Mountain Goat

Mountain goat, scientific name as Oreamnos Americanus also known as Rocky Mountain goat, is a stocky North American ruminant of the family called Bovidae. 

In this section of Animals, we will know in detail about Mountain Goats and how they adapt themselves to their conditions. Also, we will know the types of goats and their species, know about their habitat, their physical structure and what they contribute to manhood. We will also strike some interesting facts on Mountain Goat which will surely amaze our readers. 

Mountain Goat: Scientific Classification

Mountain Goat: Description

Mountain goats climbing the steep cliffs in their own habitats that range from ocean shores to the glaciated mountain tops. They are agile goats and they are methodical climbers who have adapted their insecure footing of the snow-covered and icy cliffs, where the predators are loath to follow. On these cliffs, they readily turn on their pursuers, including humans.

Origin From Antelope Tribe

Mountain goats come under the goat antelope tribe, Rupicaprini of the bovidae family. These mountain goats have different and unusual appearances and behaviour, but they are close relatives of sheep and goats. 

Where Are They Found?

Mountain goats are found from the Yukon and Alaska to Utah, but they are mostly found in British Columbia. These mountain goats are restored to their former abundance in a few areas. They have also been introduced to some areas where they were merely native, like in Kodiak Island, the Olympic Peninsula of Washington, the Rocky Mountains in Colorado and the Black Hills of South. All occurred in the early postglacial times on Vancouver Island but it became extinct after recent restoration efforts miserably failed. 

Fluctuation Population of Mountain Goats

The population of Mountain goats fluctuates and they are very sensitive to human impacts. Consequently, they are also constantly being watched in order to ensure the timely application of corrective management strategies to revive their population. 

Mountain Goats Climbing the Rocky Mountains

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Mountain Goats are stocky climbers with their ever-muscular legs coupled with their broad hooves, the mountain goats stand about 1 metre (which is 39 inches) at the shoulder. 

Weight and Physical Features of Male and Female

Large males can weigh over 120 kg (that is 260 pounds), and females weigh about 60–90 kg (which is 130–200 pounds). Their hair is coarse, white, with shagginess over a thick, woolly underfur. They have beard frames with slender muzzles. The genders look alike. They are slightly backwards-curving, with black horns which are 5–25 cm (that is 2–10 inches) long. Unlike normal goats, these mountain goats do not butt their heads but instead, they stab each other with their own horns. The horns can cause severe injury, and for this, they are highly reluctant to fight. However, the males grow a very thick skin which acts as body armour against the attacks by their rivals or by females.

What Do They Eat?

To cover up their narrow preference for the mountain cliffs, the mountain goats eat a great variety of plants namely: grasses, herbs, foliage, lichens, twigs. They especially feed on alpine firs and other conifers. They excavate these plants at the timberline from beneath the deep snow. In the summertime when the animals are lactating (growing their new coats of hair) the mountain goats may reluctantly leave the security of their cliffs in order to supplement the nutrient intake with the visits to mineral their licks. Among other minerals, inorganic sulphur is also used by the goat’s rumen flora which helps to synthesize the rare amino acids cysteine and methionine which is essential to the goat’s hair growing during that time.  

At the Time of Reproduction

Female mountain goats live in small bands but they might become territorial in severe winter times, while the adult males are solitary. The courting males crawl to the females by making sounds like those of a baby goat. After which they mate in late November and in December time. After the mating season is over, the females may drive the males off their wintering ranges. A single kid (as it is rarely two) is born in the late spring after about 180 days of gestation and joins the nursery group within a week after their birth. 

Protective Mother Mountain Goats, Fighting for Their Babies

The adult female mountain goats after they give birth are very protective as mothers. In the wintertime, females with their young ones may become territorial and they also claim an area of favourable cliff habitat. After which they chase all other goats from their own territories and readily attack the hesitating males. Females are more likely to fight than done by male goats.

Wild Goat

The wild goat (scientific name as Capra aegagrus) is a species coming under ‘wild goat’. They inhabit forests and shrublands regions. You can also spot them inhabiting rocky areas that range from Turkey and the Caucasus in the west to Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and in Pakistan which is in the east. This species is near threatened on the IUCN Red List. Its ancestor is the goat. 

