Caprids | Caprinae
Caprines (Caprinae) are found in every continent and environment, except in the Arctic and the Antarctic. They are medium-sized and have a relatively stocky body with thick legs and powerful feet or limbs for effortless movement in rugged terrain. Caprines can be grazers or browsers or both. They are also extremely social and use scents or produce odor to mark territories. Besides, caprines have short, sharp, backward curved horns with horns of males being larger than those of females, while their coats can be brown, sandy, deep reddish brown, and even straw-yellow. The most common caprines include the Barbary sheep, takin, markhor, mouflon, and muskox.
Bovines are medium-to-large-size ungulates while caprines are medium-sized bovids. Caprines or goat-antelope include sheep and goats, while bovines include cattle, African buffalo, water buffalo, and bison. The gigantic size of bovids makes them good working animals, as caprines are only kept for their milk, meat, and skin.
Sheep are highly social animals that love to aggregate in groups. Males also known as rams have thicker and longer horns than those of females or ewes which can be seen with the young or lamb. For those sheep that live in the wild, like the rocky mountain bighorn sheep, male, female, and young males live in separate herds.
Fainting in goats comes from a hereditary condition, called myotonia congenita, which causes their muscles to stiffen when startled. Fortunately, this seizure only affects their muscles and not their nerves or the cardiovascular system. Besides, not all goats faint. It is only the Tennessee fainting goat that has this condition.
