Goat

• In south-western Morocco it climbs into the branches of argan trees, up to eight metres off the ground, to eat their fruit.
• Its rectangular pupil rotates to stay horizontal even when the goat lowers its head to graze, so that it never loses its panoramic view of the horizon.
• It descends from the bezoar, Capra aegagrus, and its domestication had at least two centres: south-eastern Turkey about 10,500 years ago, and the southern Zagros Mountains and the Iranian plateau almost 10,000 years ago.
• Today's goats retain six distinct maternal lineages, but the great majority of farm goats descend from only two of those events.
• It truly climbs. In south-western Morocco it clambers up argan trees, as high as eight metres off the ground, to eat their fruit, and in the Alps it has been photographed on near-vertical dam walls licking the salt from the concrete.
• Its ability to make use of woody scrub and steep terrain made it the animal of the places where cattle and sheep do not thrive, and that is why it accompanied the first farmers in their expansion.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (mammal)

Habitat and environment

Hills, scrub and livestock holdings, especially on arid and steep ground

Sexual maturity

13.3 months

Gestation / incubation

5.1 months

Litter / clutch size

1.5 (average)

Life expectancy in captivity

18

Sources consulted: Wikipedia (es): Capra aegagrus hircus