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1972; Dolan, 1989). The antlers also lack the bez tine and the crown, often
displaying a tendency to palmation (Gervais, 1854; Joleaud, 1913, 1925;
Lavauden, 1924; Salez, 1959; Meyer, 1972). In Tunisia, studies clone on antlers
indicate that only about five per cent of the population develop a bez tine, and
this may often appear only as a bump or slight projection on the beam of the
antler (Dolan, 1988). The similarity of Mrican red deer to the representatives of
the Sardinia subspecies has been underlined byvarious authors, induding Gervais
(1848), Lataste (1885), Corbet (1978), and Kowalski and Rzebik-Kowalska
(1991). In C elaphus, the reduction of size and the simplified antler architecture
has often been interpreted as a consequence of prolonged isolation in restricted
areas oflow trophic production, combined with the effects of genetic bottlenecks
and of a serious and continuous consanguinity (cf. Kaji et al., 1988; Mattioli,
1991, 1993). In several cases, among the deer ofSardinia and Mesola, considerable
simplification in the antler architecture has been recorded, characterised by the
upward shifting of the trez tine (Mattioli, in litteris). Despite the fact that the
available evidence of the Lampedusa red deer is limited to a single specimen, it
seems likely that the deer lived in very low trophic conditions, and probably were
under stress caused by excessive interbreeding and the restricted size of the island
(Masseti and Zava, 2002). The bone evidence collected by Giglioli, confirming
earlier literary references an d reports, undermines any hypothesis that the remains
were imported onto the island.

THE "WILD" GOATS OF LAMPEDUSA

When the nineteenth centwy botanist Giovanni Gussone landed o n Lampedusa
in 1828, in the course of the fìrst scientific mission launched by the Kingdom of
Naples, he did no t report the occurrence of any red deer. Large-sized ungulates were
only represented by a few feral pigs, and several wild goats ("caprii selvaggi").
Gussone (1832) estimateci the occurrence of about 200 wild goats on the island.
These goats used to live in herds, coming down to the sea at night to quench their
thirst. They greedily ate the fruits of Philryrea and the leaves of Pistacia. Several other
authors, such as Calcara (1846, 1847, 1848), and Sanvisente (1849), who observed
the goats, although they did not describe their morphology, indicated that these
were nuly wild goats rather than feral. Effectively, scientific literature and official
reports record ed tl1e occurrence of populations of wild goats o n several of the centrai
Mediterranean islets from at least the eighteenth century (Fig. 4). The Sardinian
natw·alist Francesco Cetti, as far back as 177 4, described the islet of T avolara, off
the north-eastern shores of Sardinia, as inhabited by herds of wild goats. ''These are
neither chamois nor ibexes; they are independent goats; they are fugitive goats, wild,
but of the same species as the domestic; they are effectively the primitive goats from
which, according to V arro, the do mesti c species is derived. They are, therefore,

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