Stiefelgeiss is a breed of domestic mountain goats originating in the highlands of St. Gallen, Switzerland. Their population is currently less than one thousand.
Both male and female Stiefelgeiss goats have horns. Their coats range from a light greyish brown to a dark reddish color. The animals are not excessively shaggy, but on the animals' hind end, long beard hairs, called "Mänteli," grow much longer and often are of a different color from the rest of the coat. Some members of the breed display long, beard-like hairs on the chin.
Until the 1920s, the goat was actively bred, but by the 1980s, it was nearly extinct. Noting this, the Swiss preservation foundation Pro Specie Rara took an interest in the breed. Now mostly managed by the Booted Goat Breeders Club of Switzerland, [1] the ongoing conservation efforts encourage farmers to keep the goats for their agricultural usefulness, for service as mother nannies, and for meat. While still an endangered population, the recent trend in their numbers has been positive. As of 2001, there were 600 members spread among 87 breeders. They are concentrated in eastern Switzerland, with scattered breeding groups also found in the central and western regions of the country. [2] [3]
The Angora goat is a breed of domesticated goat, historically known as Angora. Angora goats produce the lustrous fibre known as mohair.
The Angora rabbit, which is one of the oldest types of domestic rabbit, is bred for the long fibers of its coat, known as Angora wool, which are gathered by shearing, combing or plucking. Because rabbits do not possess the same allergy-causing qualities as many other animals, their wool is an important alternative. There are at least 11 distinct breeds of Angora rabbit, four of which are currently recognized by the American Rabbit Breeders Association (ARBA): English Angora, French Angora, Giant Angora and Satin Angora. Others include German Angora, Chinese Angora, Finnish Angora, Japanese Angora, Korean Angora, Russian Angora, St Lucian Angora and Swiss Angora.
The Toggenburg or Toggenburger is a Swiss breed of dairy goat. Its name derives from that of the Toggenburg region of the Canton of St. Gallen, where it is thought to have originated. It is among the most productive breeds of dairy goat and is distributed world-wide, in at least fifty countries in all continents.
The Oberhasli is a modern American breed of dairy goat. It derives from the subtype of Chamois Colored Goat from the Oberhasli district of the Bernese Oberland in central Switzerland. All purebred members of the breed descend from five Chamois Colored Goats imported to the United States in 1936. A breeder's association was formed in 1977, and a herdbook established in the following year. Until then, goats of this type had been known as Swiss Alpine, and interbred with Alpine goats of other types.
A cashmere goat is a type of goat that produces cashmere wool, the goat's fine, soft, downy, winter undercoat, in commercial quality and quantity. This undercoat grows as the day length shortens and is associated with an outer coat of coarse hair, which is present all the year and is called guard hair. Most common goat breeds, including dairy goats, grow this two-coated fleece.
The Icelandic sheep is a breed of domestic sheep. The Icelandic breed is one of the Northern European short-tailed sheep, which exhibit a fluke-shaped, naturally short tail. The Icelandic is a mid-sized breed, generally short-legged and stocky, with face and legs free of wool. The fleece of the Icelandic sheep is dual-coated and occurs in white and a variety of other colors, including a range of browns, grays, and blacks. They exist in both horned and polled strains. Generally left unshorn for the winter, the breed is very cold-hardy. Multiple births are very common in Icelandic ewes, with a lambing percentage of 175–220%. A gene also exists in the breed called the Þoka gene, and ewes carrying it have been known to give birth to triplets, quadruplets, quintuplets, and even sextuplets on occasion.
The Kinder is an American breed of domestic goat. It originated on a farm in Snohomish, Washington, where in about 1985 an American Pygmy buck was cross-bred with Nubian does. The resulting stock was selectively bred to create a compact but well-muscled goat, suitable both for milk and for meat production. A herd-book was started in 1988; by 2006 about three thousand head had been registered.
The Girgentana is an Italian breed of domestic goat indigenous to the province of Agrigento, in the southern part of the Mediterranean island of Sicily. The name of the breed derives from Girgenti, the name of Agrigento in local Sicilian language. There were in the past more than 30,000 head in the hills and coastal zone of the province. Today, however, this breed is in danger of disappearance.
The Appenzell, French: Chèvre d’Appenzell, German: Appenzellerziege, is a rare and endangered indigenous breed of long-haired white domestic goat from Switzerland. It originates in the "half-cantons" of the historic Appenzell region, Appenzell Ausserrhoden and Appenzell Innerrhoden, and has spread into the neighbouring Canton of St. Gallen.
