40 Fun Facts About Markhor

The name of the plant-eating markhor comes from two Persian words usually translated as what?

Snake eater is the usual reading of the Persian mar and khor, though the markhor eats only plants. Folklore held that it killed serpents; others think the name describes its coiling horns.

In 2018 a leaping markhor was unveiled as the new brand symbol of which Pakistani organisation?

The national airline, PIA, put the markhor on its aircraft tails so travellers abroad would recognise it. Pakistan's Supreme Court barred the logo, and new management dropped the rebrand.

Which future US president's younger brother Elliott wrote of shooting two markhor on an 1881 hunt?

Theodore Roosevelt's brother Elliott shot his first markhor on 8 July 1881 and a second on 1 August. Hunters in British India rated the animal among the hardest game because of the dangerous mountain stalking.

Allahyar and the Legend of Markhor was the first feature film made entirely with which video game software?

Unreal Engine, software built for video games, rendered the whole 2018 film. Its story of a boy and a markhor named Mehru carries a message against the illegal hunting of wildlife.

Which big cat, named Pakistan's national predator, is among the main hunters of the markhor?

Snow leopard and markhor share the same crags, and the cat counts the goat among its preferred wild prey. Markhor rely on keen eyesight and smell, and bolt at the first sign of danger.

The markhor, Pakistan's national animal, is also known in that country by which nickname?

Screw-horned goat fits: both sexes carry tightly spiralled horns, and a big male's can reach 160 cm, longer than the animal stands tall at the shoulder.

In winter, when markhor switch from grazing to browsing, how do they reach high branches?

By standing on hind legs, a markhor can strip twigs and leaves well above its head. Its menu follows the seasons: grass through spring and summer, woody browse once the cold sets in.

Which world body voted in 2024 to make 24 May the annual International Day of the Markhor?

The UN General Assembly adopted the resolution on 2 May 2024, sponsored by Pakistan and eight other countries, and the first Markhor Day was marked just three weeks later.

Which Turkish goat breed, the source of mohair, has been regarded by some as a markhor descendant?

Angora goats, shorn twice a year for their lustrous ringlets, were once claimed as direct descendants of the Central Asian markhor. The breed's true origin is still unknown.

In the buz-baz tradition of northern Afghanistan, a carved wooden markhor is performed as what?

A string puppet of the markhor dances in buz-baz: the cord runs to the player's wrist, so the goat jumps in time while he plays a dambura.

Born in a shallow earthen hollow and walking soon after birth, a baby markhor is called what?

Kid is the word, as for any young goat. A markhor mother usually bears one or two after a pregnancy of 135 to 170 days, and suckles them for five or six months.

Which bird of prey has been reported to take young markhor from the mountainside?

Golden eagle attacks on young markhor are rare but on record. Fully grown animals face four-legged hunters instead: wolves, brown bears and wild cats.

Outside the winter mating season, how do fully grown male markhor spend most of their time?

On their own is the rule: herds of about nine are adult females and their young, and males join only for the rut, when rivals lunge, lock horns and try to shove each other off balance.

As a ruminant, the markhor brings swallowed food back up from its stomach to do what?

Chew it a second time: like every member of its genus, the markhor chews the cud and has a four-chambered stomach, which lets it live on tough mountain grass and twigs.

Which mountain range, home to K2, is named alongside the Himalayas as a stronghold of the markhor?

Karakoram slopes suit the markhor, which lives between 600 and 3,600 metres in open oak and pine forest rather than on the bare summits.

Markhor in northern Pakistan live mainly along the Kunar River and which far longer river?

Indus valleys hold markhor on both banks, from Kohistan upstream into Baltistan, in many small pockets cut off from one another.

Pakistan's costly markhor hunting licences allow foreign hunters to shoot only which animals?

Old ones past breeding are the only legal targets, so a hunt removes no future parents. Hunting markhor is banned outright in Afghanistan and India.

Under Pakistan's markhor trophy hunting scheme, who receives 80 percent of each licence fee?

Local communities get the money as an incentive to protect the herds, while the government keeps the remaining fifth.

The Changthangi goat of Ladakh, which may derive from the markhor, yields which prized fibre?

Pashmina is the fine undercoat these goats grow against the bitter cold of the Ladakh plateau. It is woven into Kashmir's famous shawls.

The Girgentana goat, long linked to the markhor by its tall spiral horns, comes from which island?

Sicily's Girgentana takes its name from Girgenti, the old name of Agrigento. The likeness is only skin-deep: its horns spiral the opposite way to a markhor's.

