East Caucasian tur
| East Caucasian tur | |
|---|---|
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Artiodactyla |
| Family: | Bovidae |
| Subfamily: | Caprinae |
| Genus: | Capra |
| Species: | C. caucasica |
| Subspecies: | C. c. cylindricornis |
| Trinomial name | |
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Capra caucasica cylindricornis Blyth, 1841 |
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| Synonyms | |
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Capra cylindricornis |
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Capra cylindricornis
The East Caucasian tur or Daghestan tur (Capra caucasica cylindricornis) is a mountain-dwelling caprine found only in the eastern half of the Greater Caucasus Mountains. The East Caucasian tur lives in rough mountainous terrain, where it eats mainly grasses and leaves and is preyed upon by wolves and lynxes. It is sometimes considered a subspecies of the West Caucasian tur, and sometimes as a full species in its own right. The species is listed as Near Threatened by the IUCN.
East Caucasian turs are goat-like animals with large but narrow bodies and short legs, and show significant sexual dimorphism in overall size and horn development. Adult males stand about 105 cm (41 in) at the shoulder, measure 190 cm (75 in) in head-body length, and weigh around 140 kg (310 lb). The equivalent figures for adult females are 85 cm (33 in) for shoulder height, 138 cm (54 in) for head-body length, and just 56 kg (123 lb) for weight. Males have slightly lyre-shaped horns which reach 70 to 90 cm (28 to 35 in) in length, while in females they are typically only 20 to 22 cm (7.9 to 8.7 in) long.
The summer coat is short and sandy-yellow, with dirty white underparts. Also, dark brown stripes occur along the front surface of the legs and on the upper surface of the tail. In the winter, the coats of females and juvenile males becomes slightly greyish in colour, but otherwise remain similar. However, the winter coats of adult males are a solid dark brown, without visible stripes on the legs. Males develop a beard with their winter coats in their second year, reaching the full length of about 12 cm (4.7 in) by their fourth or fifth year. Compared with other goats, the beards of East Caucasian turs are relatively stiff, and project somewhat forwards, rather than drooping down. The beard is small or entirely absent in females, and in males in their summer coats.
The species range is restricted to the Greater Caucasus Mountains between 800 and 4,000 m (2,600 and 13,100 ft) above sea level, roughly extending from Mt. Shkhara (Georgia) in the west to Mt. Babadag (Azerbaijan) in the east. The western edge of the range of the East Caucasian tur remains unclear, as it overlaps with that of West Caucasian tur (Capra caucasica). Most of the species populations avoid human disturbance and occur in extremely rugged, open terrain around 3,000 m. In areas with no or little human disturbance, turs occur in gentler and much lower terrain. A fragment of a land with optimal terrain, climate, and degree of human disturbance for the species' occurrence is more likely to contain the species if the area of the fragment is larger and its distance to the species' nearest source population is shorter.
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Wikipedia