Domestic Goat
Capra aegagrus hircus
🐐
Chordata
Mammalia
Artiodactyla
Pecora
Bovidae
Capra
Capra aegagrus hircus
From Latin capra (female goat) and hircus (he-goat). The genus name shares roots with caper (“to leap”), fitting its sure-footed nature
The domestic goat — humanity’s nimble companion, milk-giver, and mountain browser — shaped early herding and agriculture across the Old World.
Description
The domestic goat (Capra hircus) is a versatile and hardy ruminant derived from the wild bezoar ibex (Capra aegagrus) of the Zagros and Taurus Mountains. Adults typically weigh 40–100 kg, with both sexes often bearing backward-curving horns. Goats are among the earliest domesticated livestock, first tamed around 10,500 years ago in the Fertile Crescent.
Their adaptability to dry, rocky, and mountainous environments made them a keystone of early pastoralism. They provide meat, milk, hair, hide, and dung fuel — a full ecological partnership. Goats browse on shrubs, leaves, and herbs rather than graze grasses, filling a niche complementary to sheep and cattle.
Quick Facts
Max Mass
Shoulder Height
Standing Height
Length
Diet
Trophic Level
140
kg
m
m
m
Browser
Ruminant
Hunt History
Goats were first domesticated in Neolithic villages such as Ganj Dareh (Iran, ~10,000 BP) and Jericho (Levant, ~9,000 BP). By the Bronze Age, they were integral to economies from the Indus Valley to the Mediterranean. Ancient DNA shows a single major domestication event followed by diffusion across Asia, Africa, and Europe.
Culturally, goats appear in countless mythologies — from the Greek Amalthea (nurse of Zeus) to the Norse Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjóstr pulling Thor’s chariot. In subsistence societies, they remain vital for milk, meat, and ritual exchange.
Time & Range
Extinction Status
Domesticated 10,500 years ago
Extinction Date
Temporal Range
Region
BP
Holocene - Present
Originally Western Asia; now global
Fat Analysis
Fatness Profile:
Medium
Fat %
15
Est. Renderable Fat
10
kg
Targeted Organs
Perirenal Fat, Mesenteric Fat
Adipose Depots
Perirenal Fat, Omental Fat, Subcutaneous Fat
Preferred Cuts
Mesenteric Fat, Dairy
Hunt Difficulty (x/5)
1