Review and images by Suspsy; edited by bmathison1972
The markhor (Capra falconeri) is a wild goat that can be found scattered across the mountains of Central Asia, the Himalayas, and the Kakakoram. Several subspecies of markhor are known to exist, including the rare Tadjik or Bukharan markhor (C. f. heptneri) of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.
CollectA released this toy of a Tadjik markhor in 2013. It is a buck sculpted in a walking pose with the left front hoof stepping forward and the left hind one extended back. The tail is raised and the head is held high and looking straight ahead. The toy has a length of about 8.5 cm and stands just over 9.5 cm tall at the tips of its horns. A real markhor weighs between 32 and 110 kg (71 to 243 lbs), making it one of the largest members of the goat family.
Our markhor has a base colour of medium grey with lots of light grey and light beige wash. Very dark brown is applied to the beard, along the sides, and on the tail and genitalia while medium beige wash is applied to the head and horns. It looks quite accurate for the most part, but there is one error: the eyes are painted entirely glossy black. They ought to instead be light brown with the horizontal, slit-shaped pupils that goats are known for.
Nothing negative can be said about the sculpting on this toy, though. The markhor’s limbs are slender, but strong-looking, and end in cloven hooves adapted for mountainous terrain. The fur covering the neck and chest regions looks very long and luxuriant. And then there are those marvelous horns jutting out from the top of the skull. They are asymmetrical, with the right one being visibly longer, flattened, and spiraling inward and tapering into thin pointed tips. Indeed, the markhor’s horns have led it to be called the screw-horned goat in Pakistan, where it is the national animal. Males use their horns to fight for mating rights with the females, which have both shorter horns and fur. They do not, however, use them for defense against lynxes, snow leopards, wolves, and brown bears. Instead, they rely on their excellent eyesight and smell to detect these predators, then quickly flee to safety.
CollectA has long excelled at making top quality ungulate toys and their Tadjik markhor is a prime example. Truly a unique and highly attractive acquisition to the family menagerie. It can be purchased online at Minizoo and other stores that stock CollectA products.
With another of CollectA’s hoofstock, the European mouflon:
the markhor’s agility and ability to climb is nothing short of amazing. I was watching one of the ‘secrets of the zoo’ episodes and they were attempting to catch the members of a herd they had at the zoo, individually, in order to give them medical check ups.
They led the animals one at a time, into a room about 20 feet by 10 beet in size so that the zookeepers could catch them and take them for their examination. There were 4 or 5 zookeepers in the room. The markhors were literally able to run around the vertical walls of the room. The zookeepers would put their arms straight up in the air until one of them was able to snag the markhor. It was like something out of “The Matrix’, watching these animals run around the room on the walls.
I can’t recall whether or not I’ve seen markhors in a zoo. Probably have.