Eastern Tur - Capra cylindricornis

East Caucasian turs stand up to 1 metre tall at the shoulder and weigh around 60 kilograms. They have large but narrow bodies and short legs.

They generally have a dark chestnut coat in winter and a lighter chestnut coat in summer.

Males have slightly lyre shaped horns which reach around 90 centimetres in length while in females they are much smaller (30 centimetres maximum). 

Habitat

Eastern tur inhabit elevations between 1,000 and 4,000 m asl. Although the mountains in their range can reach 5,000 m asl, tur seldom rise above 3,500 m asl.

They live in forests found up to 2,600 meters, and in subalpine and alpine meadows and rocky talus slopes at higher elevations. Animals avoid thick forests on gentle slopes, but stay readily in open forests growing on steep precipitous slopes. In winters, proportion of animals dwelling below timberline increases.

Some forest-dwelling populations in Azerbaijan are completely isolated from subalpine and alpine zones.

Eastern tur consume 256 plant species in Daghestan.

Eastern tur coexist with chamois (Rupicapra rupicapra) on the northern slope in the Central Caucasus and on the southern slope in the Eastern Caucasus (mainly Azerbaijan).
In Daghestan and Chechnya, it is sympatric with the wild goat (Capra aegagrus) which dominates in the forest but seldom rises above timberline.

Reproduction and Group structure

There is a seasonal migration covering a vertical distance of 1,500 to 2,000 metres with an upward thrust in May and a retreat downwards in October. The solitary adult males generally inhabit higher altitudes than groups of females and their young, descending to join them in the breeding season. During this time, vigorous competitions arise as they vie for mating rights, source: Wikipedia.

Yearly changes of overall group size depends on the reproductive cycle. Rugged and precipitous terrain reduces group size. Mean group size also correlates with population density. Overall mean group size is below 10 in North Ossetia, but reached ca. 78 in Azerbaijan.

Animals form mixed, adult male-female groups in November, just prior to rut. These disband by mid-January or the beginning of February at the latest, and adult males and females live separately until the next rutting season.

Breeding occurs from late November to early January, with births taking place in May and June. Giving them a gestation period of about six months. Females give birth predominantly to just one kid.

Sex ratio favours males in protected populations. Young turs are extremely agile, being able to scamper about steep slopes after only a day of life. They generally start sampling grasses after one month, but continue to suckle for 2-4 months, source: Wikipedia.

No information is found available about animals that predate on East Caucausian Tur, but it can be expected that they are preyd upon by same animals as West Caucasian Tur, which are: Wolf (Canis lupus) and Lynx (Lynx lynx), but snow avalanches cause most natural deaths. The Leopard (Panthera pardus), while formerly a major predator of Capra caucasica, is now very rare in the Caucasus.

Following a period of increase between the 1940's and 1960's numbers have since declined.

In the late 1960's and early 1970's the total number was estimated to be between 25,000 to 30,000 animals, but by the late 1980's had declined by >30% to between 18,000 and 20,000 head, of which ca. 2,000 occurred in Georgia.

Researchers suggest that there are up to 20,000 tur in Daghestan alone, but this may be optimistic.

The latest data suggest that there are no less than 4,000 animals in three Georgian Nature Reserves alone: Kazbegi, Tusheti and Lagodekhi, probably with few tur remaining outside. An estimate of 3,000 tur reported in Kazbegi Nature Reserve might be twice too much.

In Russia, besides Daghestan, there are about 800 tur in North-Ossetian Nature Reserve, and about 7,000 animals in Kabardin-Balkaria (though the taxonomic status of this latter population remains unclear).

• Azerbaijan
• Georgia
• Russia

• Caucasus

Capra cylindricornis - Eastern Tur: Current distribution
Source: IUCN Red List of Threatened Species

Eastern Tur - current distribution.
Source: IUCN Red List of Threatened Species

Formerly distributed in Azerbaijan, Georgia and Russia.

This species is endemic to the eastern part of the Great Caucasus along the borders of Russia, Georgia and Azerbaijan between 800 and 4,000 m asl.

Its range begins around the headwaters of the Baksan river east of Mount Elbrus and stretches for some 600 km eastward along both slopes of the Greater Caucasus to Babadagh mountain. The distribution is widest (up to 70 km) in Daghestan, being most narrow in North Ossetia (ca. 12 km).  

Livestock grazing and poaching are the major threats to the eastern tur, combined with the impacts of severe winters.

Poaching is probably the most significant cause of the recently observed serious declines.
Livestock grazing results in competition for resources, especially with domestic sheep and goats.
The species is also impacted by habitat loss and degradation.

Listed as Vulnerable because the population size might not be much great than 10,000 mature individuals (it could be as low as 12,000 mature individuals), and a decline of >10% over the next three generations (estimated at 21 years) is possible. Almost qualifies as threatened under criterion C1. 

It is included in Category III in the Georgian Red Data Book (1982).

Hunting, including hard currency foreign trophy hunting, is forbidden in Georgia, but is permitted under license in Azerbaijan and Russia.

Nature Reserves and National Parks

This species of tur is found in several Nature Reserves:

• 5,200 in Kabardin-Balkarian (Russia)
• 800 in North-Ossetian (Russia)
• 700 in Lagodekhi (Georgia)
• 2,000 in Zakatala (Azerbaijan)

Other protected areas with this species include:

• Tushetian and Kazbegi Nature Reserve (Georgia)
• Ilisu Nature Reserve with Kakh sanctuary
• Ismailly Nature Reserve together with a sanctuary of the same name

and the newly founded Shakhdagh National Park (Azerbaijan). Of these, tur receive effective protection in Kabardin-Balkarian, North-Ossetian, Lagodekhi and Zakatala Nature Reserves.

Conservation measures

1. create new reserves, particularly in Daghestan on the border with Georgia and Azerbaijan neighboring with Lagodekhi and Zakatala Nature Reserve respectively
2. strictly enforce protection measures outside the four-month hunting season; if controls are successful and the population responds, then
3. consider the possibility of increasing the annual hunting quota.

• Legal aspects of (Re-)introduction of large herbivores

• Large herbivores on the move
• Status report 2007 of the large herbivores of the palaeartic