Goral-one of the smallest representatives of the tribe Rupicaprini, belongs to the genus Naemorhedus, or Nemorhaedus (the word Nemorhaedus is derived from the Latin nemoralis, which means "forest", and haedus – "young goat).
There are not many trophies of gorals in museum collections , because almost everywhere these animals are few and belong to the threatened species.
The taxonomy of gorals, like many other mammals, is very uncertain – some scientists suggest that there are only three species in the genus, while others count up to a dozen subspecies of the Himalayan goral alone. The authors of the Atlas Caprinae of the World CIC distinguish 4 species of gorals: Naemorhedus baileyi Pocock, 1914- a red goral; Naemorhedus caudatus Milne-Edwards, 1867- an Amur goral; Naemorhedus griseus Milne-Edwards, 1871-a grey goral; and Naemorhedus goral Hardwicke, 1825- a Himalayan goral.
An adult goral looks like a young domestic goat with small horns. Others compare it with chamois (in particular, the Amur goral is called "Amur sulfur") or serow. The head of the animal is small, set on a short, muscular neck, the chest is wide, the legs are short, strong. The back is slightly higher than the withers. Males and females are the same size. With the exception of the smallest red goral, all other species are approximately the same size and weight. The body length of large individuals reaches 130 cm, and the height at the withers-80 cm; the body weight rarely exceeds 42 kg. Apparently, the red goral never weighs more than 30 kg, and is 103 cm long and 61 cm high at the withers.
The black cone-shaped and pointed horns are tilted back and slightly downward, have clear, asymmetrical rings at the base and in the lower third, but are smooth above. The horns of the females are shorter and the rings are less distinct than those of the males. The horns are relatively short and do not exceed the length of the skull. Gorals have extremely sharp eyesight.
Older males stay alone or live in small groups of 4 to 12 individuals. Gorals are extremely agile animals and can move at high speed over difficult terrain. Their disguise is very effective. Goral's first reaction when faced with a potential danger is to freeze. They are able to remain motionless for some time, and are very difficult to see in the rocks.
Gorals lead a crepuscular lifestyle-active in the early morning and in the afternoon. They feed on grassy ridges and difficult rocky slopes, while hiding in the forest or crevices, looking for shelter under overhanging rocks. In case of danger, it emits a hiss or a sneeze-like sound that alerts you to an alarm.
The habitats are usually located in the range from 1,000 to 2,750 m above sea level, but gorals were also found at an altitude of 4,200 m.
It is believed that their life expectancy is up to 15 years.
Our knowledge of the distribution of gorals, as well as the number of extant populations, is limited. Their range extends in a large arc from northern Pakistan along the Himalayas through southeastern and north-central China to Korea and the Russian Far East. In the southern direction-including Indochina. The contiguous ranges of all goral species have already been torn apart, probably even to a greater extent than shown on the map.
All goral phenotypes are registered in Appendix I of CITES, and are also protected in a number of countries. They are subject to additional domestic restrictions in the United States and the European Union. It is doubtful whether these restrictions, including the list from Appendix I of CITES, are appropriate, since they have not had a sufficient impact on the stabilization of the goral population.
There are no accurate estimates of the habitats and populations of most goral species, and their protection is, for the most part, a by-product of the creation of conservation areas. The locals hunt gorals throughout the area for the sake of meat and offal, which are used in traditional eastern medicine. there is no doubt that the local people will continue to do this until they are offered an alternative. It is clear that increasing the interest of rural residents in nature protection needs a pragmatic approach that will result in tangible economic benefits for communities and their participants. The application of an exclusively conservation approach to the protection of gorals in some conservation areas with little or inadequate control and compliance with laws to prevent poaching will lead to a further reduction in the range of gorals.
The only possibility is still existed in India. There is still the possibility of limited hunting for the Himalayan goral, which is found throughout the Himalayas up to the foothills. Its population is assessed as low-risk / near-threatened, which allows to hunt for adult males under a special license in all states except Nagaland and Himachal Pradesh.
