| Region and Peoples | Primary Animals | Features |
| Inner Eurasian steppes (Xiongnu, Yuezhi, Turks, Uighurs, Mongols, Huns, Kipchaks)1 | Horses; also sheep, goats, cattle, Bactrian (two-humped) camel | Domestication of horse by 4000 B.C.E.; horseback riding by 1000 B.C.E.; site of largest pastoral empires |
| Southwestern and Central Asia (Seljuks, Ghaznavids, Mongol il-khans, Uzbeks, Ottomans) | Sheep and goats; used horses, camels, and donkeys for transport | Close economic relationship with neighboring towns; pastoralists provided meat, wool, milk products, and hides in exchange for grain and manufactured goods |
| Arabian and Saharan deserts (Bedouin Arabs, Berbers, Tuareg) | Dromedary (one-humped) camel; sometimes sheep | Camel caravans made possible long-distance trade; camel-mounted warriors central to early Arab/Islamic expansion |
| Grasslands of sub-Saharan Africa (Fulbe, Nuer, Turkana, Masai) | Cattle; also sheep and goats | Cattle were a chief form of wealth and central to ritual life; little interaction with wider world until nineteenth century |
| Subarctic Scandinavia, Russia (Sami, Nenets) | Reindeer | Reindeer domesticated only since 1500 C.E.; many also fished |
| Tibetan plateau (Tibetans) | Yaks; also sheep, cashmere goats, some cattle | Tibetans supplied yaks as baggage animals for overland caravan trade; exchanged wool, skins, and milk with valley villagers and received barley in return |
| Andean Mountains | Llamas and alpacas | Andean pastoralists in a few places relied on their herds for a majority of their subsistence, supplemented with horticulture and hunting |