Capra Grigia
A rare Swiss mountain goat with a grey coat.
The Capra Grigia, a rare domestic goat from Switzerland, is endangered. It comes from the valleys of the Grisons (Graubünden) in the east and Ticino (Tessin) in the south. This breed may be linked to the grey Passeirer Gebirgsziege from Bolzano Province in northeastern Italy.
Quick Facts
- Country
- Switzerland
- Distribution
- Grisons, Ticino
- Coat
- grey, lower legs black
- Horns
- horned in both sexes
Facts from the source article.
Did You Know?
- The coat colour varies from mottled dark grey to pale silver-white, with dark grey or black legs and a dark dorsal stripe.
- The Capra Grigia has strong horns that grow upwards and outwards.
- Its hard hooves are well-suited to the high mountain terrain of the southern Alps.
History
For over a century, the Capra Grigia has been recorded in the Ticino and Grisons valleys, where three regional varieties once existed: the Bleni-Valmaggia (or Lavizzarer), the Liviner (or Misoxer), and the Riveria. This goat breed was left out of the 1938 reorganization of Swiss breeds, and a mid-20th-century outbreak of caprine arthritis encephalitis nearly wiped it out. In 1997, ProSpecieRara began a conservation effort, creating a herd-book of all surviving animals and launching controlled breeding. Official breed standards arrived in 2005, and the Capra Grigia gained formal recognition as a Swiss breed the following year. By 2007, only 190 goats were registered, earning a “critical-maintained” status from the FAO. A boost came in 2008, when five similar goats were found in Italy’s Valchiavenna, widening the gene pool. A dedicated breed association, Capra Grigia Schweiz, formed in 2011. By the close of that year, the population had grown to between 475 and 490 animals, as reported to DAD-IS.
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