Himalayan Tahr

The Name "Tahr": "Tahr" is from the Nepalese word "thar," for the animal.

Location: The Himalayas, southern India, southeastern Arabia, and New Zealand.

Habitat: Terrestrial. Varied: the Arabian subspecies lives in rocky, desert areas; the other three subspecies live in montane woodland.

Description: The tahr is covered with a dense, woolly coat with soft underfur. The horns grow in a curve upward and backward and may reach 18 inches in the male, and less in the female. The eyes are large, and the ears small and pointed. There are no facial glands, but the tail contains a large number of glands which secrete a very strong-smelling substance. The tahr grows to about five and a half feet long, over three feet high at the shoulder, and can weigh over 225 pounds.

Behavior: Males live in separate groups from the females with their young, but they join with the female led groups during the mating season. They graze in the evening and in the early morning. The rest of the day they lie hidden in vegetation.

Reproduction: The gestation period lasts six to eight months, and the females generally give birth to a single kid, which is suckled for about six more months. Sexual maturity is reached at an age of about 18 months.