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A group of ibexes fighting

Ibex and goats

Ibex and goats form a genus of bovine animals that contains fewer than 10 species. They are agile and skillful climbers among the steep cliffs of mountainous habitats and survive on the sparse vegetation that grows there. There is very little geographical overlap of the different species and where they do meet they don't interbreed. Species range from the alpine ibex of the Alps and the Caucasian turs of the Caucasus mountains, to the more widely distributed wild goat.

Scientific name: Capra

Rank: Genus

Distribution

Map showing the distribution of the Ibex and goats taxa

The shading illustrates the diversity of this group - the darker the colour the greater the number of species. Data provided by WWF's Wildfinder.

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About

Capra is a genus of mammals, the goats or wild goats, composed of up to 9 species, including the wild goat, the markhor, and several species known as ibex.

The domestic goat (Capra aegagrus hircus) is a domesticated subspecies of the wild goat (Capra aegagrus).

Wild goats are animals of mountain habitats. They are very agile and hardy, able to climb on bare rock and survive on sparse vegetation. They can be distinguished from the genus Ovis, which includes sheep, by the presence of scent glands close to the feet, in the groin, and in front of the eyes, and the absence of other facial glands, and by the presence of a beard in the males, and of hairless calluses on the knees of the forelegs.

The Rocky Mountain goat is in a separate genus, Oreamnos.

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