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Caprines (including goats and sheep)
Caprines (including goats and sheep)
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Caprines (including goats and sheep)
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Goats and sheep are among the ungulates classified under the subfamily of Caprinæ within the family of Bovidæ: https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Bovidae/
Here are some news items I collected in the past week regarding caprines: - Spain's capital city, Madrid, was flooded by a huge flock of sheep migrating to southern pastures: https://www.dw.com/en/madrid-deluged-by-...g-50908265  *This image is copyright of its original author - In the northernmost Emirate of Ras Al Khaimah, a goat got stuck for 5 days on Jabal Jais, which is the highest mountain in the UAE, located in the Ru'us Al-Jibal (literally "Heads of Mountains"; the northwestern part of the Hajar Mountains, located in the Musandam Peninsula south of the Strait of Hormuz), but because the summit is in Oman, the highest peak in the UAE is that of Jabal Yibir or Jebel Al-Mebrah nearby. It then got rescued by Ras Al Khaimah Civil Defence: https://gulfnews.com/uae/watch-rak-rescu...2484745603, https://www.thenational.ae/uae/watch-eme...n-1.930907 Credit: RAK Civil Defence (Instagram) https://www.instagram.com/p/B4Ph83tJJp9/  *This image is copyright of its original author
Now for a caprine which would likely have been a prey of the Arabian leopard in the region of the Hajar Mountains, in what is now the border of the UAE and Oman in the Arabian Peninsula: the Arabian tahr (Arabitragus jayakari): http://www.catsg.org/fileadmin/fileshari...irates.pdf
The Arabian tahr is a species of tahrs, which are Asian caprines related to wild goats. The other species of tahrs are the Himalayan tahr (Hemitragus jemlahicus; from the southern flanks of the Himalaya Mountains in southern Tibet, northern India and Nepal) and the Nilgiri tahr (Nilgiritragus hylocrius): https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ar...0305000059 It lives on steep rocky slopes of the Hajar, at altitudes up to 1,800 m (5,900 ft) above sea level. It is also found in the area of Jebel Hafeet: https://web.archive.org/web/201803302114...606c3.aspx, http://gulfnews.com/news/uae/environment...-1.1338797, https://www.thenational.ae/uae/environme...et-1.85597 Being an endangered animal of the Hajar Mountains, and threatened with factors like overgrazing by domestic goats, it is protected by law in both the UAE and Oman. In 1973, efforts were planned to protect the Arabian tahr, and in 1975, it was granted in the Hajar Mountains. In 1980, a captive-breeding program was set up at the Omani Mammal Breeding Center to reintroduce captive-bred individuals back into the wild. Three institutions are now involved, one in Oman and two in the UAE, but many people seem to be unaware about the tahr's grave situations, leading to other conservation initiatives to focus on the publicity and educational campaigns to raise the animals' profile. In April 2009, the preserve of Wadi Wurayah preserve in the Emirate of Fujairah (where the leopard was rumoured to still occur) was set aside by royal decree in the Emirates for the protection of the tahr. Another place in the UAE, Sir Bani Yas in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, was also set up for its conservation: https://www.thenational.ae/uae/environme...et-1.85597, http://uae.panda.org/news/?163161/Arabia...protection, http://gulfnews.com/news/uae/environment...-1.2156104 Stuffed tahr at the Natural History Museum of the Ministry of National Heritage and Culture in Al-Khuwair, Muscat, Oman: https://www.flickr.com/photos/24151047@N05/3179006397/  *This image is copyright of its original author Captive tahr at Al Ain Zoo, Emirate of Abu Dhabi, the UAE; credit: Wajhuallah  *This image is copyright of its original author At at Al Hefaiyah Mountain Conservation Centre in Kalba, Emirate of Sharjah, near the eastern coast of the UAE, within the Hajar Mountains (and the Arabian leopard is also in this centre):
Painting by Paul de Vos from 1638–1640, in the Museo del Prado, Madrid, depicting 3 wolves attacking a lion (likely Asiaticor Eurasian) over a caprine: https://www.museodelprado.es/coleccion/o...b1160f02db
 *This image is copyright of its original author
Behzad J. Larry: " Portrait of a blue sheep.
