Flare-horned Markhor Conservation Project

The markhor (Capra falconeri) is one of the largest and most distinctive members of the Caprinae or goat family. Male markhors have dramatically large and strikingly spiral horns and a long, shaggy beard. These giant goats live on steep cliffs, mostly between 8,000 and 14,000 ft in elevation, and despite their size their agility allows them to climb seemingly insurmountable cliff faces and even clamber up into trees to feed. The majority of the markhor’s range falls within the borders of Pakistan. It is the largest ungulate within the Northern Areas of Pakistan and is an important component of the landscape, both as a member of the wildlife community (especially as one of the only wild prey items for large carnivores such as wolf and snow leopard) and as a cultural icon to the local people.

The Human Aspect
Within Pakistan there are many laws (such as the Northern Areas Wildlife Preservation Act) and protected areas that directly or indirectly relate to markhor. For example, in the Northern Areas there are eight protected areas believed to contain flare-horned markhor populations. Unfortunately, many of these laws and protected areas afford little in the way of real protection, especially in some of the more remote or politically sensitive areas. For example, in the Tangir Game Reserve many people in the valley are currently unaware of the status of this area.

Threats
Unfortunately, the markhor is under threat of extinction. The species as a whole has been listed as Endangered, and all three subspecies are listed as either Endangered or Critically Endangered. Threats include intense hunting pressure, human warfare, and increasing disturbance and competition from domestic goats and sheep. Despite international and country-wide protection, the population of flare-horned markhor (C. f. falconeri, the subspecies found in the Northern Areas of Pakistan) may have been halved within the last 25 years. Surviving populations are small, highly fragmented, and isolated from one another. As human population growth and disturbance continues in the regions occupied by the markhor, these threats to its survival will only continue to increase.

WCS Activities
The Wildlife Conservation Society has been involved in markhor conservation since the 1970s when Dr. George Schaller surveyed Pakistan and Afghanistan for markhor and other wild ungulates. Recently, the WCS Pakistan Program has implemented a major markhor project across southern Gilgit and Diamer Districts. WCS has surveyed markhor in 60 valleys, and also performed conservation education efforts with local communities aimed at markhor conservation, and developed local community conservation committees and registered them with government agencies in many of the survey valleys. These efforts have already resulted in ending the hunting of markhor in a number of these valleys. The markhor surveys also resulted in the discovery of a new population of Ladakh urial (Ovis orientalis vignei), a rare wild sheep that has nearly disappeared from its range in Northern Pakistan due to overhunting.

Important Next Steps
• WCS will continue to arrange and facilitate meetings with the remaining valleys between the resource committees and the Government Wildlife and Forest Department to officially gain permission for and implement the volunteer community wildlife guard project.
• WCS will continue to arrange training and workshops for the volunteer wildlife guards and resource conservation committees to ensure protection of markhor.
• The Community Conservation Education Project will continue in selected valleys to maintain and more fully encourage communities’ attitudes towards conservation of markhor and other wildlife.
• WCS is instituting community focused conservation initiatives to ensure that the urial population is closely monitored and protected from poaching.