Working Animals

What the words in this puzzle mean

BUFFALO

The water buffalo pulls ploughs through flooded rice fields across South and East Asia.

CAMEL

Carries loads across deserts, able to lose a quarter of its body water and recover.

CARABAO

The Philippine water buffalo, the national animal and the farm's main draught beast.

CARP

Kept in flooded rice paddies, where the fish eat pests and fertilise the crop.

CAT

Kept in barns, ships and granaries for centuries to control rats and mice.

CATTLE

Oxen pulled most of the world's ploughs before engines, and still do in many places.

DOG

The oldest working partnership of all — herding, guarding, hunting, hauling and guiding.

DOLPHIN

Trained by navies to locate mines and lost equipment underwater.

DONKEY

Surefooted and cheap to keep, the pack animal of steep and dry country.

ELEPHANT

Used for centuries in Asia to move timber, and for ceremony as much as for work.

GOAT

Kept for milk and fibre, and used to clear scrub that machines cannot reach.

HORSE

The animal that carried people, ploughs, post and armies until the engine replaced it.

HOUND

A dog bred to track by scent or sight, working ahead of the hunter.

MONKEY

Pig-tailed macaques are trained in Southeast Asia to pick coconuts.

MULE

A horse-donkey cross, stronger than a donkey and steadier than a horse.

OXEN

Castrated bulls trained to the yoke, valued for patience rather than speed.

PIG

Trained to find truffles by scent, though dogs are now preferred for not eating them.

PIGEON

Carried messages through both world wars, navigating home over hundreds of miles.

RAT

Giant pouched rats are trained to detect landmines and tuberculosis by smell.

REINDEER

Herded across the Arctic for meat, milk, hides and pulling sledges.

SEAL

Trained by navies alongside dolphins for recovery work in open water.

YAK

Carries loads at altitudes that would kill most pack animals, across the Himalaya.