Types of Wild Goat

1. West Caucasiantur 

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(Scientific name as Capra caucasica) – Found in Caucasus Mountains Range.  

2. East Caucasiantur 

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Scientific Name – Capra Cylindricornis. They are found in the Greater Caucasus Mountains. 

3. Markhor

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Scientific Name - Capra falconeri

Found in - Central Asia, Karakoram and the Himalayas

4. Wild Goat

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Scientific Name - Capra aegagrus

Found In - Turkey and the Caucasus in the west to Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan

5. Domestic Goat

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Scientific Name - Capra (aegagrus) hircus

Found in - Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe

6. Siberian Ibex

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Scientific Name - Capra sibirica

Found in - central and northern Asia, Afghanistan, western and northern China (Primarily Xinjiang), north-western India, south-eastern Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, eastern Uzbekistan, Mongolia, Tajikistan, northern Pakistan, and south-central Russia.

7. Spanish Ibex

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Scientific Name - Capra pyrenaica

Found in - the Iberian Peninsula

8. Walia Ibex

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Scientific Name – Capra Walie

Found in – Ethiopia

9. Alpine Ibex

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Scientific Name – Capra Ibex 

Found in - France, Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Bavaria, Austria and Slovenia

10. Nubian Ibex

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Scientific Name – Capra Nubiana

Found In - Algeria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Yemen

Types of Mountain Goats

1. Alpine Goats

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The Alpine is generally characterised as a large goat that has been bred to be a profitable milk producer. They originated in the French Alps and they descend in any colour. Their own milk production makes them popular in the field of dairy and farming goats, and they are more often found in homesteads or on farms. They are not found in the wild mountains. Their milk is considered more nutritionally beneficial than the milk of a Saanen goat, which is the most popular among the milking goats.

2. Altai Goats

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The Altai goat is also a domestic goat but this animal was first bred in the Gorno-Altai Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, which is in the former Soviet Union where the local goats were bred with this Don goat. The Altai has a high wool yield with medium to small breeds. They are hardy in feature and they can resist the cold weather well. This helps them to survive the cold nights. The wool of Altai Goats can be black, dark brown, or grey in colour.

3. Booted Mountain Goat

The Booted Mountain goat, which is also known as Stiefelgeiss, is a very rare mountain goat breed. The study says that there are less than 1,000 of these breeds left now. They originate from the St. Gallen hills which are in Switzerland. The region is known for the snowfall, and these Booted Mountain goats have adapted to this cold weather with their long furry coat. 

4. Carpathian Goat

The Carpathian goat is also known as the Koza Karpacka, they hail down from the Carpathian Mountains of Eastern Europe - this is a region that includes the freezing hills of Slovakia, Ukraine, Poland and Romania. The goat is generally white in colour, although there are fawn and brown examples, as well. They have long hair which helps them to combat the cold weather, however, to note - this breed is in the red line of extinction. A program was initiated in 2005 to protect the remaining few dozen of this breed. 

5. Ciocara Grigios 

The Ciociara Grigia is actually a domestic goat. They are known to have originated in the area of Frosinone, this is a place near Lazio in Italy. In particular, they are a long-haired breed, with a name which translates - “Two Women Grey”, they are grey or silver-grey in colour texture. They are found with or without horns. These goats are raised for their milk production and meat. There are fewer than 700 of these species left in Italy currently.

6. Changra Goat 

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The Changra goat is popularly known as the Pashmina goat. They live in the ice desert of Changthang which is in Tibet and they are highly regarded for their beautifully soft fur. These goats thrive in temperatures that normally fall well below zero degrees. The Changra goat has developed a very long coat which is surprisingly supple for something so thick and protective against the cold weather. It has an undercoat with its hair which is eight times finer than a normal human hair.

7. Irish Mountain Goat

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The Irish Mountain goat is a domestic breed of goat. They are reared for both their meat and for their milk. They are considered to be an endangered animal that is believed to only exist as a feral population. Both the genders of this goat are horned and they have a bear. These goats may also have black, grey, or white coats. There was still a population of over 6,000 of this breed in the domestic stock in the year 1994, but now there are no such.

