Capricorn (animal): description and photo

The ancestors of domestic goats were bold conquerors of impassable rocks - mountain goats. What are they remarkable about, where they live and what they eat? Information about them will be presented in this article.

General information

Capricorn is an animal that is a subspecies of the genus of wild goats of the mountains, with distinctive horns in the form of sabers. Externally, Capricorns are very similar to tours.

First of all, this species includes ibex (very rare ibex), living on mountain ridges (between Piedmont and Savoy).

The Nubian mountain goat as well as the Siberian and Pyrenean goats belong to the subspecies under consideration. In nature, the number of Capricorns is quite large, and when crossed with other species, they give excellent offspring.

Below, we will describe Ibex (Capricorn), a mountain goat and Alpine goat (a family of cloven-hoofed animals) from the genus of mountain goats.

From the history of unique ibexes

In ancient times Ibeks was the object of mystification, therefore all its parts of the body, consumed in food and not only (from blood and hair to excrement, etc.), were used in alternative medicine as a means to cure all kinds of diseases. All this led to the fact that the goats ibexes in Europe almost died out. At the beginning of the 19th century, the number of these species in the whole Alpine region totaled a little over 100 individuals, and they were preserved only in the Gran Paradiso (Italy).

J. Zumstein (forester) and A. Girtanner (natural scientist) in 1816 could convince the authorities to save the remaining Capricorns in this Italian region. And in 1854, even the King of Sardinia and Piedmont, Victor Emmanuel II, took these amazing phenomenal animals for personal protection.

Thanks to all these implemented programs (settlement of the Alpine mountains by ibexami), the mountain goat (photo above) resides in many territories of its original range. Existing for today individuals (ibex) originated from the very 100 animals that lived in Italy.

V. Emmanuel II refused Switzerland to sell Ibex, so the first such animals were smuggled into Switzerland only in 1906. The population of these goats is quite numerous today. And since 1977 they even allowed their shooting (though controlled).

In total, in the Alps, the number of Ibexes is about 30-40 thousand animals. Now they are common in the mountains of Italy, Switzerland, Austria, France, Slovenia and Germany. The presence of such animals is quite beneficial for the prosperity of the resorts of the Alps, as they attract a large number of tourists from all over the world.

Mountain goat: photo, description

Mountain goats are a genus of cloven-hoofed animals (the family of peduncles). All their types, on the one hand, have common features, but on the other, they are quite variable. In connection with this, so far, scientists can not determine the exact number of breeds of these animals that exist in nature. Their number, according to different opinions, varies from 2-3 with a large number of subspecies and up to 9-10 species.

In addition, mountain goats are closely related to mountain rams, which have many similar features. Their distant relatives are chamois and gorals, as well as snow goats.

The sizes of mountain goats are medium: length - 120-180 cm; At the withers the height reaches 100 centimeters; Weight - up to 60 kilograms in small species (females) and up to 155 kilograms - in goats of the largest species.

Outwardly they appear slim and graceful animals, despite the fact that their legs are not very long and the body is firmly built. Their main distinguishing feature is the horns, which in males resemble sabers (up to 1 meter long), while females have short daggers (length about 18 cm). Young animals are distinguished by horns curved in a graceful arc. Old males have swirled horns in the form of a spiral.

There are also mountain goats on the horns (on the front surface) transverse thickenings, they are expressed in different species in varying degrees.

Spread

Capricorn - an animal that lives in the Alps on the border between the forest and glaciers at high altitudes (3,500 meters). In winter, it usually lives in low places, but in summer it can also go down to the alpine meadows in search of food. Spends the night in the mountains.

In the rocky highlands these artiodactyls are safe. They are able to swiftly sweep along stony screes, it is easy to jump over rocky crevices, climb high on steep and steep rocks and cliffs. Quite fast and constant movement is simply the ordinary way of life of these unique animals.

Ibex description

Ибексы is the most unusual mountain kind of goats. These are great climbers. It is amazing how they fearlessly and masterfully climb the rocks. They live in the most difficult mountainous areas of the Alps, as noted above, at high altitudes.

The length of the ibex on average reaches 150 cm, and their growth at the withers is approximately 90 cm. The female weighs 40 kg and the male weighs up to 100 kg. Male ibex, as well as other species, is a goat with large curved horns (length up to 1 meter). Female have short, slightly curved horns.

The beards are in both sexes. Summer coloring of the male's fur is dark brown, in females it is reddish with a golden hue. In winter, the wool of all ibex gray.

Food

Capricorn is an animal that feeds on a variety of plants. They give preference to alpine grasses - bluegrass and fescue, but if necessary they can eat branches of bushes and trees, lichens and mosses.

In general, mountain goats are very unpretentious and can eat even poisonous plants and dry grass. These animals have a strong need for salt, which is why they go to solonetses at any opportunity, crossing distances of up to 15-20 kilometers.

About value

Since ancient times, people hunted mountain goats, because the horns of a large male represented a very valuable trophy. Detecting this deft and cautious animal is quite difficult. In addition to the horns, people from them also had other practical benefits: skins were used to make clothes and shoes, and the meat of these animals was a very tasty and easily digestible product. In cooking, fat was used, and for healing purposes - spools of wool, undigested in the stomach (bezoar).

Such useful qualities of animals led to their domestication. Thanks to them in the world now there are a huge variety of breeds of domestic goats (down, meat and dairy).

Now the mountain goat (Capricorn) is an animal that can be found in different zoos due to its simple taming. Capricorns perfectly tolerate captivity and quite easily multiply.

Conclusion

Although a goat with big horns in the notion of many is a symbol of the unclean, often devilish (in comparison with the meek sheep), in fact these animals are very intelligent and even give in to training (and sheep - on the contrary).

Such an important role is played by mountain goats in the life of the peoples of the Mediterranean and Asia. And this circumstance was reflected in the name of one of the constellations of the Zodiac - Capricorn.