Goat

True Wild Life | Goat | Goats originated from the mountainous areas of west Asia and eastern Europe, grazing on hillsides and plains. Modern day common goats are known as domesticated goats and are thought to be very closely related to a sheep. For thousands of years goats have been used for their meat, hair, milk and skins. In some countries goats are also used to help with carrying heavy loads.

One of the rarer species of goat is the fainting goat from Tennessee in the United States. These goats literally freeze up, the goats legs go rigid and the goat falls over. The goat will soon get back up and continue grazing until it happens again. Most species of male goats naturally have two horns on the top of their head. The horns of the goat are made out of the substance keratin, from which human fingernails are also made. The male goats mainly use their horns to defend themselves from other dominant male goats and from unwanted predators. Some species of goat also have females that have two horns on the tops of their heads.

Goats are typically found in more barren landscapes and many species of goat tend to prefer mountainous and rocky terrains. The goats that inhabit the mountainous cliff faces are amazingly agile and are able to hold their hold well on small ledges and are very adept at jumping and running around on them. The goat is natural prey to many predators which include leopards, tigers, large reptiles and most commonly humans. Today the goat is also found in parts of South America where the goats are farmed and hunted for their meat and skins.

The goat is most closely related to the sheep and there are many similarities between the two species as well as a number of differences which include the tail length of the goat which is noticeably longer than the tail of the sheep.

Chamois

True Wild Life | Chamois | The chamois is a large sized mountain goat, native to the European mountains. Today, the range of the chamois includes Romania, Italy, Switzerland, Austria and parts of Turkey. The chamois has also been introduced to the mountainous regions of New Zealand's South Island. The chamois is a member of the Bovidae family of animals which includes sheep goats and even antelope. The average sized adult chamois stands at around 75cm high and weighs roughly 50 kg. The chamois is a relatively stocky looking animal, especially when compared to the average farm yard goat.

The chamois has short horns, that curve backwards on both the male chamois and the female chamois. The fur of the chamois is thick to keep it warm in the alpine winters, and turns from a deep brown colour in the summer to a grey colour in the winter. The chamois also has a white coloured face with black markings below the eyes. The chamois has a black stripe that runs along it's back from neck to rump. The male chamois is generally a very solitary animal, as the male chamois spends most of the year grazing alone and meets with female chamois during the mating season. The female chamois however, live in herds with other females and their young. This safety in numbers approach helps the female chamois and the offspring to protect one another.

As with other animals of the same group, such as sheep and goats, the chamois is a herbivorous animal feeding on a purely plant based diet. The chamois spends it time grazing on the alpine meadows and munching leaves from the shrubs and bushes. In it's natural European habitat, the chamois has a number of predators including wolves, foxes and wildcats. Over the years, the human has been one of the biggest predators of the chamois as they are hunted for their meat. Before human settlers moved into the European mountains, the chamois would have also had much larger predators such as bears and leopards but both are nearly (if not) extinct in Europe today. There are no natural predators of the chamois in it's introduced environment in New Zealand.

The mating season of the chamois occurs in the late winter to early spring. After a gestation period of between 5 and 6 months, the female chamois will give birth to a single chamois baby known as a chamois calf. Although the chamois has been known to give birth to twins, it is very rare. The mother chamois nurses her calf, feeding it milk until it is able to graze. The chamois calf is more independent at 6 months of age but the chamois calf tends to stay with it's mother until it is at least a year old. Generally, the chamois lives to between 18 and 22 years.

Despite the fact that the chamois is not considered to be an endangered animal, or even an animal that is under threat from extinction, European laws prohibits the hunting of the chamois in order to try and conserve native mountainous animal species.

Markhor

True Wild Life | Markhor | The markhor is an endangered species of wild goat that is natively found in the mountainous regions of western and central and Asia. The markhor is thought to have been named using the Persian word for snake, either because of the large coiled horns of the markhor or due to it's ability to kill snakes in the wild, although the exact reason is unknown. The markhor is found in northeastern Afghanistan, Gilgit-Baltistan, Hunza-Nagar Valley, northern and central Pakistan and the disputed territory of Kashmir, southern Tajikistan and southern Uzbekistan. The markhor is most commonly found inhabiting the high-altitude monsoon forests that litter these areas.

The markhor is a very distinctive species of wild goat, easily identified by it's long, white winter hair and the enormous spiralled horns that can grow to more than 1.5 meters in length on the males. The horns of the females are, although still large for goats, generally less than 50cm in length. Markhor are well adapted to mountainous terrain, and can be found between 600-3,600 meters in elevation. They typically inhabit scrub forests made up primarily of oaks , pines, and junipers where there is plenty for the markhor to eat. Markhor are also diurnal animals, meaning that they are mainly active in the early morning and late afternoon.

The markhor is a herbivorous animal that primarily grazes on a variety of vegetation including grasses, leaves, herbs, fruits and flowers. Like other wild goats, the markhor play a valuable role within their eco-system as they munch the leaves from the low-lying trees and scrub, spreading the seeds in their dung. Despite living almost on a cliff-edge, there are actually a number of animals that prey on these incredibly majestic creatures. Packs of wolves and wild cats such as lynxes snow leopards are the main predators of the markhor, along with humans who have deforested much of their natural habitat.

The markhor breeds in the winter when, after a gestation period that lasts for up to 170 days, usually one and occasionally two markhor babies (known as kids) are born. The markhor kids remain safe and looked after by their mother until they are able to eat solid food and become more and more independent. Today, despite being the national animal of Pakistan, the markhor is considered to be an endangered species with less than 2,500 individuals thought to be left in a few remote areas of the Asian mountains. The decline in markhor population numbers in mainly due to deforestation resulting in the loss of their native habitats.