DESCRIPTION

Brown back, light belly, short tail. Male with powerful fluted horns and a goatee (height at the withers: 70-92 cm). Female with goat horns.

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HABITAT

It is a high mountain animal that we only meet in the Alps. It is, it seems, the ancestor of our domestic goat. Ibex usually stands in rocky highlands. In the winter, the snow forces him down, but he rarely frequents the forests as the chamois can do. But damn nimble and comfortable on the steepest slopes, it flanks you dizzy just to look at it. It is that he loves to walk on the rocky edges, between 2000 and 3500 m of altitude. Mind you, this is where he has the best view.

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WAY OF LIFE

It is primarily a diurnal animal that has two major phases of activity: a first before sunrise and during the first hours of the day, a second before dark. Between these two periods, the ibex rests and ruminates. The ibex is a gregarious animal, females and young people under 2 form groups. The males live among themselves, also in herds, more or less important. Males on heights, females and juveniles in lower elevation areas. At the time of rut, from December to mid-January, the animals gather in large bands.

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FOOD

The ibex feeds on grasses and mountain lichens.

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BREEDING

The moment of reproduction is preceded by very violent fights which oppose the dominant males. The opponents stand in front of each other and clash, giving themselves very violent blows of skull, in a very characteristic sound, that can be heard from far away. The mating takes place from December to January, and the gestation of the animal is 5 months and a half. The female will give birth to one or sometimes two young, it will breastfeed for about 6 months. Young male ibexes will leave the group during the second year.

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THREAT

The ibex has almost disappeared completely from the Alpine landscape. Severely hunted, they were, at one time, reduced to a single group in the Gran Paradiso National Park, Italy. Unfortunately for him the animal possesses in the muscle of the heart a small cartilage in the form of a cross, which according to some popular beliefs, could save his wearer from a violent death ...
They are now protected and being reintroduced in the Alps. The Alpine ibex owes its support to the creation in 1922 of the Gran Paradiso National Park in Italy and the Vanoise National Park in 1963, which now has close to 2,000 individuals. Other ibexes threatened with extinction are the ibex of Abyssinia and the ibex of the Pyrenees in the Iberian Peninsula.

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