🇵🇰Pakistan·National Animal
🐐Markhor
A wild goat with corkscrew horns — saved by community conservation.
The markhor is a large wild goat that lives on the steep mountain cliffs of Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan. It was once Endangered, but Pakistan's community-based conservation program — which lets local villages benefit from trophy hunting permits — turned the population around.
Why this animal?
Markhor are uniquely Central and South Asian, occupying mountains so steep that only specially-adapted hooves can navigate them. They appear on Pakistan's coat of arms and on the logo of the country's intelligence service, the ISI.
Things to know
- ·Their spiraled horns can reach 1.5 metres long — males spar with them in headbutting contests.
- ·Markhor means 'snake-eater' in Persian, from a (mostly mythical) belief that they hunted snakes.
- ·Pakistan's population has recovered from under 2,000 to over 5,000 thanks to trophy-hunting permits that fund village schools and clinics.
- ·Their hooves work like split rubber suction cups — they can stand on rock faces nearly vertical.
- ·Markhor are the ancestor of several domestic goat breeds, including the markhor-cross 'Changthangi' that produces pashmina wool.