Fig 1.
Map of the vegetation zones and phytogeographic zones of Benin showing the 32 communes sampled to assess the morphological variability within the indigenous sheep population of Benin.
The map was made using QGIS 3.8 [24].
Table 1.
Characteristics of the 10 phytogeographic zones of Benin and sample size (sheep).
Fig 2.
Illustration of the 25 linear body measurements taken on each sampled sheep.
WH, withers height; RH, rump height; SH, sternum height; BH, back height; CD, chest depth; RD, rump depth; CW, chest width; SIL, scapulo-ischial length; BL, body length; HL, head length; HW, head width; EL, ear length; MD, muzzle diameter; NL, neck length; NG, neck girth; TL, tail length; HG, heart girth; CC, chest circumference; AG, abdominal girth; BD, bicostal diameter; RW, rump width; RL, rump length; TC, cannon bone circumference; HC, hock circumference.; BW, body weight.
Table 2.
Description of linear body measurements (in centimeters, cm) and qualitative traits taken on 1240 adult sheep in Benin.
Table 3.
Morphological indices calculated from quantitative linear body measurements taken on 1240 adult sheep in Benin.
Table 4.
Frequency (%) of qualitative traits in sheep population of the 10 phytogeographic zones of Benin.
Table 5.
Summary of the stepwise selection of quantitative traits obtained from the stepwise discriminant analysis performed on 39 morphometric variables.
Table 6.
Total canonical coefficients for the canonical function, the adjusted canonical correlation, the eigenvalue, the approximate standard error of the canonical correlations and the percentage total variance accounted for obtained from the canonical discriminant analysis performed on 32 morphometric variables.
Fig 3.
Scatterplot visualizing the 1240 individual sheep sampled from the ten phytogeographic zones of Benin on the first two canonical discriminant functions.
Colored symbols group correspond to phytogeographic zones. MPZ, Mekrou-Pendjari zone; CAZ, Chaîne Atacora zone; BNZ, Borgou-Nord zone; BSZ, Borgou-Sud zone; BZ, Bassila zone; CZ, Coastal zone; PoZ, Pobe zone; PlZ, Plateau zone; VOZ, Oueme Valley zone; ZZ, Zou zone.
Table 7.
Mahalanobis distances between sheep populations identified by phytogeographic zones (n = 1240) obtained from the canonical discriminant analysis.
Table 8.
Percentage of individual sheep classified into phytogeographic zones (n = 1240) based on discriminant analysis.
Fig 4.
Clusterdness of sheep population in Benin based on the Mahalanobis distance computed by ascending hierarchical cluster analysis (AHC).
MPZ, Mekrou-Pendjari zone; CAZ, Chaîne Atacora zone; BNZ, Borgou-Nord zone; BSZ, Borgou-Sud zone; BZ, Bassila zone; CZ, Coastal zone; PoZ, Pobe zone; PlZ, Plateau zone; VOZ, Oueme Valley zone; ZZ, Zou zone.
Fig 5.
Multiple correspondence analysis of the qualitative physical traits of the sheep population of Benin.
MPZ, Mekrou-Pendjari zone; CAZ, Chaîne Atacora zone; BNZ, Borgou-Nord zone; BSZ, Borgou-Sud zone; BZ, Bassila zone; CZ, Coastal zone; PoZ, Pobe zone; PlZ, Plateau zone; VOZ, Oueme Valley zone; ZZ, Zou zone; ddr, Straight back; dcr, Dipped/curved back; ddvg, Back slopes up towards the rump; Z_pie, Pied-bald; fcca, Convex facial; fucca, Ultra-convex facial; fdro, Straight facial; O_tom, Dropped ear; O_dr, Erected ear; Ubl, Plain/Uniform white; C_dn, Spotted black; C_db, Spotted white; C_dm, dominant brown; plong, Long hair; pras, Short hair.