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| Goat Antelopes
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Barbary Sheep | ||||||||||||||
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Capricornis Nemorhaedus Rupicapra Oreamnos Budorcas Ovibos Hemitragus Ammotragus Pseudois Capra Ovis Pantholops |
A goat antelope is any of the 26 species of mostly medium-sized herbivores that make up the subfamily Caprinae or the single species in subfamily Panthalopinae. The domestic sheep and domestic goat are both part of the goat antelope group, and the group itself is part of the family Bovidae, which in other branches contains the antelopes and domestic cattle.
The goat antelope or caprid group is known from as early as the Miocene, but did not reach its greatest diversity until the recent ice ages, when many of its members became specialised for marginal, often extreme, environments: mountains, deserts, and the sub- ArcticThe Arctic is the area around the Earth's North Pole. The Arctic includes parts of Russia, Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Lapland, and Norway (including Svalbard), as well as the Arctic Ocean. The 10°C (50°F) July isotherm is commonly used to define the borde region. In consequence, although most goat antelopes are gregarious and have a fairly stocky build, they diverge in many other ways. The Musk Ox became adapted to the extreme cold of the tundraIn physical geography, tundra is an area where tree growth is hindered by low temperatures and short growing seasons. The term tundra comes from the Finnish word tunturia which means treeless plain. There are three types of tundra: arctic tundra antarctic; the Mountain Goat of North AmericaNorth America is the third largest continent in area and the fourth ranked in population. It is bounded on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the south by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the North Pacific Ocea specialised in very rugged terrain; the UrialThe Urial is a medium-sized wild sheep, member of the goat antelope subfamily, also known as Shapo or Arkhar . Noticeable features are the reddish-brown long fur that will fade during the winter. Males are characterized by a black ruff stretching from the, probable ancestor of modern Domestic Sheep, occupied a largely infertile area from KashmirKashmir is a region in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent. The term Kashmir historically described the valley just to the south of the westernmost end of the Himalayan range. Politically, however, the term 'Kashmir' describes a much larger area to Iran, including much desert country.
Many of the ice age species are now extinct, probably largely because of human interaction. Of the survivors, no less than 5 are classifed as endangered, 8 as vulnerable, 7 as of concern and needing conservation measures but at lower risk, and just 7 species are secure.
Members of the group vary considerably in size, from just over a metre for a full-grown Goral to almost 2.5 metres for a Musk Ox, and from under 30 kg to more than 350 kg. Musk Oxen in captivity have reached over 650 kg.
In lifestyle, the caprids fall into two broad classes, resource defenders which are territorial and defend a small, food-rich area against other members of the same species, and grazers, which gather together into herds and roam freely over a larger, usually relatively infertile area.
The resource defenders are the more primitive group: they tend to be smaller in size, dark in colour, males and females fairly alike, have long, tasselated ears, a long mane, and dagger-shaped horns. The grazers evolved more recently. They tend to be larger, highly social, and rather than mark territory with scent glands, they have highly evolved dominance behaviours. There is no sharp dividing line between the groups, just a continuum between the serows at one end of the spectrum and sheep, true goats, and Musk Oxen at the other.
The ancestors of the modern sheep and goats (both rather vague and ill-defined terms) are thought to have moved into mountainous regions: sheep becoming specialised occupants of the foothills and nearby plains, and relying on flight and clumping for defence against predators; goats adapting to very steep terrain where predators are at a disadvantage.