Gnishik Community-Managed Protected Area
If you are interested in a guided experience, hire one of Gnishik’s rangers to accompany you on a hike or drive you along the trails. Rangers can lead you to designated vista points, one of the most spectacular of which gives you a bird’s-eye view of Noravank monastic complex. The rangers are also experts in spotting Bezoar goats that run up mountain ledges after drinking from the river streams in the valleys below. The rangers can help guide your line of sight through high-powered binoculars.
Natural Attractions
Bezoar goats are indigenous to this region as well as other areas in the South Caucasus, the Middle East, and Asia.
Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. An adult male’s horns can reach a length of over four feet, almost the entire length of their bodies! Their horns curve upwards and backward into an arch shape. Bezoar goats live in mountainous areas, feeding on plants and shrubs growing on steep mountain ledges. They tend to travel in groups, and during their mating season, which lasts from November to January, their herds number in the hundreds.
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