This is "Capra aegagrus creticus" a rare wild goat on the verge of extinction, that can be found in Samaria National Park, on Crete Greece. I made a brief introduction in my post about Samaria gorge but I think it deserves some further attention.
Apart from the scientific one, it has many names. People may refer to it as aegagrus, cretan wild goat or cretan ibex. The locals call it "agrimi", a Greek word that can be translated as "wild beast" or "furious". It is said that if a male agrimi feels trapped it makes a death jump trying to take it's hunter along. The tourists know it as "kri kri". This name is the most well known but it means nothing. Actually it originates to the American president Harry Truman and a sad story about a proud animal.
In September 1950 Life magazine published a story about a "hop happy goat" with the picture of a Cretan agrimi climbing on the walls of a cage. What really was about, is the story of an unfortunate animal brought to captivity and given as a gift to the president of USA. The Americans called it "kri kri" and the name was meant to characterize the whole species.
Nevertheless when I saw the first female walking in the gorge with a baby next to it I was thrilled. I approached with caution, stopping every few steps to take some shots and moved on. The spot wasn't ideal (very harsh light and white rocks) and I finally turned around to see my partner laughing .
We were next to "Kato Chorio", an abandoned village in the middle of the gorge that now is a large rest area. What I hadn't see is that the village was full of female aegagrus and their babies, walking around the hikers! What man failed to do by force was made by need.
Having trouble to survive away from the National Park the females felt that this protected area is safe and gathered around the human presence and the abundance of food and water in the village.
I was happy that this beautiful animals that live in Crete for thousands of years found a safe place but I was also sad to see this once unreachable and proud creatures to be around tourists. Maybe we should call them "kri-kri" after all...
All the pictures and the words are mine.
Thank you for reading and if you want to know more about me you can check out my introduction post.
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