| Himalayan Tahr | |
|---|---|
| Conservation status | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Artiodactyla |
| Family: | Bovidae |
| Subfamily: | Caprinae |
| Genus: | Hemitragus |
| Species: | H. jemlahicus |
| Binomial name | |
| Hemitragus jemlahicus (C. H. Smith, 1826) |
|
The Himalayan Tahr (Hemitragus jemlahicus) (or Himalayan Thar) or Common Thar is a large ungulate related to the wild goat.
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Its native habitat is in the rugged wooded hills and mountain slopes of the Himalaya in Nepal from Central Asia in northern Kashmir to China. They spend the summers grazing in high pastures, then come down the mountains and form mixed-sex herds in the winter. It was first identified by Charles Hamilton Smith and included in Cuvier's Animal Kingdom, 1827, etc.
They have small heads with large eyes and small pointed ears and red circles on their cheeks. Himalayan tahrs are goat-like animals. As you can see in the pictures below, they highly resemble a goat, and have little horns on their heads. Their hooves have a flexible, rubbery core that allows them to grip smooth rocks, while a hard, sharp rim can lodge into small footholds. Males are larger and have different coloration and horn structure than the females. Adult Himalayan Tahr range from 135 to 180 kg (300 to 400 lb) in weight, 120 to 170 cm in length, and 60 to 90 cm in height. They are herbivores, subsisting on grass, shrubs, and trees. The gestation period is seven months, and usually only one kid is born at a time. The young tahr nurses for about six months, and may follow its mother for up to two years. In the wild, tahr can live up to 15 years, though ten years is more typical.
Traditionally, all three species of tahrs were placed in the genus Hemitragus. However, recent genetic studies have shown that the three species are not as closely related as had previously been thought. Consequently, it has been recommended moving the Nilgiri Tahr to the genus Nilgiritragus and the Arabian Tahr to Arabitragus, thereby leaving Hemitragus for the Himalayan Tahr.[2]
Feral Himalayan Tahr are an introduced species in the South Island of New Zealand, with herds forming in the Southern Alps. In large numbers tahr are regarded as a pest because their browsing has an impact on native vegetation. Tahr hunting is a recreational sport and commercial activity. Tahr have also been introduced to New Mexico, California, and Ontario for hunting in safari parks.
There is a small population of tahr on Table Mountain in Cape Town, South Africa. This population is descended from a pair of tahrs which escaped from a zoo in the 1930s. Most of the population has been culled to make way for the reintroduction of the indigenous antelope known as the Klipspringer.