page_title: Capra (genus)
section_title: Domestication and uses
hierarchical_section_title: Capra (genus) / Domestication and uses
caption_attribution_description: English: Ibex in the French Vanoise National Park near Pralognan la Vanoise
context_page_description: Capra is a genus of mammals, the goats, composed of up to nine species, including the wild goat, the markhor, and several species known as ibexes. The domestic goat is a domesticated subspecies of the wild goat. Evidence of goat domestication dates back more than 8,500 years.
  Wild goats are animals of mountain habitats. They are very agile and hardy, able to climb on bare rock and survive on sparse vegetation. They can be distinguished from the genus Ovis, which includes sheep, by the presence of scent glands close to the feet, in the groin, and in front of the eyes, and the absence of other facial glands, and by the presence of a beard in some specimens, and of hairless calluses on the knees of the forelegs.
  The Rocky Mountain goat is in a separate genus, Oreamnos. Present-day genetic and phenotypic differences between the Capra species are largely related to discontinuity of and impeded migration between Capra populations during glacial periods, and insufficient time in the postglacial period for now-adjoining Capra populations to overcome behavioral mechanisms impeding hybridization in the wild so as to erase these differences.
context_section_description: Along with sheep, goats were among the first domesticated animals. The domestication process started at least 10,000 years ago in what is now northern Iran. Easy human access to goat hair, meat, and milk were the primary motivations. Goat skins were popularly used until the Middle Ages for water and wine bottles when traveling and camping, and in certain regions as parchment for writing.
caption: Ibex securely climbing rocky slope
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