The habitat of the horned goat is the mountains of Central Asia. But even the difficult accessibility of this region does not save them from destruction. Poachers are interested not only in nutritious valuable meat, but also in the spectacular one and a half meter horns of animals. Therefore, the species is endangered - there are only about two and a half thousand specimens of ibex in the wild.
What does a horned goat look like?
Also known as markhor, the species name in Latin Capra falconeri was given in honor of the Scottish botanist Hugh Falconer, and was first described only in 1839.This species of bovid artiodactyls is quite large in size: 150-170 centimeters in length, and the height of the withers of males is up to a meter. Their weight is about 80-90 kilograms, females are almost twice as light. The color of young animals is reddish-gray, while older males have dirty white fur. Goats have a thick, long beard, and on the chest and neck there is a thick dewlap of elongated wool, which becomes especially lush in the cold winter.
The head is slightly hooked. The horns have the shape of a corkscrew - each is twisted around a straight axis. In goats, they sometimes exceed one and a half meters in length, having 2-3 turns. At the base, the horns are close together, and then deviate back and diverge to the sides. The boundaries of annual segments appear on the surface. Winkhorn goats have small horns - no more than 30 centimeters. They are curled like those of males, but less flat.
Based on slight differences in color and degree of curl of the horns, up to six subspecies of horned goats are distinguished. Their habitats are quite separated from each other geographically. It is believed that horned mountain goats are one of the ancestors of domestic goats.
Where does this animal live?
Small populations of hornbill species of goats are observed in mountain areas of northwestern India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. It is believed that one of the largest populations of artiodactyls live in natural conditions on the slopes of the Kugitang ridge, in the eastern regions of Turkmenistan.There are fewer of them in Uzbekistan, at the sources of the Amu Darya River, in the area between the Vakhshcha and Pyanj rivers in the southwestern region of Tajikistan.
Place of residence
Horn goats most often settle on the slopes of rocks, where areas with grass and sparse shrubs remain. In summer, most of them do not rise above 2500 meters from sea level, but some males reach the upper boundaries of alpine meadows and the beginning of the snow belt. In the winter cold, marking goats descend to places where there is less snow cover - into mountain belts at an altitude of 500-900 meters, sometimes coming close to human settlements.
Lifestyle
Horn goats live in small groups. Usually these are two or three queens with cubs up to two years old. Thick-horned males, as a rule, form their own small “companies” of several heads or lead a solitary life.
Animals gather in larger herds of 10-20 individuals during the autumn period and during cold winter months. At the same time, the high-ranking ones are located in the center of the group, and the weak, sick, and other low-ranking ones are on its periphery. Adult goats in such herds make up only 6-10% of the total number, since they die more often. In the autumn, the grown-up two-year-old young marking goats leave their mothers and begin an independent life.
In summer, markhors go out to graze early in the morning and at dusk, when the heat subsides. In winter, they spend almost the entire day searching for food. Horn goats are vigilant and careful: they often raise their heads even while grazing, inspecting the surroundings. Noticing the danger, they shout sharply and stomp their feet hard. This is a signal to others to be on guard.If the detected source of threat - a predatory animal or a person - is far away and clearly visible, the herd remains in place, keeping an eye on it. As soon as he is out of sight, the animals quickly move to a safer place, usually to the nearest rocky slope.
Under natural conditions, horned goats rarely live longer than 10 years. This is not the age of their old age - they more often die from predators, avalanches or not surviving cold winters. In captivity, their lifespan is extended to 15-19 years.
Animal nutrition
In summer, the basis of the goat's diet consists of herbaceous plants - rhubarb, desert sedge, ziziphora, bluegrass, and prangos. Young shoots of cereal crops are a special delicacy for them, but foliage and thin branches of bushes and trees are also eaten. In winter, animals find the remains of dried grass, eat shoots and branches of honeysuckle, rowan, willow, almond, aspen, maple, and various small shrubs.
If there is plenty of succulent grass, this may be enough for the horned goats to quench their thirst for some time. Usually they look for a permanent place for watering - a river, stream, pond formed by melted snow or rain. In cool times of the day, animals visit it twice - early in the morning and at the beginning of the night; in hot weather they additionally come at noon.
Reproduction of horned goats
Young goats are ready to reproduce at the age of three. Horned males become sexually active two years after birth. The rut begins in November and lasts until early January.It is accompanied by the release of a large amount of hormones into the blood, so in search of free females, goats constantly engage in fierce fights with each other: they dig the ground with their hooves, stand on their hind legs, take a running start, and hit their foreheads or the base of their horns.
As a rule, they do not cause serious damage to each other, but they lose a lot of strength and by the middle of winter they lose a lot of weight. During estrus, horned females remain calm and do not lose weight.
Typically, a horned goat forms a harem of several goats. Pregnancy lasts a little longer than five months. In May, first kittens often give birth to one kid, and multiparous kittens – two kids. For the first day, the cub is at a rookery in a secluded gorge, which the mother finds in advance for lambing, and from the second day of life it follows her to the nearest pasture, already from the age of a week trying green food. The mother feeds the offspring until the autumn months, but the kids remain next to her for another couple of years.
An interesting fact: even after leaving the herd, young mature goats cannot always immediately begin breeding, driven away from the females by older males. Sometimes marking goats have to spend several years alone, gaining strength.
Status and position of the species
The catch of the horned goat, which masterfully moves along hard-to-reach rocks, has always been proof of the high degree of skill of the hunter. The animal is not only of gastronomic interest; its beautiful large horns are also a valuable trophy. Since their owners are large and strong males, the main producers of the herd are destroyed.
Human economic activity also contributes to the reduction in the number of markhor goats: they are being forced out of convenient pastures by sheep flocks, so now small populations of markhors are preserved only in the most inaccessible rocky areas and in protected reserves. Since the horned goat species is threatened with complete destruction in the wild, it is included in the Red Book and a special Appendix to the Convention on International Trade.
The experience of enclosure breeding has proven the success of such breeding of horned goats. Their fourth generation is already living in a number of zoos.
