The wild goats Capra aegagrus Erxleben, 1777 of the Mediterranean Sea and the Eastern Atlantic Ocean islands MARCO MASSETI Laboratories of Anthropology and Ethnology, Department of Evolutionistic Biology, University of Florence, Via del Proconsolo, 12 – 50122 Florence, Italy ABSTRACT 1. Populations of wild goats that can be referred to as phenotypes of the pasang, or Bezoar goat, or wild goat Capra aegagrus Erxleben, 1777, still occur on several of the Mediterranean and Eastern Atlantic islands. Other populations became extinct not many decades ago. 2. Fossil evidence for the natural spread of the wild goat to any of these islands has not been found. Originating in the Near East, the region of its natural range and its earliest domesti- cation, the species was introduced by humans onto the Mediterranean islands starting as early as the Pre-Pottery Neolithic. 3. The islands of the Eastern Atlantic were colonized artificially by animals of ‘pre-Hispanic’ origin. The principal phenotypes expressed by all these populations of goats can be matched with the characteristics of both C. a. aegagrus Erxleben, 1777 (aegagrus phenotype) and C. a. dorcas Reichenow, 1888 (dorcas phenotype). 4. Most of these animals currently survive on the islands without being fed by humans, and should be protected. Keywords: Capra aegagrus, domestic animals, Eastern Atlantic islands, feral animals, Mediterranean islands, wild goat Mammal Review (2009), 39, 141–157 doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2907.2009.00141.x INTRODUCTION Populations of wild goats Capra aegagrus Erxleben, 1777 have been present on several of the Mediterranean and Eastern Atlantic islands from time immemorial. It used to be thought that they were autochthonous forms. However, in view of the lack of fossil evidence for these ungulates in mainland Europe or on the islands, they are now considered ancient feral breeds deriving from human importations in ancient or more recent times (Payne, 1968; Clutton- Brock, 1981; Masseti, 1981; Davis, 1984, 1987; Helmer, 1989; Ciani & Masseti, 1991). The wild goat is in fact completely absent from the original late Pleistocene fauna of southern Europe (Schultze-Westrum, 1963; Azzaroli, 1983), its original range being documented only from the north-eastern Mediterranean mainland, where wild goat populations still survive in the south-western and eastern Anatolian mountains. They are found in inner south-western Asia, from south-western Anatolia to the western Indian subcontinent, throughout the eastern Caucasus, southern Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and south-western Pakistan (Harri- son, 1968; Harrison & Bates, 1991; Masseti, 1997a; Pedrotti & Lovari, 1999; Grubb, 2005). In the Near East, the altitudinal range of the species extends from sea level to the alpine zone. The goats are capable of surviving in very arid regions where the vegetation is sparse; their Correspondence: M. Masseti. E-mail: marco.masseti@unifi.it Mammal Rev. 2009, Volume 39, No. 2, 141–157. Printed in Singapore. © 2009 The Author. Journal compilation © 2009 Mammal Society, Mammal Review, 39, 141–157