The domesticated goat (Capra hircus) is an animal that, although of extraordinary usefulness to humans, experiences sharply different levels of acceptance around the world. Its ruminant ability to digest cellulose is the key to its success as a form of livestock, but its browsing efficiency can often be harmful to marginal environments.

Origin and Domestication

Goats were domesticated in the Near East from Capra aegagrus, known variously as the Persian wild goat, bezoar goat, or padang. The males of this ungulate species of the rugged terrain of western Asia have long, scimitar-shaped horns; the females' horns are similarly shaped but shorter. The bezoar goat has been a prey of hunters, in part, at least, because its stomach concretions (also called “bezoars” by physicians) have a widespread but medically unfounded reputation as an antidote for poison. The foothills of the Zagros Mountains is the most plausible area for the origin of goat domestication. Early Neolithic sites contain evidence of goat keeping from as long as 9,000 years ago. Such dating would seem to make the goat a candidate for the world’s oldest domesticated herd animal. Brian Hesse (1982) analyzed the abundant goat bones at the site of Ganj Dareh on the cold Iranian plateau and determined that the smaller size of the bones corresponded to domestic goats. Other sites, dated several hundred years later, have yielded further evidence of early goat keeping in the eastern half of the Fertile Crescent. At Jarmo, goats were the most numerous domesticate. At Tepe Ali Kosh, domestic goats preceded domestic sheep. From the east, the domesticated caprine spread westward into the Mediterranean. For example, at Natufian sites in the Levant, the domesticated goat appeared only later as a significant animal in the life of the people. There, and in Egypt, goats have been present for about 7,000 years. In the Nile Valley, goats were integrated into a sedentary agricultural system, but they also could be sustained in the non-irrigated desert beyond.