|
Capra aegagrus
SCI designates the Kri-Kri's hunted on the Mediterranean Islands, mainly in Greece, Bosnia-Hercegovina and Croatia, as "Indigenous." All other Kri-Kri hunted in Europe, namely in estates on the mainland are defined by SCI as "Non-Indigenous."
Bezoar (Sp), Bezoarziege, Pasang (G), Chèvre à bézoard, Pasang, Egagre (F).
Called wild goat by biologists, who consider it the ancestor of the domestic goat and not a true ibex; however, it is commonly called an ibex by hunters and local residents worldwide.
DESCRIPTION The bezoar is a handsome, relatively slender animal with blackish-brown markings that contrast with the lighter overall color. Summer coat is reddish-brown, turning ashy gray in winter in adult males. Underparts and back of legs are white. The dark blackish areas include a dorsal stripe, shoulder stripes, flank stripes, front of legs, chest, tail, throat, face and beard. Callouses develop on the knees and sometimes on the chest. Males are characterized by large, scimitar-shaped, laterally compressed horns. The front edge is a sharp keel with a number of bold, sharp-edged, widely separated knobs. The female has short, slender horns and no beard; it is colored brownish-tan at all seasons, with a dark stripe from eye to muzzle.
DISTRIBUTION & TAXONOMIC NOTES Indigenous European populations are found only on islands in the Mediterranean Sea. The Cretan ibex or agrimi (C. a. cretica), from the Lefka mountains at the western end of the island of Crete, is smaller and more distinctly colored than the typical bezoar of Asia, and many consider it more attractive. It, and the introduced population on the Aegean island of Theodorou, are believed to be of reasonably pure stock. Those from the Aegean islands of Dia, Agii Pantes, Erimomilos, Samothrake, Gioura and others are thought to be bezoar x domestic goat hybrids.
Some authorities state that bezoar ibexes were never evident on the European mainland, not even as fossils, while others think they may have survived in Bulgaria until about 1891. Bezoars of unknown origin were introduced in 1901 in the High Tatra Mountains on the borders of Slovakia and Poland, where they are said to have interbred with similarly introduced Nubian ibexes and reintroduced native Alpine ibexes, but these animals appear to have died out. However, one introduced population of bezoar exists in the Moravian region of the Czech Republic close to the Austrian border.
Outside Europe, the bezoar occurs in southwestern Asia from Turkey and Syria eastward to Afghanistan and Pakistan. It has been introduced in the wild in the state of New Mexico in the United States, and is found on private properties in many places.
|
LOGIN
