Wild Goat

Wild Goat 

(in Russian, bezoarovyi kozel), bearded goat (Capra hircus aegagrus), an Artiodactyl animal of the horned family. The body length of mature adults measures up to 1.5 m, and they weigh up to 80 kg. The males have large saber-shaped curved horns up to 130 cm long and 25 cm in circumference. The wool is rusty and grayish toned, with separate parts being dark and blackish. Wild goats are found on certain islands of the Greek archipelago and in Asia Minor, Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. In the USSR they are distributed in Dagestan, Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Southern Turkmenia (Kopetdag, Bol’shoi Balkhan, Malyi Balkhan). They inhabit the inaccessible cliff slopes of gorges and ravines. In the Caucasus they are normally near the upper limit of the forest zone. Occasionally in the summer they climb high into the mountains, going up to the snow line. Wild goats are polygamous herd animals. Except during the mating season, mature males remain alone. The goats feed on grass and shrub plants. Two kids, and more rarely one, are born at the end of April or in May In a short while the young follow the females into the most inaccessible areas. In many places the goats have been destroyed; in the USSR they are protected. The wild goat is one of the ancestors of the domestic goat.

REFERENCE

Mlekopitaiushchie Sovetskogo Soiuza, vol. 1. Edited by V. G. Geptner and N. P. Naumov. Moscow, 1961.