The Nilgiri tahr (''Nilgiritragus hylocrius'') is an

ungulate Ungulates ( ) are members of the diverse clade Ungulata which primarily consists of large mammals with hooves. These include odd-toed ungulates such as horses, rhinoceroses, and tapirs; and even-toed ungulates such as cattle, pigs, giraff ...

that is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found els ...

to the Nilgiri Hills and the southern portion of the Western and Eastern Ghats in the states of

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a state in southern India. It is the tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu is the home of the Tamil people, whose Tamil languag ...

and

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South C ...

in southern

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

. It is the state animal of

.Prater, S. H. 1948, 1971. ''The book of Indian Animals'', Bombay Natural History Society and Oxford University Press, India. 324 pages. . Despite its local name, it is more closely related to the sheep of the genus '' Ovis'' than the ibex and wild goats of the genus '' Capra''. It is the only species in the genus ''Nilgiritragus''.

Etymology

In Tamil, the Nilgiri tahr is called வரையாடு (''varaiaadu''). The word ''varaiaadu'' is derived from the Tamil words ''wurrai'' meaning " precipice" and ''aadu'' meaning "goat". The word in ancient Tamil was வருடை (''varudai''). In

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry ( Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam wa ...

, the word is വരയാട് (''varyaadu''). The Nilgiri tahr was described as ''Capra warryato'' by

Gray Grey (more common in British English) or gray (more common in American English) is an intermediate color between black and white. It is a neutral or achromatic color, meaning literally that it is "without color", because it can be composed ...

. The genus name ''Nilgiritragus'' is derived from the Tamil word ''Neelagiri'' meaning "blue hills" and the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

word '' trágos'' meaning "goat".

Taxonomy

Results of a

phylogenetic In biology, phylogenetics (; from Greek φυλή/ φῦλον [] "tribe, clan, race", and wikt:γενετικός, γενετικός [] "origin, source, birth") is the study of the evolutionary history and relationships among or within groups o ...

analysis showed that the Nilgiri tahr forms a

sister group In phylogenetics, a sister group or sister taxon, also called an adelphotaxon, comprises the closest relative(s) of another given unit in an evolutionary tree. Definition The expression is most easily illustrated by a cladogram: Taxon A and ...

with the genus '' Ovis'' and has been placed into the

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispec ...

genus ''Nilgiritragus'' in 2005. It used to be placed in the genus ''Hemitragus'' together with the Himalayan tahr (''H. jemlahicus'') and the Arabian tahr (''Arabitragus jayakari''), which are both closer associated with the genus '' Capra''.

Description

The Nilgiri tahr is a stocky goat with short, coarse fur and a bristly mane. Males are larger than females and of darker colour when mature. Both sexes have curved horns, reaching up to for males and for females. Adult males weigh and stand about tall at the shoulder. Adult males develop a light grey area on their backs, thus are called "saddlebacks".

Distribution and habitat

The Nilgiri tahr can be found only in India. It inhabits the open

montane grassland Montane grasslands and shrublands is a biome defined by the World Wildlife Fund. The biome includes high elevation grasslands and shrublands around the world. The term "montane" in the name of the biome refers to "high elevation", rather than t ...

habitat of the South Western Ghats montane rain forests ecoregion. At elevations from , the forests open into large grasslands interspersed with pockets of stunted forests, locally known as '' sholas''. These grassland habitats are surrounded by dense forests at the lower elevations. The Nilgiri tahrs formerly ranged over these grasslands in large herds, but hunting and poaching in the 19th century reduced their population.

Threats

The Nilgiri tahr is primarily threatened by

habitat loss Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) is the process by which a natural habitat becomes incapable of supporting its native species. The organisms that previously inhabited the site are displaced or dead, thereby ...

and disturbance caused by invasive species, and in some sites by livestock grazing, poaching and fragmentation of the landscape.

Conservation

As few as 100 Nilgiri tahrs were left in the wild by the end of 20th century. Since that time, their numbers have increased somewhat; in a comprehensive study of the Nilgiri tahr population in Western Ghats, the WWF-India has put the population at 3,122. Their range extends over from north to south, and Eravikulam National Park is home to the largest population. Per the wildlife census conducted by Kerala forest department in association with volunteers from College of Forestry and Veterinary Science under Kerala Agricultural University, from April 24–28, 2014, the number of animals in Eravikulam National Park has increased to 894 individuals. This is the highest ever count recorded in the national park, with the first census in 1996 finding only 640 tahrs. The other significant concentration is in the Nilgiri Hills, with smaller populations in the

Anamalai Hills The Anamala or Anaimalai, also known as the Elephant Mountains, are a range of mountains in the southern Western Ghats of central Kerala (Idukki district, Ernakulam district, Palakkad district, Thrissur district) and span the border of western ...

, Periyar National Park, Palani Hills, and other pockets in the Western Ghats south of Eravikulam, almost to India's southern tip. A small population of tahrs numbering around 200 is known to inhabit the Boothapandi, Azhakiyapandipuram, Velimalai, Kulasekaram, and Kaliyal Ranges in the Kanyakumari district of Tamil Nadu and another small herd of less than 30 animals is known to inhibit Ponmudi Hills in Trivandrum district of Kerala."Squeezing Life out of Ponmudi"
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References

External links

* ARKive
images and movies of the Nilgiri tahr ''(Hemitragus hylocrius)''
* https://web.archive.org/web/20160110153501/http://nilgiritahrinfo.info/ {{Taxonbar, from=Q839672 Caprids Mammals of India Fauna of Kerala Fauna of Tamil Nadu Fauna of the Western Ghats Endemic fauna of the Western Ghats Nilgiri tahr