Before it recovered and was moved to Near Threatened, the markhor held which Red List rank?

Endangered was the markhor's rank until the reassessment, which skipped the Vulnerable step altogether as protected herds grew.

Which wildlife trade treaty has listed the markhor in its strictest Appendix I since 1992?

CITES keeps Appendix I for species threatened with extinction and allows no commercial trade in wild specimens. Markhor horns are prized both as trophies and in the Asian medicine market.

The markhor shares which genus with the turs of the Caucasus and the ordinary farmyard goat?

Capra holds ten species, the markhor and the farmyard goat among them. In captivity all of them can interbreed and produce fertile young.

Along with cattle, sheep and antelopes, the markhor belongs to which family of hoofed mammals?

Bovidae takes in the gazelles as well. Within it the markhor is a caprine, in the subfamily of goats and sheep, and like other wild goats it can climb bare rock and survive on sparse plants.

The straight-horned markhor, one of three subspecies, is also named after which Asian capital?

Kabul markhor once survived in the gorge near the city. Heavy poaching has since driven them into the most inaccessible mountains of two Afghan provinces.

A genetic study of zoo markhor found over a third carried mitochondrial DNA from which animals?

Domestic goats had left their mark on 35.7% of the markhor tested, proof that the two can crossbreed. In the wild they are rivals, competing for the same forage.

Which short-tailed wild cat is listed with wolves and brown bears among the markhor's main predators?

Eurasian lynx were filmed hunting markhor in Pakistan for the first time in 2020. In exposed country markhor stay on high alert, quick to spot a hunter and flee.

Which feature marks out an adult male markhor from the redder, shorter-haired female?

A shaggy throat mane hangs from a male's chin, neck and chest. Females have horns too, though only about 25 cm long, and a short black beard.

In summer, male markhor stay in the forest, but where do the females generally spend the season?

The highest rocky ridges, above the forest, are the females' summer home. In spring they keep close to cliffs, which shield their newborn young from predators.

Markhor forage for up to 14 hours a day, but when are they mainly active?

Early and late in the day: markhor are daytime animals, busiest in the early morning and again in the late afternoon, with a rest between to digest.

The markhor was once proposed as an ancestor of farm goats; which wild animal is the accepted source?

Bezoar ibex were tamed about 10,000 years ago in what is now Iran, which makes the goat one of the oldest farm animals of all.

Rare Sulaiman markhor survive in Hazarganji-Chiltan National Park, on the outskirts of which city?

Quetta lies about 20 km from the park, whose name means 'of a thousand treasures' after an old route through the mountains. It was founded in 1980 to save the Chiltan wild goat.

After a winter rut and a pregnancy of about five months, markhor young are usually born in which months?

May and June are the usual birth months. Mothers approach their newborns with a distinctive nasal call, and the young stay beside them until the next mating season.

Which Central Asian country is home to the two Dashtijum reserves, set aside for its Bukharan markhor?

Tajikistan's Dashtijum reserves protect the markhor on paper, but weak enforcement left poaching common. Village conservancies, begun after a visiting hunter talked a villager out of poaching, have done better.

In India, wild markhor survive only in part of which mountain range in Jammu and Kashmir?

Pir Panjal slopes hold India's scattered herds, from east of the Banihal Pass to the disputed border. The species is fully protected there, yet is still poached for meat and horns.

The flare-horned markhor is better known by the name of which district of Gilgit-Baltistan?

Astor markhor carry large, flat horns that branch widely and then rise nearly straight with only a half turn. A 2024–25 survey counted 693 of them in Astore district alone.

The markhor's species name honours which Scottish fossil hunter who ran a botanical garden in India?

Hugh Falconer ran the Saharanpur botanical garden and dug fossil mammals out of the Siwalik Hills. The German zoologist Johann Andreas Wagner named the goat for him in 1839.

When winter arrives in the mountains, where do most markhor move in search of forage?

To lower elevations, where conditions are milder. The move has a cost: winter, with the herds down from the heights, is when people hunt markhor most heavily.

Grazing markhor play a part in their mountain ecosystem by helping to disperse what?

Seeds of the wild grasses that markhor eat are spread as the herds move. The goats matter as prey too, feeding the large hunters of the high ranges.

Like other goats, the markhor scans for predators through pupils of which shape?

Horizontal slits give a goat a wide field of view on either side for spotting danger, while sparing its eyes the glare of sunlight from above.