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1991; Sfougaris, 1994 an d 1995). The wild goat of the island of Samothrace, in the
Northern Aegean sea, has also been described as C a. pictus (Schultze-Westrum,
1963), and seems to have become extinct in the wild before the end of the 1980s
(Sfougaris, 1990, 1995). In the Centrai Mediterranean basin, a population ofwild
goats, which has been described taxonomically as C aegagrus hircus L., 1758
(Spagnesi et al., 1986) is stili present on the island of Montecristo (Tuscan
archi pelago, N orthern T yrrhenian sea), although o n the basis of morphological an d
phenotypical observations, Ciani and Masseti (1991) suggest that it might be
included in the nomenclature of the wild goats of theAegean islands (Fig. 6). Again,
on the islet ofLa Galite off the northern T unisian shore, a population of wild goats
survived until the beginning of the twentieth century (Lavauden, 1924), displaying
phenotypical patterns identica! to those of the Montecristo goat. Earlier authors
often dassifìed these Mediterranean insular goats as specifìc or subspecifìc geographic
forms, almost entirely on the basis of arbitrary criteria and of the examination of
scattered materials. Further investigations are now called for to provide a more
specifìc defìnition of their taxonomic and genetic position. It used to be thought
that the wild goats of the Mediterranean islands were autochthonous forms. But i t
is now realised, considering the lack of fossil evidence for these ungulates on the
islands, that these caprines are ancient breeds which can be related to anthropical
importations (Payne, 1968; Masseti, 1981; Davis, 1984, 1987; Clutton-Brock,

Fig. 6 - The straight -horned wild goat of Montecristo is the last survivor of an ancient breed imported onta the centrai
Mediterranean islands (photograph by Marco Masseti)

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