The wild goat of Montecristo Island: did it ever exist?

Abstract It has recently been claimed by Masseti that a wild goat survived on Montecristo Island until the first half of the 20th century and that subsequent selection procedures produced a goat that did not resemble any true wild goat. In the present note, it is emphasized that the Montecristo goat was in fact never taxonomically described. The fact that a Montecristo “wild” goat has been included in the national and European legislation as a protected “species” could only been explained with the decline of mammal taxonomy that has been observed in Western Europe during the second half of 20th century.