Working animal

The horse-drawn winch of a former limestone quarry (France)

Some animals are used due to sheer physical strength in tasks such as ploughing or logging. Such animals are grouped as a draught or draft animals. Others may be used as pack animals, for animal-powered transport, the movement of people and goods. Together, these are sometimes called beasts of burden. Some animals are ridden by people on their backs and are known as mounts. Alternatively, one or more animals in harness may be used to pull vehicles.

Riding animals are animals that people use as mounts in order to perform tasks such as traversing across long distances or over rugged terrain, hunting on horseback or with some other riding animal, patrolling around rural and/or wilderness areas, rounding up and/or herding livestock or even for recreational enjoyment. They mainly include equines such as horses, donkeys, and mules; bovines such as cattle, water buffalo, and yak. In some places, elephants, llamas and camels are also used. Dromedary camels are in arid areas of Australia, North Africa and the Middle East; the less common Bactrian camel inhabits central and East Asia; both are used as working animals. On occasion, reindeer, though usually driven, may be ridden.

Certain wild animals have been tamed and used for riding, usually for novelty purposes, including the zebra and the ostrich. Some mythical creatures are believed to act as divine mounts, such as garuda in Hinduism (See vahana for divine mounts in Hinduism) and the winged horse Pegasus in Greek mythology.

A pack llama

Pack animals may be of the same species as mounts or harness animals, though animals such as horses, mules, donkeys, reindeer and both types of camel may have individual bloodlines or breeds that have been selectively bred for packing. Additional species are only used to carry loads, including llamas in the Andes.

Domesticated cattle and yaks are also used as pack animals. Other species used to carry cargo include dogs and pack goats.

Donkey used to pull a wheeled vehicle in Morocco

Camel pulling a coach in Rajasthan

An intermediate use is as draft animals, harnessed singly or in teams, to pull sleds, wheeled vehicles or ploughs.

• Oxen are slow but strong, and have been used in a yoke since ancient times: the earliest surviving vehicle, Puabi's Sumerian sledge, was ox-drawn; an acre was originally defined as the area a span of oxen could plow in a day. The domestic water buffalo and carabao, pull wagons and ploughs in Southeast Asia and the Philippines.
• Draught or draft horses are commonly used in harness for heavy work. Several breeds of medium-weight horses are used to pull lighter wheeled carts, carriages and buggies when a certain amount of speed or style is desirable.
• Mules are considered tough and strong, with harness capacity dependent on the type of horse mare used to produce the mule foal. Because they are a hybrid animal and usually are infertile, separate breeding programs must also be maintained.
• Ponies and donkeys are often used to pull carts and small wagons. Historically, ponies were commonly used in mining to pull ore carts.
• Dogs are used for pulling light carts or, particularly, sleds (e.g. sled dogs such as huskies) for both recreation and working purposes.
• Goats also can perform light harness work in front of carts.
• Reindeer are used in the Arctic and sub-Arctic Nordic countries and Siberia. During World War II, the Red Army deployed deer transportation battalions on the Eastern Front.[1] In the twenty-first century, Russian soldiers continue to train with reindeer sleds in winter.[2] In traditional festive legend, Santa Claus's reindeer pull a sleigh through the night sky to help Santa Claus deliver gifts to children on Christmas Eve.
• Elephants are used for logging in Southeast Asia.
• Less often, camels and llamas have been trained to harness. According to Juan Ignacio Molina the Dutch captain Joris van Spilbergen observed the use of chiliquenes (a llama type) by native Mapuches of Mocha Island as plough animals in 1614.[3]

Assorted wild animals have, on occasion, been tamed and trained to harness, including zebras and even moose.

As some domesticated animals display extremely protective or territorial behavior, certain breeds and species have been utilized to guard people and/or property such as homes, public buildings, businesses, crops, livestock and even venues of criminal activity.[4][5] Guard animals can either act as alarms to alert their owners of danger or they can be used to actively scare off and/or even attack encroaching intruders or dangerous animals. Well known examples of guard animals include dogs, geese and llamas. Additionally, other animals that have been used as guard animals include cats,[6][7] donkeys,[8] pigs,[9] alpacas,[10] cattle,[11] domestic guineafowl,[12] rams,[13] ducks,[14] goats, turkeys and roosters.[15]

An ox-powered Copra press

Working draught animals may power fixed machinery using a treadmill and have been used throughout history to power a winch to raise water from a well. Turnspit dogs were formerly used to power roasting jacks for roasting meat.