Hunting for the Himalayan goral was legal in Nepal and China not long ago. All entries in the Rowland Ward Trophy Book refer to the grey Himalayan gorals. The trophy goral with the longest horns was got near the mountain settlement of Mussoorie in Uttarakhand, India, in 1902. The length was 23.2 cm, the circumference was 9.5 cm, and the distance between the horn's tips was 10.8 cm. More than 20 trophies from the western Himalayas (gray ecotype) had horns of 19.1 cm or more, and all of these animals were captured in the first quarter of the twentieth century or earlier. Eastern (brown) Himalayan ecotypes, on average, are characterized to some extent by shorter horns. A unique specimen from Bhutan (1967) had a horn length of 18.7 cm.12 trophies from Nepal were characterized by a horn length of 13.0 cm to 17.8 cm, and were mainly mined in the last quarter of the twentieth century.
In Russia, in the Far East (Primorsky and Khabarovsk Territories), the Amur goral (NaemorheduscaudatusMilne-Edwards, 1867) lives. It is also found in northeastern China, the Republic of Korea, and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).
The northernmost phenotype is also called the Korean goral (N. c. raddeanus).
In our country, it is quite common in three isolated places on the eastern slopes of the central and southern Sikhote-Alin along the coast of the Sea of Japan: in the Black Mountains near the headwaters of the Ananyevka, Nezhinka and Borisovka rivers; in the southwestern part of the Bureinsky Ridge; as well as along the Sino-Russian border in the Khasansky district and south of Lake Khanka.
The extant populations are heterogeneous due to the limited number of suitable habitats, i.e. steep rocky slopes covered with sparse, mountainous broad-leaved forests, at an altitude of up to 2,000 m above sea level.
The color of the Amur Goral varies from gray-brownish to gray-fawn. There is a mane of long shaggy dark hair on the upper part of the neck. The fur, at least in winter, is long, shaggy, and rather fluffy. The legs below the knees and lower legs are evenly colored fawn in front and outside.
The horns are short (shorter than those of the Himalayan goral), but with a similar base circumference. There was just one pair of horns from northern China (Nankou, Hebei) registered as a hunting trophy, measuring 19.1 cm in length and 7.6 cm in circumference. According to experts studying this animal, the horns of individuals from Russia are from 14 to 21 cm in length in males and from 13 to 22 cm in females.
The Amur goral lives in mountainous areas, sometimes going into evergreen or deciduous forests near cliffs, but mostly adheres to rough, rocky terrain. They prefer terrain with open, grassy ridges at an altitude of 500 to 2,000 m. The Amur goral lives in small groups - from 4 to 12 individuals. Adult males are usually solitary. Gorals lead a crepuscular lifestyle, most active in the early morning and late evening. A characteristic feature of the Amur Goral is its slowness. The animals move slowly from place to place, often stop and listen. At the same time, the speed with which the disturbed animals leave is surprising They jump on high rocks and ledges easily without running, make jumps up to two meters in height and standing on a small ledge of rock with all four legs. The Amur gorals can jump down from a height of 8-10 meters. They can make several jumps of 5-5.3 meters in a row without running up On a horizontal surface,.
Males and females reach sexual maturity at about three years of age, with a lifespan of up to 15 years.
Climatic factors, including the thickness of the snow cover and low temperatures, can cause a significant decrease in the number of gorals. The wolf, tiger and lynx are natural nemies of the Amur goral. The number of the last two species is small, but the increase in the number of wolves in Primorye in recent years raises serious concerns.
In 1977, there were between 600 and 750 animals in Russia. At the same time, there are signs of a gradual reduction in the number of animals. More than half of all extant Amur gorals live in Russia, and most of the rest of the population-in the north-eastern regions of China. There are no current detailed estimates of the population size.
Unfortunately, in captivity, gorals do not take root well, but catching and relocating them from Primorye to the mountainous and rocky areas of broad-leaved forests of the Caucasus, Crimea and other places where there are no long deep-snow winters is quite possible and is of great interest.
In conclusion, I would like to note the fact that the Amur goral – a unique mountain ungulate of the family polorogih – is not an introduced, but an endemic Russian species, the extraction of which is excluded by a trophy hunter, but the "extraction" of this animal as a photo trophey will allow creating conditions for its reproduction and protection on the ground, which will necessarily affect the population growth. We think that the CMH could consider including gorals in the list of photo trophies.
