Wildlife
Markhors belong to a group of animals called 'goat-antelopes', which includes the musk ox, the chamois and the domestic goat. Markhor have spiralling horns, which can grow to over a metre and a half long in males.
Scientific name: Capra falconeri
Rank: Species
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Mountain survival
Blue sheep and markhor goats overwinter on the lower Himalayan slopes.
Blue sheep and markhor goats overwinter on the lower Himalayan slopes.
Snow leopard hunt
The first ever footage of an entire snow leopard hunt. Filmed in high definition.
It's notoriously hard to film amongst these remote and vertiginous slopes. Previous footage of snow leopards has been captured with remote cameras, making action sequences impossible. Here, the high magnification capability of HD allowed close ups to be shot from the other side of the valley, widening the field of view enough to follow the entire hunt.
Markhor goat rut
Incredible adaptation to life in the vertical Himalayan world.
Perhaps the most agile of all goats, the markhor is perfectly adapted to life on these sheer slopes. They are so sure-footed they can even climb trees. With an extrememly timid subject and the access problems posed by the terrain, the crew made full use of the long lens capability of the high definition camera to film this dramatic encounter.
The following habitats are found across the Markhor distribution range. Find out more about these environments, what it takes to live there and what else inhabits them.
Discover what these behaviours are and how different plants and animals use them.
Additional data source: Animal Diversity Web
Endangered
Population trend: Decreasing
Year assessed: 2008
Classified by: IUCN 3.1
The markhor (Capra falconeri) is a large species of wild goat that is found in northeastern Afghanistan, Pakistan (Gilgit-Baltistan, northern and central Pakistan), some parts of Jammu and Kashmir, southern Tajikistan and southern Uzbekistan. The species is classed by the IUCN as Endangered, as there are fewer than 2,500 mature individuals and the numbers have continued to decline by an estimated 20% over two generations. The markhor is the national animal of Pakistan.
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Mountain grassland
Mountains
Coniferous forest
Temperate grassland
Adapted to climbing
Dry tolerant
Hierarchical
Tactile sense
Acoustic communication
Herbivorous
Maternal care
Moulting
Polygynous
Social
Seed dispersal
Chemical communication
Sexual dimorphism
Territorial
Visual communication
Viviparous