Markhor Capra falconeri

The Markhor is a Central Asian mountain goat native particularly to the Karakoram and Himalayas. It has with thick fur and distinctive corkscrew horns: small on females but rising to some one and a half metres on older males. It is sometimes called the Screwhorned Goat.

Adult males have a long chest mane and can reach well over a metre tall at the shoulder (nearly 4 feet tall). It is the only wild goat that has such horns but the domestic Girgentana goat, (Capra aegagrus hircus), of Sicily has horns of a similar spiral pattern (spiralling forward rather than the Markhor's backwards).

It is considered the best climber of all mountain goats. Shown is the Tadjik Markhor, C.f. heptneri. The Markhor is threatened by over-hunting for its trophy horns.