// Workers AI · dad joke modeWhat did Puruca say to its date? You purr-uca my heart.
| Conservation status | |
|---|---|
| Country of origin | Brazil |
| Distribution | Marajó island, Pará |
| Traits | |
| Weight | |
| Height | |
| Colour | any but pinto or pseudo-albino |
The Puruca is a Brazilian breed of small or miniature horse. It is native to the island of Marajó, the largest of the Marajó Archipelago in the Amazon Delta in the state of Pará. It derives from cross-breeding of horses of the Marajoara breed of that island with imported Shetland Pony stock.
History
[edit]The Puruca is one of the thirteen horse breeds recognised as Brazilian by the Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária, the national organisation for agricultural research.[3]: 27 It results from cross-breeding of horses of the Marajoara breed of the island of Marajó with Shetland Pony stock imported in the late nineteenth century from France.[4]: 23 A breed society – the Associação Brasileira dos Criadores de Puruca – was formed in 1986; its authorisation by the Ministério da Agricultura e Pecuária, the Brazilian ministry of agriculture, was revoked in 2019.[5]
The horses number no more than a thousand in total;[6]: 15 a conservation herd is maintained at the Banco de Germoplasma Animal da Amazônia Oriental, on the banks of the Paracauari River in the municipio of Salvaterra, by Embrapa Amazônia Oriental – the regional administration of the Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária.[7]: 100245 [8]
Characteristics
[edit]It is a very small or miniature horse. Average heights at the withers are 108 cm for mares and 114 cm for stallions and geldings; the average body weights are 185 kg and 200 kg respectively.[2] The coat may be of any colour other than pinto or albino.[2]
References
[edit]- ↑ Barbara Rischkowsky, Dafydd Pilling (editors) (2007). List of breeds documented in the Global Databank for Animal Genetic Resources, annex to The State of the World's Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. Rome: Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. ISBN 9789251057629. Archived 23 June 2020.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Breed data sheet: Puruca / Brazil (Horse). Domestic Animal Diversity Information System of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Accessed June 2026.
- ↑ Concepta McManus, Thais C. Hermuche, Allan G. Maranhão, Samuel R. Paiva (June 2014). Production Environment Descriptors for Brazilian Domestic Animal Breeds (report submitted to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations). Brasilia: Universidade de Brasília; Embrapa Recursos Genéticos e Biotecnologia. Archived 13 November 2024.
- ↑ Maria Rosa Travassos da Rosa Costa (2007). Caracterização genética de equídeos da raça Marajoara por microssatélites (doctoral thesis, in Portuguese). Belém: Universidade Federal do Pará.
- ↑ Tabela de Entidades (in Portuguese). Brasília: Ministério da Agricultura e Pecuária. Accessed June 2026.
- ↑ José Ribamar Felipe Marques (2025). Núcleo de conservação animal do cavalo Marajoara e do minicavalo Puruca (in Portuguese). Documentos 497. Belém, Pará: Embrapa Amazônia Oriental.
- ↑ Milena de Fátima Costa Tappembeck, Marivaldo Rodrigues Figueiró, Naiara Zoccal Saraiva, José Ribamar Felipe Marques (2021). Núcleo de conservação de recursos genéticos animais da Amazônia oriental (BAGAM) (in Portuguese). Brazilian Journal of Development. 7 (10): 100345-100358. doi:10.34117/bjdv7n10-368.
- ↑ José Ribamar Felipe Marques, Marivaldo Rodrigues Figueiró, J.S. Costa, L.C. Marques (2012). O mini-cavalo (Equus caballus) puruca da ilha de Marajó-Brasil (conference paper, in Portuguese). Anais do II Congresso Brasileiro de Recursos Genéticos.
Further reading
[edit]- Sávio Pinho dos Reis, Evonnildo Costa Gonçalves, Artur Silva, José Ribamar Felipe Marques, Maria Iracilda da Cunha Sampaio, Maria Rosa Travassos da Rosa Costa, P.P. Rodríguez-Gallardo, J.L. Vega-Pla (2008). Genetic variability and efficiency of DNA microsatellite markers for paternity testing in horse breeds from the Brazilian Marajó archipelago. Genetics and Molecular Biology. 31 (1): 68-72. doi:10.1590/S1415-47572008000100014.
- Maria Rosa Travassos da Rosa Costa (2008). A ilha de Marajó, o cavalo Marajoara e o mini cavalo Puruca (in Portuguese). RG News. 2 (2): 18–28. Brasilia: Sociedade Brasileira de Recursos Genéticos.
- Maria Rosa Travassos da Rosa Costa, José Ribamar Felipe Marques, C.S. Silva, Maria Iracilda da Cunha Sampaio, J.V.D. Bermejo, F.K.S. da Silva, J.L. Vega-Pla (2009). Distâncias genéticas em equinos (Equus caballus) por meio de marcadores microssatélites (in Portuguese). Revista Biociências. 15 (1): 38-44.
- E.B. Everton, A.M.C. Meneses, José Ribamar Felipe Marques, N.M.S. Freitas (2011). Valores hematológicos de equinos da raça Puruca (in Portuguese). Anais do 9º Seminário Anual de Iniciação Científica da UFRA. 1-4.
- N.M.S. Freitas (2012). Caracterização morfológica e ultraestrutural das células sanguíneas de mini cavalos procedentes da Ilha do Marajó, estado do Pará, Brasil (in Portuguese). Dissertação (Mestrado) - Universidade Federal Rural da Amazônia. 52p.
- P. Ianella, M.S.A. Maués, A.R. Caetano, G.R. Biazio, Samuel Rezende Paiva (2014). Genetic diversity and Population Structure of locally adapted horse breeds in Brazil (conference paper). Proceedings of the World Congress on Genetics Applied to Livestock Production. (11).
- Concepta Margaret McManus Pimentel, José Ribamar Felipe Marques, Samuel Rezende Paiva, Luiza de Souza Seixas Melo (2017). Cavalos Marajoara e Puruca (in Portuguese). INCT: Informação Genético-Sanitária da Pecuária Brasileira. Série Técnica: Genética. 1-7.
- Marivaldo Rodrigues Figueiró, Naiara Zoccal Saraiva, Rodrigo Lima Sales, L.C. Marques, J.S. Costa, Relionan Pimentel Leal, José Ribamar Felipe Marques (2017). Características fenotípicas do mini cavalo puruca (Equus caballus) da Ilha do Marajó, Pará, Brasil (conference paper, in Portuguese). IV Congresso Brasileiro de Recursos Genéticos, Curitiba, Paraná, 8–11 November 2016