World's Weirdest Animals: Markhor

BBC Footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uj0EVT-Ekog

Living in the Himalayan mountains and its surrounding area is an animal that can up and down the steep cliffs with ease, on this episode of world’s weirdest animals we bring you the Markhor.

The name Markhor is believed to come from the Persian words mar meaning snake and khor meaning eater. Snake eater is in reference to their ability to kill snakes or to their corkscrewing horns which appear to look like coiling snakes. This large hairy mammal lives on steep mountain cliffs where is makes it very hard for them to be caught. This diurnal animal or one being active during the day can only be found in Afghanistan Pakistan, India, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and the Himalayas.

They average 5.4 feet or 1.6 meters in length and weight up to 240 lbs or 109 kg. Markhor males are larger and heavier than females, the males have light brown to black colored coats where the females have a more reddish colored coat. The male’s horns can grow to be as long as their body where the females are much smaller at only 10 inches or 2.5 decimeters long. In the wild the Markhor can live up to 13 years old.

It is said, the males produce a strong pungent smell making the stink of a goat seem like nothing. Folklore states that the foamy, drool that comes from the Markhor’s mouth when they are eating can be used to extract poison from snake bites and is highly sought after by the locals. This herbivore has a diet consisting of mostly grass in the spring and summer months and all other types of vegetation like branches, twigs, shrubs, leavesand flowers consumed in fall and winter months. They a good job of increasing plant diversity by spreading plant seeds through their feces across the mountainside that most other animals can’t access.

These masters of climbing spend most of their lives on steep cliffs where predators have no chance of catching them. Their natural predators lynx, black bears, wolves and snow leopards must patiently wait for the Markhor to leave the comfort of the cliffs edge before they strike to have any chance of catching them. Markhor will use steep slopes as a quick getaway. Golden eagles believe it or not will sink their talons into smaller Markhor and try to carry them away. You can see here this eagle refuses to let go which has a 2nd female Markhor come in to help. Eventually this female is able to rid herself of the eagle by running its head into some rocks.

Listed as Endangered until 2015 when they were downgraded to Near Threatened as their numbers have increased 20% in the past decade. Humans remain the top predator of the Markhor. While banned in many countries like Afghanistan poachers abide by no rules in this quest to obtain Markhor horns. Ironically even with a nearly endangered population India allows 6 large Markhor to be killed annually. This expensive hunting license only allows the hunters to kill large old Markhor no longer good for breeding. It is stated that allowed these hunters to go out with a license deters the poachers. What a world we live in. Tajikistan has setup 2 reserve locations for the Markhor which covers 73,000 hectares of land.

The Markhor, being the national animal of Pakistan has a new logo on Pakistan International Airlines planes. On the back of the plane is a large Markhor with spiralling horns.

BBC Earth has an incredible footage of a snow leopard stalking and attacking a Markhor which I can’t show here but I recommend you check out which will be linked below.

Footage:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2wxTO-1I04
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CDPlDplVk8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8dvbYrJqQE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbsttKhGle4
Flickr:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ekilby/26583865150
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ekilby/24853315640
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ekilby/27357135404
https://www.flickr.com/photos/15016964@N02/5917769335
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ekilby/18216066105

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Intro music thanks to Machinmasound:
Rallying the Defense:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruPk4RD19Nw