8. Mountain Goat

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The Rocky Mountain goat, which is popularly referred to as the mountain goat, is an alpine goat. They are exceptional goats who can climb and walk up steep faces. It is believed that they originally come from Tibet and Mongolia. The modern iteration of these goats now lives in the Rocky Mountains in the Cascade Range, as well as in various other locations of North America. They live in higher altitudes, they at times descend to sea level.

9. Pyrenean Goat

The Pyrenean goat got extinct in the year 2000. These goats lived in the Pyrenean, despite efforts to clone the last example of the Pyrenean goat, which remains extinct. In the year 2003, the scientists used the frozen skin from the last Pyrenean goat with which they created a cloned calf. The calf lived for a few minutes but then it died just after its birth. The Pyrenean goat is also called Pyrenean ibex or by the Spanish name, called bucardo.

10. Sempione Goat

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The Sempione goat was found in the mountains of Piemonte, which is located in Italy. They have, on several occasions, been classified as extinct, but there are currently reports that there are between four and 30 examples of the breed who are still alive. This goat was bred for its meat but was only a medium to smaller breed. They have white or cream wool for both genders. 

11. Syrian Jabali Goat

The Syrian Jabali goat comes down from the Jabali mountains of Syria. They are raised by domestic goats, which are black, and both sexes are horned. The Jabali goat is a very hardy animal that has been bred primarily for its own milk. Locals use this milk to drink and also to process the same into ghee and other dairy products. The goat is also used for meat, and they are left to natural graze for most of the year, with only limited supplementation during the cold months.

12. Xinjiang Goat

This breed of goat is bred in the Xinjiang mountains of China. These goats are considered a good source of wool called - cashmere wool. These goods are also bred for meat and for milk production, this makes them multifunctional. Most of these goats are white in colour, although they can find black or brown examples of this goat. Both the genders of this goat are horned, and this goat is considered a hardy breed.

13. Yemen Mountain Goat

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Yemen Mountain goats are generally black in colour and are found in the northern Yemen mountains. The cold conditions have led the goat to breed, developing a long coat of warm fur. The goat was raised for its fur, but also for its milk and for its nutritional meat production.

White Mountain Goat

They are mountain goats who have distinctive beards and have long, and warm coats to protect them from the cold temperatures and from the biting mountain winds. Their dazzling white coats provide a good camouflage to help them in the snowy heights. During the more moderate summer season, white mountain goats shed this coat.

Taxonomy

• West Caucasian Tur (Capra caucasica)

• East Caucasian Tur (Capra cylindricornis)

• Markhor (Capra falconeri)

• Alpine Ibex (Capra ibex)

• Nubian Ibex (Capra nubiana)

• Spanish Ibex (Capra pyrenaica)

• Siberian Ibex (Capra sibirica)

• Walia Ibex (Capra walie)

• Wild Goat (Capra aegagrus)

• Domestic Goat (Capra aegagrus hircus; this includes feral goat)

• Bezoar Ibex (Capra aegagrus aegagrus)

Did You Know?

• Both the males and females have sharp and pointed horns which range from 9 to 12 inches.

• The Mountain goats are equipped with hard hooves with flexible pads for traction on the rocky cliffs.

• Males are about 3.5 feet tall - 5.5 feet long.

• The Mountain goats range from Alaska through the Canada of the US Rocky Mountains.

• Mountain goats can also jump from 12 feet in one leap.

• Mountain goats generally live in alpine and subalpine environments.

• Mountain goats are the largest mammal in high-altitude environments.

• A mountain goats' white coat has a double layer that sheds in the summer season while the same provides warmth in the winter.

• Approximately there are 100,000 mountain goats situated in North America.

• Male mountain goats are called billies. Females are called nannies. While babies are called kids.

• Nannies give birth to one, or maybe two, kids each spring.

As studied already, some of the types of mountain goats are on the verge of extinction. Hence, extra care is to be taken by locals so that they do not lose other breeds. Mountain Goats generally help human beings by giving nutritional milk, meat and fur coats which protects us from cold weather. This has to be noted that all animals are important to keep the lifecycle going on. Hence, there should be other strict measures initiated to save the mountain goats.