportunity available for improving the breeds through selection.