Always a privilege when wild ungulates allow you this close- although this is still with a 600 f/4. It means conservation is working and the animals don’t consider humans as threats. In the majority of places that we work in, wildlife conservation is critically tied to tourism. Tourism has allowed communities to earn sustainable incomes that are less reliant on precious natural resources. A family that lives in snow leopard habitat and earns a majority of their income by working in the tourism industry is less reliant on herds of livestock. This frees up grazing lands for wild ungulates, eventually boosting prey base numbers and allowing for higher snow leopard numbers. It is crucial that these livelihoods are sustained. If employment begins to dry up in these remote frontiers, villages will be forced to return to viewing natural resources as a “free” resource- escalating the pressure on wild animals and slowly bringing back human-wildlife conflict. When the world opens up for travel again- visit these areas and spend your dollars on the frontlines of conservation. If you’re already booked to go to a place where conservation and tourism work hand in hand, work with your tour operators to rebook your tours instead of canceling them. Every dollar that enters remote communities means conservation can be kept alive. "
Kashmiri or Cashmere goats invadeLlandudno, a North Welsh seaside resort which got deserted because of COVID-19: https://www.news18.com/news/buzz/tribe-o...60353.html, https://twitter.com/QuickTake/status/124...60353.html
Credit: AP  *This image is copyright of its original author
Behzad J. Larry: " Urial, or the Asiatic mouflon. A sub species of ovis orientalis, from which domestic sheep descend. "
Prickles the sheep found after seven years of self-isolation in Tasmania: https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-austra...MZBb5eyw4g
Produced and edited by Isabelle Rodd:  *This image is copyright of its original author A lone sheep that went missing after the 2013 Tasmanian bushfires has been found - and is a lot bigger. Farmer Alice Gray and her family came across the ewe when having a barbecue on their farm. They captured her and named her Prickles, after her enormous, prickly fleece.
The Manchega sheep, native to La Mancha region of Spain, are famous for producing the popular Manchego cheese: http://www.sheep101.info/breedsM-N.html
Manchega sheep on the meseta, Castilla-La Mancha, by Ruud Zwart (15th of September, 2005): Clockwise from left: Roquefort, Manchego, Gedeost (cheese from goat's milk), Parmesan and Prima Donna cheeses, with preserved apricots (bottom) and honey with fried garlic (bottom left), by "Cyclonebill" (14th of November, 2009): https://www.flickr.com/photos/23178876@N03/4106177868/ 
Camera trap images of the Red Serow (Capricornis rubidus) in Bangladesh. The first is in Sylhet of Northeast Bangladesh. The Source. The next two are by the Creative Conservation Alliance (CCA) and here is what they say: 'The Red Serow (Capricornis rubidus) is an antelope that is found in Bangladesh in forested hilly areas of Moulvibazar District, Chittagong District and throughout the Chiitagong Hill Tracts. There main threats include hunting ahead habitat destruction. They are luckily found in several community conserved areas where CCA is working with the local communities to protect them!'