Working as a form of biological treatment for the environment. Animals such as Asian carps were imported to the U.S. in 1970s to control algae, weed, and parasite growth in aquatic farms, weeds in canal systems, and as one form of sewage treatment.[16]

Animals can be used to detect the presence of pathogens and patients carrying infectious diseases.

• Dogs[17][18][19][20] (including scent hounds) and bees[21] have been trained to detect COVID-19 infections.
• Dogs have been trained to detect cancer.[22] One study reported ants could be used to detect cancer via urine.[23][24]
• Detection rats such as those trained by APOPO can also be taught to identify diseases, especially pulmonary tuberculosis.[25]

A dog working as a retriever

As predatory species are naturally equipped to catch prey, this is a further use for animals and birds. This can be done either for sustenance, sport, or to reduce the population of undesired animals that are considered harmful to crops, livestock or the environment.

• Hounds and other dogs are used to kill and fetch prey. Certain breeds have been bred for this task such as pointers and setters.
• Mousers (domestic cats used for hunting small rodents and birds) are one of the oldest working animals having protected food supplies from pests that cause crop destruction such as rodents and pigeons since the foundation of human agriculture.
• Caracals are sometimes used as hunting animals in some parts of the Middle East, although they are normally kept as pets.
• Cheetahs that have been tamed but not domesticated have been used by humans for chasing down prey.
• Ferrets prey on creatures living in burrows, such as rabbits.
• In falconry, birds of prey are used as hunters in the air.
• Aquatic birds, such as cormorants in China, can be used to catch fish.

• Search and rescue dogs, with their highly developed sense of smell, are used to locate humans, such as escaped prisoners, a thief or people lost in remote areas. They are used also to find people who are trapped, such as in avalanches or collapsed buildings.
• Dogs can also be used to look for dead people.
• Searchers use horses in remote areas to cover large areas of rugged terrain. The horse's natural awareness of their surroundings often alerts human handlers to the presence of something unusual, including lost hikers or hunters. Like some dogs, some horses are trained to follow scent. The use of horses in search and rescue is known as mounted search and rescue.

• Dogs and pigs, with a better sense of smell than humans, can assist with gathering by finding valuable products, such as truffles (a very expensive subterranean fungus). The French typically use truffle hogs, while Italians mainly use dogs.
• Monkeys are trained to pick coconuts from palm trees, a job many human workers consider as too dangerous.[26]

• Detection dogs, commonly employed by law enforcement authorities, are trained to use their senses to detect illegal drugs, explosives, currency, and contraband electronics such as illicit mobile phones, among other things.[27] The sense most used by detection dogs is smell, hence such dogs are also commonly known as 'sniffer dogs'. For this task, dogs may sometimes be used remotely from the suspect item, for example via the Remote Air Sampling for Canine Olfaction (RASCO) system.[28]

• The best-known example is the guide dog or seeing eye dog for blind people. See also service dog. Miniature horses are also occasionally used for this purpose as well.
• Trained dogs and African, Asian, and American monkeys, such as capuchin monkeys have been taught to provide other functions for impaired people, such as opening mail and minor household tasks of the same like.

A Koolie dog working with sheep

• A very close working relationship exists between a stockman or shepherd, a herding dog, and the herd (or mob) of sheep or cattle. Cattle and sheep herders in other parts of the world also use various dog breeds.
• Certain breeds of horses also have an innate "cow sense" that allows them to effectively carry a rider to the right place at the right time to muster (gather or round up) livestock. See stock horse; cutting horse

APOPO HeroRAT getting food reward

The defensive and offensive capabilities of animals (such as fangs and claws) can be used to protect or to attack humans.

• The guard dog barks or attacks, to warn of an intruder, sniffer dogs are used to detect explosives contraband and attack dogs are trained to attack on command.
• War elephants were trained for battle in ancient times and are still used for military transport today.
• Military uses of horses have changed over the millennia but still continue, including for police work.
• Camel cavalry was used in deserts since they had better performance and survivability in the harsh desert environment than horses. India's Border Security Force and some other countries still used camel cavalry for patrolling in the Thar desert.
• Dolphins and sea lions carry markers to attach to naval mines as well as patrolling harbors.
• Dogs can be trained to find landmines.
• Rats, which are lighter and less of a risk to set the mines off, have recently been used more frequently.[25][29]
• Homing pigeons transport material, usually messages on small pieces of paper, by air.