Bezoar goat

Capra aegagrus

The bezoar goat is a wild goat from Western Asia and lives in rocky, open mountain regions at elevations of over 3,000 meters. As an extremely sure-footed climber, it uses steep, inaccessible terrain to escape predators. Females and their young form social herds, while males usually live separately and have impressive, backward-curving horns.

The bezoar goat was domesticated around 10,000 years ago and is the wild ancestor of the domestic goat. Its name comes from so-called bezoar stones, indigestible masses of hair and plant material found in the stomach, which were once highly valued as medicinal remedies during the Middle Ages.