Markhor
The markhor (Capra falconeri) is a large wild goat of the mountains of Central and South Asia, found in Pakistan, Afghanistan, the Indian side of Kashmir, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. Its most striking feature is a pair of corkscrew horns, which in adult males can reach about 160 centimeters along the spiral. Females also grow horns, but they are short, up to about 25 centimeters. Males carry a long beard and a shaggy mane on the throat, chest and shanks that grows thicker in winter. The markhor has the tallest shoulder height of any wild goat and lives on cliffs and rocky slopes in oak, pine and juniper scrub, at elevations of about 600 to 3,600 meters. It grazes on grasses and herbs in summer and browses on shrubs and trees in winter, sometimes standing on its hind legs to reach high branches. Its name is often explained as snake eater, after an old belief that it kills snakes. Heavy hunting once pushed it close to extinction, but community conservation and tightly controlled trophy hunting helped it recover, and the IUCN moved it from Endangered to Near Threatened in 2015. It is the national animal of Pakistan.
What is a markhor?
The markhor is a wild goat, a member of the genus Capra, the same group that includes the ibexes and the wild ancestor of the domestic goat. It was described scientifically in 1839 by the German zoologist Johann Andreas Wagner, based on a female collected in the Indian Himalayas during the travels of the Austrian explorer Baron Carl von Hügel, and its scientific name is Capra falconeri. Genetic studies show that it split off early from the other wild goats and is one of the most distinct members of its genus. The name markhor comes from Persian and Pashto, and you will also see it written as markhore or mar khor. In Pakistan it is sometimes called the screw horned goat, a good description of its famous horns. Among all wild goats, the markhor has the tallest shoulder height, up to about 115 centimeters, although the Siberian ibex can be longer and heavier. It lives only in the mountains of six countries: Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. Some researchers think markhors may have contributed to a few domestic goat breeds, and a 2024 United Nations decision made May 24 the International Day of the Markhor, a sign of how important this animal has become for mountain conservation.
Does the markhor eat snakes?
No. The markhor is a herbivore that lives on grasses, herbs, leaves and twigs, and there is no scientific record of it hunting or eating snakes. The idea comes from its name. In Persian, mar means snake and khor means eater, so markhor is usually translated as snake eater. According to an old belief in the mountains of Pakistan and Afghanistan, the markhor kills snakes and eats them. The legend goes further: after eating a snake, the animal chews its cud and a foam drips from its mouth, falls to the ground and dries, and local people would collect this foam because they believed it could draw the poison out of a snakebite. There is another explanation for the name that makes more sense. The long, twisting horns of a male look like a pair of coiling snakes, so the name may simply describe the horns rather than the diet. Some sources also link the word to a Persian term for curly, again pointing to the horns. Videos that claim to show a markhor eating a snake circulate online from time to time, but they do not change what is known about its diet. Its diet, studied in the forests of Chitral and elsewhere, is made only of plants.
Why are markhor horns spiral?
Few wild animals carry horns as distinctive as the markhor's. Both sexes have them, set close together at the base and spreading apart toward the tips, twisted like a corkscrew. In adult males they can reach about 160 centimeters measured along the spiral, among the longest horns of any wild goat, while females grow short, slender horns of up to about 25 centimeters. Like all goat horns, they are made of a bony core covered by a sheath of keratin, the same material as fingernails, and they keep growing throughout the animal's life, so the oldest males carry the biggest spirals. The shape varies from one region to another, and it is the main way the subspecies are told apart. In the Astor markhor of northern Pakistan and Kashmir, the horns flare out widely and make only about half a turn, while in the Kabul markhor of Afghanistan and western Pakistan they form a tighter corkscrew. Horns are a male's main weapon and status symbol. In the winter rut, rivals lunge at each other, lock horns and twist and push to throw the other off balance, and the male with the largest horns usually wins access to females. That is also why trophy hunters value old males so highly.
How big is a markhor?
The markhor is a big, powerfully built goat. Adults stand 65 to 115 centimeters at the shoulder, the tallest of any wild goat, and measure 132 to 186 centimeters from nose to tail. Weight ranges from about 32 to 110 kilograms, and the difference between the sexes is large: adult males commonly weigh around 80 to 110 kilograms, while females weigh only about 32 to 50 kilograms. The coat is grizzled, from light brown to almost black, and it changes with the seasons. In summer it is short and smooth, and in winter it grows longer and thicker to cope with the cold of the high mountains. The lower legs have a black and white pattern. Males stand out for their long hair on the chin, throat, chest and shanks, which forms a flowing beard and mane that can reach almost to the knees in old animals and turns paler with age. Females are redder, with shorter hair, a short black beard and no mane. The hooves are hard on the edges and softer in the middle, which gives the markhor a firm grip on rock. Together with its strong legs, this lets it move with surprising ease across ledges and cliffs where most large mammals could not follow.
Markhor subspecies: Astor, Kabul and Bukharan
Experts today recognize three subspecies of markhor, told apart mainly by the shape of their horns and by where they live. The Astor markhor, Capra falconeri falconeri, lives in the northern mountains of Pakistan, along the Indus and its valleys in Gilgit-Baltistan and around Chitral, and in the Pir Panjal range of Indian Kashmir. Its horns are large and flat, flaring out widely before rising almost straight with only about half a turn. The animals once called the Kashmir or Pir Panjal markhor are now included in this subspecies, and it is the one most sought by trophy hunters. The Kabul markhor, Capra falconeri megaceros, lives in eastern Afghanistan and the western mountains of Pakistan, and its horns twist in a tighter corkscrew. Older names such as the Suleiman or straight horned markhor are generally grouped with it. The Bukharan markhor, Capra falconeri heptneri, also called Heptner's markhor, is the Central Asian form. It survives in a few scattered populations, between the Panj and Vakhsh rivers in southern Tajikistan and in the Kugitang range on the border of Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. The Chiltan goat of Balochistan, sometimes listed as a markhor, is usually treated as a form of the wild goat instead.
