Conservation, Management and Threats to Markhor population in Pakistan: An Overview

Markhor is a national animal of Pakistan. It is present in different regions of KPK, Baluchistan and Sindh with majority of the population in KPK region. Generally, five species of Markhor are present in different areas of Pakistan and they differ from each other on the basis of their location and their horns. Its status is endangered in Pakistan and major reasons for its decline are habitat loss, hunting and poaching etc. An increase in hunting has been observed in last few decades due to its skull and meat importance. Although a lot of conservations programs are involved for the protection of this animal and various different national and international agencies are also working on it such as NWFP wildlife department etc. The agencies are collecting funds from different sources like tourism to protect this animal. The present review highlights the importance of Markhor along with its distribution, major threats and conservation strategies adopted to protect Markhor in Pakistan.