 *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author
Information regarding Burmese/Red serows in Bangladesh
From 'Occurrence and temporal activity pattern of Burmese Red Serow (Capricornis rubidus, Bovidae) in Baraiyadhala National Park, Bangladesh: insights from a camera trapping study' LINK Authors: Dr Kamrul Hasan & Ashis Kumar Dutta, Jahangirnagar University, Department of Zoology. Abstract No single studies on the Burmese Red Serows, a little known bovid to date yet considered as nationally endangered species, have been conducted in Bangladesh. As part of a systematic wildlife inventory and monitoring project, this study utilized 48 camera traps to elucidate their occurrence, activity pattern and possible sympatric association with other artiodactyls species inhabiting Baraiyadhala National Park. The study found 25 independent serow events with relative abundance index (RAI) of 0.89. The number of individuals seems low, but this is by far the country’s stronghold population. The Red Serows are mostly nocturnal and showed moderate temporal activity with barking dear (Δ1 = 0.59) and wild boar (Δ1 = 0.62) in this area. Anthropogenic pressures due to tourists (RAI = 4.8) and poachers (RAI = 1.7) were highly evident and must have negative impact on overall wildlife of the national park. The study suggests similar studies in adjacent protected area (Hazarikhil Wildlife Sanctuary), habitat protection and restoration program, and awareness raising program targeting forest dependent communities for long term conservation of this species. Important information: Introduction "The Red Serow is a globally vulnerable bovid (Shepherd 2022) and very little is known about its population status, behavioral ecology, and habitat use pattern in most of the countries that make up its range. Bangladesh is no exception, and so far, it has only handful and sporadic appearances from mixed evergreen forests of the Chittagong Hill Tracts and the mixed evergreen forests of transboundary northeastern regions and is regarded as nationally endangered species (IUCN Bangladesh 2015; Khan 2018)." "In recent times, with the advancement of camera trapping studies, there have been few reports of Red Serows from northeast region and Chittagong Hill Tracts. However, our understanding of its overall population, activity pattern, habitat use pattern with other sympatric species, and threats is still very limited. In this study, we did not attempt to address the issues with serow classification; rather, we reported on a population that had not been studied before in order to precise its relative abundance, activity patterns and co-occurrence with other ungulates." Results & Discussion "We obtained 25 serow events captured from 11 spatially distinct locations with an effort of 2793 camera trap nights (Figure 2). Four female and 11 male serows were recognized from the photographs however, it was not certain which sexes the other ten individuals belonged to. All detections consisted of a single serow, apart from two incidents that entailed two individuals. About 65 % of detections (15 events) were in steep hilly habitats and the rest were in forest floor." "Although our study was confined to the BNP, we propose conducting a comparable investigation in adjoining Hazarikhill Wildlife Sanctuary, which has long been recognized as a serow habitat by local people and forest department staffs but has yet to initiate a systematic camera trapping study. Baraiyadhala National Park (2933.61 ha) and adjacent Hazarikhill Wildlife Sanctuary (1177.53 ha), Sitakunda Ecopark and Botanical Garden (808 ha) altogether can be considered as a wider landscape for conserving existing wildlife, specially serow population. Since the ecological state in this area is favorable for serows, strict hunting restrictions, community awareness and restoration programs to improve the denuded forests could be worthwhile as initial efforts." "Our study confirmed at least 25 individuals of Burmese Red Serow from BNP. The small number of detections (RAI = 0.82) of the Red Serow suggests that this species likely occurs at a low density in the study area. The local community people living nearby, and national park officials also reported similar perceptions on the occurrence of this species. Our camera trapped photos identified 49 individual poachers, which indicates intense hunting pressures for wildlife in this area. We speculated that Barking Deer, Serow, Wild Boar, Jungle Fowls, and pheasants are some of the targeted species." [Study area and camera trap sites, indicating camera trap sites with Burmese Red Serow detection and sites where serows were not detected]  *This image is copyright of its original author [Camera trapped photo of Red Serow from the study area. The top image depicts an adult and a juvenile, and the bottom image is of an adult male]  *This image is copyright of its original author [Temporal activity pattern and overlap estimates for focal species Burmese Red Serow and sympatric Barking Deer and Wild Boar]  *This image is copyright of its original author Key points and information derived plus a simplification:
 *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author
HYENA
Most animal forums are about the big, the mighty and the dangerous. Meaning they only offer information about (apex) predators. Until you joined, it wasn't very different over here. The good info you posted made it clear you're developing into the king of the unknown and the unheard. I'm sure they in particular appreciate your effort, but they're not the only ones. Many thanks on behalf of all interested in wild animals most of us never even heard of! In order to encourage you to continue in this way, your 'reputation' was adjusted today.  (07-25-2024, 11:47 PM)peter Wrote: HYENA Seconded, I, too, truly appreciate the efforts into those that we may typically hear so little about. They, too, now have a pronounced voice, and they most certainly deserve it.
Japanese Serow Capricornis crispus and Red Serow Capricornis rubidus (Respectively).
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