Card #015 · Mammals
Markhor
Capra falconeri
Uncommon NT · Near Threatened
Field notes
- Classification
- Order Artiodactyla · Family Bovidae
- Range
- Central and South Asia
- Size
- 65–115 cm (26–45 in) at shoulder
- Weight
- 32–110 kg (71–243 lb)
- Lifespan
- ~12 yrs
- Diet
- Grasses, leaves, shoots
Most Notable
Listed Endangered until 2015. Community conservancies in Pakistan, funded by a few tightly capped permits for males past breeding age, gave villages a reason to guard the herds, and the numbers climbed.
The spiral is the point. A big male's horns run to 160 cm along the twist, just over five feet, the longest carried by any wild goat; a female's rarely pass 25 cm. They are also what nearly finished the species, and what now pays to protect it. Under 6,000 mature animals are left.
It is the national animal of Pakistan, which holds most of what remains.
Markhor work a vertical range from about 600 m to 3,600 m, grazing grass in spring and summer and switching to browsing branches and shrubs once the snow closes in.
The recovery is real but narrow. Habitat loss, competition with domestic goats and sheep for winter forage, and poaching outside the managed conservancies all continue.
Range: Mountains of Central and South Asia.