Morphological Differentiation of Northern Morocco Goat

Data from 183 animals raised in 61 flocks were collected to investigate the morphological characteristics of the northern morocco goat. nine zoometric measures and seven combined indices were obtained. three zones were defined based on geoclimatic characteristics and environmental influences: mediterranean, atlantic and dual. the morphological variables showed the absence of sexual dimorphism in the northern morocco goat population. measures were generally very similar (n.s. at p<0.05) for male and female, except shin girth was high in males compared with females. a few variables including height at withers, ear length, rump length, length led and ears index were significantly (p < 0.05) influenced by geographical area. mahalanobis distances and canonical analyses showed a greater distance between the most geographical separated subpopulations (atlantic and dual) and animals from these areas were the most heterogeneous. the stepwise proce-dure showed that length led, ear length, rump length and shin girth were the most discriminate variables between areas. results suggest that the goat population of north morocco, exhibiting different morphological variables by location, maybe due to the environmental adaptation or the differences in origin and recent influences by introgression or crossbreeding.