Where do markhors live?
Markhors live in a scattered range across six countries. In Pakistan they are found along the Indus and Kunar rivers and their side valleys, from Kohistan to Baltistan and around Chitral, with smaller isolated groups in the mountains of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. The largest population in the country lives in Chitral National Park. In India they survive only in the Pir Panjal range of southwestern Jammu and Kashmir and in the Limber and Lachipora valleys of the Jhelum basin. In Afghanistan they are limited to the east, in the monsoon forests of Laghman and Nuristan and the most remote mountains of Kapisa and Kabul provinces. In Central Asia they live in the Darvaz and Hazratishoh ranges of southern Tajikistan, near the Panj River, and in the Kugitang range shared by Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. Within that range they stick to rugged terrain: steep cliffs, rocky outcrops and broken slopes with open woods of oak, pine and juniper. The IUCN gives an elevation range of 600 to 3,600 meters. Markhors move up and down the mountains with the seasons. In summer males usually stay in the forest while females climb to the highest rocky ridges, and in winter both come lower to escape deep snow.
What do markhors eat?
The markhor is a herbivore whose diet shifts with the seasons. In spring and summer, fresh grasses and flowering herbs make up most of what it eats, and it grazes on the open slopes and meadows around its cliffs. As autumn arrives and the grass dries, it turns more and more to browsing, pulling leaves, twigs and shoots from shrubs and trees. In winter, when snow buries the low plants, woody browse becomes its main food, including the evergreen leaves of oaks and the foliage of junipers and other shrubs that grow in its mountain forests. Markhors often rear up on their hind legs and lean against a trunk to reach higher branches, a habit shared with domestic goats. This flexibility is one reason the species can live across such a wide range of elevations and plant types. Like other ruminants, the markhor has a stomach with several chambers and spends hours chewing its cud while resting, usually in a safe spot close to a cliff. Food is also where it comes into conflict with people. In valleys like those of Chitral, flocks of domestic goats graze on the same slopes and compete with markhors for food, especially in winter, when good forage is scarce.
How do markhors live and breed?
Markhors are active by day, mostly in the early morning and late afternoon, and rest through the middle of the day. Outside the breeding season the sexes live apart. Females and their young form herds that usually number around nine animals, while adult males live alone or in small loose groups. The rut takes place in winter, and it transforms the males. They join the female herds and fight for access to them, lunging at each other, locking horns and twisting to push the rival off balance. These contests can be long and sometimes cause injuries. After a pregnancy of about 135 to 170 days, females give birth in late spring or early summer, usually to one or two kids and occasionally three. In spring, mothers stay close to cliffs to protect the young, while males move higher, where there is more food. The markhor's best defense is the terrain it lives in. It has keen eyesight and a strong sense of smell, gives an alarm call much like the bleat of a domestic goat, and escapes up near vertical rock where predators struggle to follow. Its main predators are snow leopards, Himalayan wolves, Eurasian lynx and brown bears, and golden eagles have been reported taking young kids.
Why is the markhor the national animal of Pakistan?
The markhor is the national animal of Pakistan, and few countries have a national animal that fits their landscape so well. Pakistan holds the widest part of the markhor's range, from the Hindu Kush and Karakoram foothills of Chitral and Gilgit-Baltistan to the dry mountains of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, and two of the three subspecies live there. For mountain communities it has long been a symbol of strength and of life on the cliffs, and it appears in school books, on stamps and in the animated film Allahyar and the Legend of Markhor. Its role as a national symbol grew even stronger with its comeback. By the late twentieth century numbers in Pakistan had fallen sharply because of poaching, and the country became a pioneer of community conservation, in which villages protect the markhor and receive most of the income from a few hunting permits for old males. In 2024 the United Nations General Assembly declared May 24 the International Day of the Markhor, which drew new attention to the species. For visitors, Chitral National Park and the valleys of Gilgit-Baltistan are some of the best places in the world to see wild markhors, especially in winter, when they come down to lower slopes.
Is the markhor endangered?
Not anymore, although it is not fully safe. The markhor was listed as Endangered until the IUCN reassessed it in 2014 and published its new status, Near Threatened, in 2015. That assessment counted about 5,754 mature individuals in the wild and a population that was increasing, and it is now marked as needing an update. The recovery is one of the best wildlife stories in Asia. In Pakistan, community conservancies hire local guards and sell a few trophy hunting permits each year, only for old males past their prime, usually around a dozen nationwide. About 80 percent of the money goes to the villages, which use it for schools, clinics and water projects, so living markhors became worth more than poached ones. Prices have soared: an Astor markhor permit for the 2025 to 2026 season was auctioned for 370,000 US dollars, a world record for a hunting license. In Tajikistan, community conservancies helped surveys climb from 1,018 markhors in the Darvaz and Hazratishoh ranges in 2012 to 5,086 in 2021. The species is on Appendix I of CITES. Poaching for meat and horns, competition with livestock, forest loss and conflict in parts of Afghanistan remain real threats.
Where it is found
The Markhor can be found in places such as:
