The national animal of Burkina Faso is the white stallion. This is a particularly important national symbol which appears on the country’s coat of arms. Though it does not refer to a specific kind of actual horse, the white stallion is seen as an emblem of the nation though horses in general are important to Burkina Faso.
The white stallion, then, is a very important national symbol in Burkina Faso.
They embody many important aspects of the country’s core values and have come to be an important embodiment of the country in the sense of its natural beauty and in its core values.
Let’s find out more.
What is the national animal of Burkina Faso?
The national animal of Burkina Faso is the white stallion.
This is usually taken more as an important image than as referring to a specific breed or variety of horses.
On the other hand, many do rather see the Burkina Faso white stallion as referring to a particular kind or breed of horse; more on that later.
One distinction that you perhaps should keep in mind is that typically, wild horses and domestic horses are referred to as different subspecies of Equus.
The white stallion of Burkina Faso refers to the domesticated breed of horse, known in scientific taxonomy as Equus ferus caballus.
These are domesticated, hoofed mammals which you are surely familiar with.
They have played perhaps the single most important role in human history of any animal.
They have evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a smaller, multi-toed creature into the large, striking hoofed animals we know today.
Without their domestication, it is truly impossible to imagine what human society might look like today.
Domestication of horses is thought to have begun around 4000 BC, and were widespread by around a thousand years later.
They are highly adapted to fast running and this ability to escape predators is part of what has made them so successful.
They are not at all easy to catch, though significantly they were a favorite prey of prehistoric humans before they were domesticated and indeed for some time after.
They are highly social creatures and can live in very large herds.
Stallions, the males, tend to be aggressive to one another if they have not been castrated, and this reflects the social groups they would live in in the wild.
One stallion with a harem of females, and bachelor groups roaming to challenge males for their females.
Why is the white stallion the national animal of Burkina Faso?
The white stallion, then, is a very important symbol in Burkina Faso for a number of reasons.
They appear on the country’s coat of arms and are seen to embody values such as wild freedom, liberation, and of course the natural, expansive beauty of Burkina Faso.
The white stallion is seen as an image of peace, purity, and progress and of course white horses have always played an important role in human imagination in many different cultures.
With so much diverse and impressive megafauna in Burkina Faso, it’s easy to see just how important, symbolically, the white stallion is.
There are elephants, hippos, buffalo, lions, giraffe and many other impressive species in the country which no doubt would also have made a fitting national animal.
But the white stallion is seen more as a symbol of core national values than it is meant to be understood as a literal white horses which roams the lands of Burkina Faso.
The truth is that you may get a different answer to this question depending on whom you ask.
Think about the national animal of your own country; is there any particular reason it is the national animal, or is it more simply a question of iconography and symbolism?
Which kind of horse is the white stallion?
The simplest answer to this question is that the white stallion of Burkina Faso is not meant to embody a particular breed or kind of horse.
Again, it is an image and a symbol, and not to be understood in these literal terms—rather like the leopards of England.
That said, the Dongola horse is a popular breed in Africa which is bred in many parts of the continent including Burkina Faso, though they originated in Sudan.
The Mossi, a breed of Burkina Faso, is said to be either a separate or sub-breed of the Dongola.
What are Dongola horses used for?
Dongola horses are used mostly for riding.
This can naturally encompass a variety of activities, but they are usually not used for fast running or racing.
They are popular for use on large farms and ranches, and indeed just for leisure purposes in riding.
They have beenb bred since at least the 19th Century, and now that there are so many sub-breeds with various traits, they can be used for different purposes.
In terms of why they are bred, given their popularity, they are often simply bred to be sold on to others for whatever purposes they might need.
So, if you need a more specific animal to look to than the more broadly symbolic image of the white stallion, then the Dongola riding horse is certainly a good candidate.
They are often, though not always, white, and have been important in Burkina Faso as well as many neighboring African regions for a very long time.
They remain a very important national symbol.