Tauern piebald goat
The Tauernscheckenziege is an independent, autochthonous, vital, long-lived and sure-footed mountain goat breed . It was originally kept in the valleys and alpine pastures of the Hohe Tauern around the Grossglockner , Austria's highest mountain .
The breed is lively brown / white / black, sometimes also black / white, with a short coat without hangings. A continuous pallor on the head, with the ears and the eye area clearly pigmented, is typical of the breed. This was at the transhumance , wanted since the Senner so the goats even in early autumn snowfall or browning of the alpine flora in the vast mountain Karen could find easily. On the other hand, the residual pigmentation of the head provides protection against the intense solar radiation on the high alpine pastures.
Tauernscheck are characterized by high set, well-developed udders with an appealing milk yield. So the udders were well protected from injuries in the impassable alpine area.
Tauernscheckenziegen are horned and inherit this breed trait homozygous . The height of the withers is 75–90 cm in the male goats, 70–80 cm in the female, the weight of the goats 60–85 kg, the goats 50–70 kg.
This exclusive breed of goat is a highly endangered breed of domestic animal . Its existence was saved through a private initiative in Rauris . In Austria, an international herd book is now kept by the Salzburg Breeding Association.
Breed characteristics
| Body measurements | ||
|---|---|---|
| Buck | goat | |
| Height at withers | ~ 80 cm | ~ 74 cm |
| Body mass | ~ 70 kg | ~ 55-60 kg |
| Milk yield | - | 720–880 kg in 280 milking days |
The Tauernscheckenziege is a multi-purpose breed, which is already evident in its physique: a dry foundation with hard claws gives it surefootedness even on steep and rocky terrain. Their high-set, firm udder reduces the risk of injury on the edges of rocks or undergrowth and also provides a considerable amount of milk that was previously used for the production of the original Pinzgauer cheese. Occasional milk measurements resulted in values of up to 879 kg in up to 270 days. Like the other mountain goat breeds, the Tauernschecken are good feed converters and at the same time relatively frugal. This makes them suitable for a new form of use that appears to be increasing as conventional grassland management is declining, namely landscape maintenance. The conspicuous spotting is an advantage for the owner because the animals are clearly visible both in the snow and against a dark background. Nevertheless, as long as it can move in the same herd group and move unrestrictedly, the individual animal should be as well protected from predators as a wild-colored one. If a single animal, colored differently from the rest of the group, attracts the attention of predators, a herd of piebalds has a confusing effect on the viewer, because the body contours of the individual individual visually dissolve. This would make this breed of goat better protected from attacks by bears or lynxes. The distribution of the pigmentation has other eco-physiological functions: the strong white-dark contrast in the coat with pronounced pale forehead guarantees the keeper the visibility of the animals in the terrain at all times of the year and at the same time protects the sensitive eye and ear area from UV light. The coat color is either two-tone black and white or three-tone black, brown and white. This is the direction in which the selection for sufficient pigmentation on the upper side of the body that is as continuous as possible, i.e. in the area of the neck, shoulders, back and croup, goes. The Tauernscheckenziege has a short coat and is horned in both sexes. The horns of the goats usually show an outward twist, those of the goats are more saber-shaped. The udder sits firmly and tightly on the belly-pelvic floor and has relatively short teats, which largely prevents udder injuries during the stay in the alpine pastures in regions with bushes and ledges. Outside of the lactation period, the udder is almost completely regressive. Particularly noteworthy is their robustness and the associated low susceptibility to diseases. The keeping in the high Alps during the alpine season also ensures a corresponding selection. The Tauernscheckenziege is premature. The first lambing often takes place at around 10.5 months, with a fertility of around 200%. The gestation period is 150 to 160 days.
The body mass at birth is around 3.5 kg. When reared on the mother, the fawns reach a body mass of 14 to 16 kg at around 2 months.
Breeding history
The first verifiable breeder of piebald mountain goats was Kaspar Mulitzer, born in 1884 in Pinzgauer Taxenbach , who had kept them as a child. Since 1926 he has lived in the Rauris Rohrmoosalm and has continued to breed a herd of around 100 people at the head of the Kruml valley. Of these, around 40 were dairy goats, the rest were fawns and young goats, as well as some stud bucks. Until his death in 1956, Mulitzer kept adding to and freshening up this inventory by collecting trips to other regions of the Alps. Individual piebald goats can be found in a number of small farmers and cottage owners to this day.
The time of National Socialism 1941–1944 then meant for everyone other than the Pinzgauer goats an enforced crossbreeding by the brown goats. In these three years, the proportion of pure piebald goats in the Rohrmoos herd has shrunk to an estimated 80 - the hidden location of the Krumler valley head is the reason why most of the original herd survived. From 1944 onwards it was possible to eradicate the foreign-blooded animals very quickly, especially since a second breeder in Rauris, the Gassnerbauer, was involved in the systematic breeding of the Tauern pied goat. It is he who, after 1956, the year old Mulitzer died and the subsequent dissolution of his herd, was the only one to continue the targeted breeding of Tauernschecken until 1962, a breeder with consistent herdbook breeding: Johann Wallner from Rauris. From 1970, after Gassner quit, he bears sole responsibility for the preservation of this old breed. It was not until 1983 that further breeders could be won for the cooperation, from 1992 also outside of Rauris, from 1994 outside of Salzburg. With the foundation of the Salzburg Breeding Association for Sheep and Goats in 1995, the number of breeders rose to 40 by 2002 with around 250 breeding animals. Breeding centers were also able to establish themselves in the neighboring countries of Germany and South Tyrol. The Schönbrunn Zoo also participates in conservation breeding.
literature
- Michael Fazokas: Mythos Tauernschecke , 2013 ISBN 978-3-00-040483-2
Individual evidence
- ↑ Tauernschecken goat in the handbook of diversity, rare farm animal breeds, Vienna 2016
- ↑ a b Tauernscheckenziege in Schönbrunn Zoo, accessed on March 22, 2019
- ^ Johann Wallner in Salzburgwiki, accessed on September 1, 2013
Web links
- The Tauernscheckenziege in the goat lexicon , accessed on September 28, 2009
