Markhor
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40 free Markhor trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The markhor looks as if it was designed for a coat of arms: a wild mountain goat with horns twisted like a pair of giant drill bits. It is the national animal of Pakistan, it lives on cliffs that would stop most hikers, and it came close to disappearing before an unusual conservation scheme brought it back. These questions gather the fun facts people look for most: what the name means, how the animal feeds and raises its young, what preys on it, where its herds live from Central Asia to Kashmir, and how it turns up in films, folklore and brand logos. The quiz suits animal lovers, students working on a wildlife project and anyone who has just met the markhor in a documentary. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you finish knowing more than when you started.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The name of the plant-eating markhor comes from two Persian words usually translated as what?
Snake eater
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.
Q 02In 2018 a leaping markhor was unveiled as the new brand symbol of which Pakistani organisation?
The national airline
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.
Q 03Which future US president's younger brother Elliott wrote of shooting two markhor on an 1881 hunt?
Theodore Roosevelt
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.
Q 04Allahyar and the Legend of Markhor was the first feature film made entirely with which video game software?
Unreal Engine
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.
Q 05Which big cat, named Pakistan's national predator, is among the main hunters of the markhor?
Snow leopard
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.
Q 06The markhor, Pakistan's national animal, is also known in that country by which nickname?
Screw-horned goat
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.
Q 07In winter, when markhor switch from grazing to browsing, how do they reach high branches?
By standing on hind legs
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.
Q 08Which world body voted in 2024 to make 24 May the annual International Day of the Markhor?
UN General Assembly
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.
Q 09Which Turkish goat breed, the source of mohair, has been regarded by some as a markhor descendant?
Angora
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.
Q 10In the buz-baz tradition of northern Afghanistan, a carved wooden markhor is performed as what?
A string puppet
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.
Q 11Born in a shallow earthen hollow and walking soon after birth, a baby markhor is called what?
Kid
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.
Q 12Which bird of prey has been reported to take young markhor from the mountainside?
Golden eagle
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.
Q 13Outside the winter mating season, how do fully grown male markhor spend most of their time?
On their own
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.
Q 21Before it recovered and was moved to Near Threatened, the markhor held which Red List rank?
Endangered
Endangered was the markhor's rank until the reassessment, which skipped the Vulnerable step altogether as protected herds grew.
Q 22Which wildlife trade treaty has listed the markhor in its strictest Appendix I since 1992?
CITES
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.
Q 23The markhor shares which genus with the turs of the Caucasus and the ordinary farmyard goat?
Capra
Capra holds ten species, the markhor and the farmyard goat among them. In captivity all of them can interbreed and produce fertile young.
Q 14As a ruminant, the markhor brings swallowed food back up from its stomach to do what?
Chew it a second time
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.
Q 15Which mountain range, home to K2, is named alongside the Himalayas as a stronghold of the markhor?
Karakoram
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.
Q 16Markhor in northern Pakistan live mainly along the Kunar River and which far longer river?
Indus
Indus valleys hold markhor on both banks, from Kohistan upstream into Baltistan, in many small pockets cut off from one another.
Q 17Pakistan's costly markhor hunting licences allow foreign hunters to shoot only which animals?
Old ones past breeding
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.
Q 18Under Pakistan's markhor trophy hunting scheme, who receives 80 percent of each licence fee?
Local communities
Local communities get the money as an incentive to protect the herds, while the government keeps the remaining fifth.
Q 19The Changthangi goat of Ladakh, which may derive from the markhor, yields which prized fibre?
Pashmina
Pashmina is the fine undercoat these goats grow against the bitter cold of the Ladakh plateau. It is woven into Kashmir's famous shawls.
Q 20The Girgentana goat, long linked to the markhor by its tall spiral horns, comes from which island?
Sicily
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.
Q 24Along with cattle, sheep and antelopes, the markhor belongs to which family of hoofed mammals?
Bovidae
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.
Q 25The straight-horned markhor, one of three subspecies, is also named after which Asian capital?
Kabul
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.
Q 26A genetic study of zoo markhor found over a third carried mitochondrial DNA from which animals?
Domestic goats
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.
Q 27Which short-tailed wild cat is listed with wolves and brown bears among the markhor's main predators?
Eurasian lynx
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.
Q 28Which feature marks out an adult male markhor from the redder, shorter-haired female?
A shaggy throat mane
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.
Q 29In summer, male markhor stay in the forest, but where do the females generally spend the season?
The highest rocky ridges
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.
Q 30Markhor forage for up to 14 hours a day, but when are they mainly active?
Early and late in the day
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.