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KRI-KRI MEAT GOAT

1. Introduction
Goats and sheep can be assumed to have become separate species at least 25mya. This
is much older than fossil-based estimates. The markhor, a central Asian species, split
from other goats about 3.4mya. Then we can work out how the domestic animal split
from the bezoar. The research from Koh Nomura of Tokyo University of Agriculture,
in Kanagawa, and his colleagues first indicates that there could have been a population
increase before the domestication in a period 250,000 years ago, during the late
Pleistocene. The Eurasian pig populations also expanded at these times. Then 10, 000
years ago, domestication is associated with a decrease in the wild population. Whether
this loss of wild goats was due to increased hunting, habitat loss, or competition with
domestic animals is debatable.
The modern goat has developed as a result of the domestication of many different
populations of wild goat, which must have been isolated from each other. Mutations
that would cause slight problems must have been removed by natural selection
according to the authors of this paper. They assume this because almost all deleterious
genes have disappeared over the long periods the goat has been kept as a domestic
herd animal or under semi-natural conditions. Only goats from southern parts of Asia
have any fixed "deleterious mutations," presumably because they were transported
from the north (China and Mongolia) under conditions that created genetic
bottlenecks.

2. Breed Background
The kri-kri (Capra aegagrus cretica), sometimes called the Cretan goat, Agrimi,

or Cretan Ibex.
The Kri-kri is now found only on the island of Crete, Greece and three small

islands just offshore (Dia, Thodorou and Agii Pantes).


Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Artiodactyla
Family: Bovidae
Subfamily: Caprinae
Genus: Capra
Species: C. aegagrus
Subspecies: C. a. Cretica

3. Characteristic
Light brownish coat with a darker band around its neck.
Have two horns that sweep back from the head.
In the wild they are shy and avoid tourists, resting during the day.
The animal can leap some distance or climb seemingly sheer cliffs.
Males have larger horns than females (up to 90 cm), which curve backwards.
the males is the beard, which rarely occurs in females.

4. Advantages
Kri-kris have a strong sexual dimorphism.
Males are larger than females.
They all have horns, with annual rings and knobs, from which their age can be

easily calculated.
High resistance towards disease.
Meat production.

5. Others Information
The Kri-kri has a light brownish coat with a darker band around its neck. It has two
horns that sweep back from the head. In the wild they are shy and avoid tourists,
resting during the day. The animal can leap some distance or climb seemingly sheer
cliffs.
Adult female in natural habitat, Samaria Gorge National Park. The Kri-kri is not
thought to be indigenous to Crete, most likely having been imported to the island
during the time of the Minoan civilization. Nevertheless, it is found nowhere else and
is therefore endemic to Crete. It was common throughout the Aegean but the peaks of
the 8,000 ft (2,400 m) White Mountains of Western Crete are their last strongholds-particularly a series of almost vertical 3,000 ft (900 m) cliffs called 'the Untrodden'

at the head of the Samaria Gorge. This mountain range, which hosts another 14
endemic animal species, is protected as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. In total, their
range extends to the White Mountains, the Samaria National Forest and the islets of
Dia, Thodorou, and Agii Pandes. Recently some were introduced onto two more
islands.
By 1960, the Kri-kri was under threat, with numbers below 200. It had been the only
meat available to mountain guerillas during the German occupation in World War II.
Its status was one reasons why the Samaria Gorge became a national park in 1962.
There are still only about 2,000 animals on the island and they are considered
vulnerable: hunters still seek them for their tender meat, grazing grounds have become
scarcer and disease has affected them. Hybridization is also a threat, as the population
has interbred with ordinary goats. Hunting them is strictly prohibited.
Archaeological excavations have found several wall paintings of the kri-kri. Some
academics believe that the animal was worshiped during antiquity. On the island,
males are often called 'agrimi' (, 'the wild one'), while the name 'Sanada' is used
for the female. The Kri-kri is a symbol of the island, much used in tourism marketing
and official literature.
As molecular analyses demonstrate, the Kri-kri is not, as previously thought, a distinct
subspecies of wild goat. Rather, it is a feral domestic goat, derived from the first
stocks of goats domesticated in the Levant and other parts of the Eastern
Mediterranean around 8000-7500 BCE. Therefore, it represents a nearly ten thousand
year-old "snapshot" of the first domestication of goats.
In any case, the Kri-kri is an emblem of Crete and has immense cultural significance
there. Legally however, endangered species legislation would likely not apply (as this
does not cover feral populations), but similar cases elsewhere have been covered under
cultural heritage protection laws.
6. Reference
i) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kri-kri
ii) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_goat_breeds
iii) http://www.earthtimes.org/nature/goat-history/2414/

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