Mature male courting a female in Nuvadi. Her kid is on the left.

Our project will provide data on the status and ecology of several different wild goat populations in Armenia, and of threats they are facing. These data will characterize birth rate, kid survival and natural growth of studied populations, besides purely ecological information like habitat use. Results will enable us to compare different wild goat populations of not only various habitat types but also of areas differing in status and land-use, such as state-protected and those in private lease used as safari parks, and, incorporating our data from the previous projects, will show populational trends over a period of 8 years altogether.

This comparison will provide necessary basis for working out strategies of not just protection of the species, but of its sustainable use, because just protection is hardly popular in nowadays Armenia. We plan to carry out several meetings with students of the Biological Faculty of Erevan State University in order to get them interested in studying large mammals of Armenia. We shall also work out specific monitoring programmes for each protected nature territory in central and eastern Armenia and major areas in private lease.

We shall submit our final report to Ministry of Nature Conservation of Armenia and WWF-Armenia.