Markhor

• Context (DTE): The UN declared May 24 as the ‘International Day of the Markhor’.

About Markhor (Capra falconeri)

• The Markhor (Capra falconeri), also known as screw horn goat, is the largest wild goat in the world. It is the national animal of Pakistan.
• Distribution: It ranges over the north-western parts of the Hindu Kush Himalayas, in Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.
  • In India, the subspecies is found only in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K).
• Habitat: They are adapted to mountainous terrain between 600 m and 3600 m elevation and are strongly associated with scrub forests dominated by oaks, pines, and junipers.
• Physical description: The coat is of light brown to black colour and is smooth and short in summer while growing longer and thicker in winter. Both sexes posses extremely bold, flared, corkscrew-like horns which twist outwards.
• They are skilled climbers and can scale steep rocky terrain to escape predators such as snow leopards and wolves.
• Conservation Status: IUCN: Near Threatened | WPA, 1972: Schedule I | CITES: Appendix I
• Threats: Illegal hunting, poaching, habitat loss, climate change.