Goats. Domestication and Geographical Diffusion. Future Prospects

With an evolutionary history dating back 20 million years, goats (genus Capra) are even-toed, hoofed riminants adapted to the harsh conditions of rocky, mountainous terrain. Goats, although closely related to sheep, can be distinguished by their backward-arching horns, erect tails, and beards on most males.

As herbivorous mammals, goats prefer to browse on leafy plants, although they also eat grasses and occasionally climb trees to eat leaves off of branches. Generally traveling in groups, goats form rigid hierarchical formations, and "males and females will establish social dominance in their respective groups through head to head fighting" (Smith & Sherman 1994,2). The goat was one of the first animals that humans domesticated and has been used primarily as a source of meat and milk but also, to a lesser extent, for its skin and hair.

Members of the Sambum in Kenya tending to their goat herd

Domestication and Geographical Diffusion. Of the wild goat species currently living, the bezoar goat (Capra aegagrtts) is likely the chief progenitor of the domestic breeds (Capra hircus). Archeological evidence suggests that goats were domesticated between 7000 and 8000 все in the Zagros Mountains close to the border between Iran and Iraq.

Researchers have suggested various routes that domestic goats took to diffuse from this point of origin to southern and eastern Asia. Two possible continental routes—one through Afghanistan to northern China and the other across the Indian subcontinent to southeastern Asia—are likely candidates, although the diffusion may have resulted from trade routes across the Indian Ocean as well.

Goats spread throughout much of Africa via Egypt. Because there is little evidence of wild goat species inhabiting continental Europe, with the exception of the ibex (Capra ibex), it is believed that domestic goats were brought from southwestern Asia, although the details of this process are not fully understood. Goats are a fairly recent arrival to the Americas, having first come with Spanish settlers during the early sixteenth century.

During the period of European expansion and colonialism, explorers brought goats to various Pacific islands and left them "as a source of food for later sailors" (Mason 1984, 97). British explorer Captain James Cook's expedition, for example, brought goats to New Zealand in 1777 and to Hawaii the following year.

The goat was just one of a number of domestic animals that Europeans introduced into the various places that they colonized. The introduction of Old World plants and animals into such colonial territories—as well as the transfer of different species back to Europe via imperial networks of exchange—was a crucial element of such colonization projects and had lasting consequences for the environmental history of many regions of the world.

Geographical Distribution of Domesticated Goats. At the end of the twentieth century there were an estimated 710 million goats worldwide. Of these, the majority were in Asia (63 percent) and Africa (29 percent). Tile accuracy of such estimates, however, is far from certain because many countries with large goat populations do not have adequate resources to conduct proper census counts.

Goats are often used for subsistence purposes in marry Asian and African countries, where they can be relied on for meat and milk when crops fail. In addition to rural areas, goats can often be found in urban areas in many tropical regions, where they tend to be "more convenient than cattle in providing members of the urban population with a source of milk, meat, and cash" (Peacock 1996, 19-20).

In countries such as France and Norway dairy goat production has become a large-scale industry. Although dairy goat production is still a relatively marginal industry in the United States, the consumption of goat products is on the rise, and Texas is becoming a center for mohair production.

Of the main milk-producing goats currently in use in many regions around the world — Saanen, Toggenburg, Nubian, and French-Alpine—many descend from Swiss breeds. The introduction of Swiss milk-producing breeds has had a major impact on goat milk production in Australia, Europe, New Zealand, North America, and other regions.

Throughout much of Africa various goat species serve as a source of meat. For instance, the west African dwarf and the small east African goat are used primarily to produce meat for subsistence consumption and are rarely milked. Other goat species, such as the Angora, are exploited for the production of fiber in various north African countries and Asia. Angora populations also exist in Argentina, Australia, Lesotho, South Africa, and the United States (mainly Texas).

Future Prospects. Since the 1960s environmental issues have come to the forefront of political debate, and goats have often been condemned as a cause of desertification. This view of the goat as environmental villain, however, has been challenged by numerous development workers and veterinarians. Goats, they argue, are no more to blame than other domestic animals for the denudation of vegetation and the resulting soil erosion.

Because goats can survive in harsher conditions than sheep or cattle, "goats are loft surviving when vegetation is almost gone" (Smith & Sherman 1994, 3), even if they were not the main culprits of environmental degradation. Commentators who defend the reputation of the goat, however, recognize that there are certain cases in which goats have outstripped the capacity for vegetation to regenerate.

Tire problem arises from the fact that goats often graze close to the ground, thereby killing the roots of grasses in some instances. Goats have been particularly destructive when introduced on tropical islands, yet they are also partially responsible for intensifying desertification in numerous continental regions, from central Chile to western Australia. Balancing the goal of environmental conservation with the needs of local populations that rely on goats, and other domestic animals, for subsistence is a major challenge to policymakers around the world.

Tins issue is part of the larger political debate about sustainable development that emerged during the 1990s and will likely continue throughout the twenty-first century. A considerable literature has emerged on the significance of goats in many rural areas of Africa and Asia, and as the debates rage on, goats will continue to play a major role in the livelihood of millions.