The Orobica or Valgerola is a breed of domestic goat from the Val Gerola in the province of Sondrio, in the Bergamo Alps of northern Italy. It is raised in the Val Gerola and the Valchiavenna in the province of Sondrio, in the Alto Lario Occidentale, the Valsassina and the Val Varrone in the province of Como, and in the upper Val Brembana in the Province of Bergamo. The origins of the breed are unknown; it is first documented at the beginning of the twentieth century. The Orobica is one of the eight autochthonous Italian goat breeds for which a genealogical herdbook is kept by the Associazione Nazionale della Pastorizia, the Italian national association of sheep-breeders.
The Garganica is a breed of domestic goat which originated on the Gargano promontory in the Puglia region of southern Italy. From there it has spread to other parts of Puglia and to neighbouring regions.
The Schweizerischer Niederlaufhund, is a breed of dog of the scenthound type from Switzerland. Niederlaufhund means short-legged hound. The breed has a number of different varieties.
The Persian cat is a long-haired breed of cat characterized by its round face and short muzzle. It is also known as the "Persian Longhair" in the English-speaking countries. The first documented ancestors of the Persian were imported into Italy from persia around 1620. Recognized by the cat fancy since the late 19th century, it was developed first by the English, and then mainly by American breeders after the Second World War. Some cat fancier organizations' breed standards subsume the Himalayan and Exotic Shorthair as variants of this breed, while others treat them as separate breeds.
The Sirohi is an Indian breed of domestic goat. It is named for its area of origin, the Sirohi District of Rajasthan, in north-western India. It may be described as a dual-purpose breed, reared for both meat and milk production, or as meat breed. It is well adapted to the dry tropical climate of Rajasthan.
The British primitive goat is a landrace of domestic goat native to Great Britain and Ireland, and is the original goat of the region. It is considered a rare breed, existing as several, isolated feral herds, as some captive populations in zoological parks and nature reserves, and breeding stock on some private farms operated by groups of rare-breed enthusiasts. As few as 1,200 individual British primitives may remain. The variety is also referred to as the British native goat, the old British goat, the old English goat or the British landrace goat, among more specific names It descends from the earliest goats brought to the region in the Neolithic era, around 3,000 BCE. It is classified in the Northern breed group of goats. A population in Northumbria is sometimes referred to as the Cheviot goat. The British primitive is among the foundation stock of some modern standardised breeds, including the Anglo-Nubian goat. The breed is comparatively small, with commensurately low milk production. It is hardy and wiry haired, adapted to rough terrain and weather, and able to subsist and breed on its own without human intervention.
The Balinese is a long-haired breed of domestic cat with Siamese-style point coloration and sapphire-blue eyes. The Balinese is also known as the purebred long-haired Siamese, since it originated as a natural mutation of that breed and hence is essentially the same cat with a medium-length silky coat and a distinctively plumed tail.
The Aspromonte or Capra dell'Aspromonte is an indigenous breed of domestic goat from the mountain massif of the Aspromonte, in the province of Reggio Calabria in Calabria in southern Italy, for which it is named. It is raised only in the province of Reggio Calabria, mainly in the Aspromonte, in the Altipiano dello Zomaro to the north-east, and in the Ionian coastal areas of the province, and particularly in areas of Grecanic culture. While the breed is thought to originate on the Aspromonte, it may have been influenced by the various other goat breeds, including the Abyssinian goat, the Maltese, and a type known as "Tibetan" with long silky hair, whose importation to Calabria in the early twentieth century is well documented.
The Chamois Coloured Goat, French: Chèvre chamoisée, German: Gämsfarbige Gebirgsziege, Italian: Camosciata delle Alpi, is an indigenous breed of domestic goat from Switzerland. It is distributed throughout Switzerland and in parts of northern Italy and Austria, and has been exported to other countries including France. There are two strains, a horned type from the Grisons or Graubünden in the eastern part of the country, and a hornless type from the former bezirk of Oberhasli and the area of Brienz and Lake Brienz in the Bernese Oberland in central Switzerland. In some countries the hornless variety may be considered a separate breed, the Oberhasli goat. The Swiss herd-book was established in 1930.
The Bormina is an indigenous breed of domestic goat from the Valtellina, in the northern part of the province of Sondrio, in Lombardy in northern Italy. It is particularly associated with the area of the comune of Bormio, from which its name derives. Because of the reddish colour of its coat and its clear Swiss markings, it may also be call the Frisa Rossa. It is raised mainly in the Valtellina but is also reported from the Lario and from the area of Varese. It does not have official recognition in Italy, and breed numbers are very low. Management is extensive: the animals are kept on high alpine pasture in the summer months, and brought under cover in winter.