Ibexes are mountain alpine goats. What is surprising is how they move along steep cliffs and vertical surfaces, jumping from ledge to ledge. Even experienced climbers can envy their dexterity. Thanks to mountain goats were taken under protection, their population was restored and is not under threat, and since the late seventies of the twentieth century, hunting for Ibex has been allowed in some countries. IN given time The Ibex population in the Alps reaches forty thousand.
Ibexs at their best
Ibexes feel safe at the height of the steep cliffs that are their refuge. Danger lurks mountain goats on the plain, they cannot run fast and far, so sometimes they become prey to wolves, bears or lynxes. But if the predators manage to take them by surprise and Ibex does not have enough speed to reach the saving rocks, then he has to defend himself with horns. In males, their size reaches one meter; in females, the horns are curved behind the back and are small with a slight bend.
The peculiar structure of the Ibex's hooves helps them move along almost vertical walls; they are soft and forked, so they easily grasp any protrusion or unevenness. Thanks to their powerful legs, these artiodactyls make dizzying jumps up steep slopes of up to three meters. The adults are safe on the rocks, but the kids are in danger from large birds which can be grabbed when the cub is left alone.
Ibex sizes
The size of the average individual reaches one and a half meters in length; the height at the withers is up to ninety centimeters. Males, of course, are more massive; their weight reaches one hundred kilograms; females weigh no more than fifty. The color of the coat varies depending on the time of year; in the summer, males are brown; females have reddish fur with a slightly golden tint. In winter, the coat sheds and becomes grey colour in both sexes.
The mountains serve the Ibex not only as a refuge, a place to sleep, but also provide food. In winter, they descend to the plain where there is less snow, moss, lichens, and branches can easily be found. In summer, they easily climb the mountains where they can feast on young grass and bush shoots, but relax on glaciers and steep cliffs.
How do Ibexes live?
Ibexes are gregarious animals that live in small herds, mostly females with cubs who, after birth, remain with their mother for another year. Mature males live alone. The young live in small groups. During the mating season, fights occur between males for the right to possess a herd of females. The winner of the fight is in the herd winter months while the mating season lasts and leaves it with the onset of warmth. At the beginning of summer, the female sometimes gives birth to one, but rarely two cubs. Kids get on their feet from the first day of their lives and stay with their mother for up to a year.
During the Middle Ages, hunting for Ibex was barbaric. Blood internal organs Ibex wool was used in medieval medicine against all sorts of diseases. There were many myths that if a person with consumption was given the blood of Ibex, the disease would go away. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the number of Ibex decreased so much that it did not exceed one hundred individuals, which survived only in Gran Paradiso in Italy. Thanks to the decree of the Italian authorities prohibiting the hunting of Ibexes, this species was saved from extermination.
May 13th, 2013
Ibexes are rock goat climbers who climb rocks so masterfully that they give even climbers a head start. This breed goats live in inaccessible Alpine mountain regions at altitudes of up to 3500 meters above sea level.
The history of the existence of Ibexes is very interesting and instructive. IN early XIX centuries this amazing creation nature almost disappeared from the face of the Earth: the number of Ibexes in the entire Alpine region barely exceeded 100 individuals. And these “climbers” survived in the Italian Gran Paradiso. In 1854, King Victor Emmanuel II took the Ibex under his personal protection.
Switzerland began to ask the king to sell her ibex, but the proud Emmanuel II did not allow the export of national property. But what about Swiss resorts without Capricorns? Therefore, the animals were smuggled into Switzerland, but only in 1906.
Why did the Ibexes disappear so quickly? In the Middle Ages, ibex was credited with the miraculous power of healing from all diseases, as a result of which all its commonly used attributes - from blood and hair to excrement - were used in medicine. All this led to the disappearance of Ibex in Europe.
Today their population is quite large, ranging from 30 to 40 thousand animals. Since 1977, even controlled shooting of ibex has been allowed.
But after these animals almost disappeared from the face of the earth, their miraculously restored populations were brought to other areas of Italy, to the mountains of Switzerland, France, Austria, as well as Germany and Slovenia. The settlement of new areas by Ibex meets with approval from local residents, since the presence of virtuoso animals is beneficial for the prosperity of Alpine resorts and attracts crowds of tourists.
Ibex ( Capra ibex), aka ibex, aka Mountain goat, also known as Capricorn, is a cloven-hoofed animal from the genus of mountain goats.
Length adult Ibesa reaches 150 cm and height at the withers - 90 cm. Females weigh approximately 40 kg, and males can weigh up to 100 kg. Both females and males have a beard. Only the heads of males are decorated with magnificent horns about 1 meter long; females have only small horns.
Female Ibexes live in herds of 10-20 females and cubs. Young males also form herds. But adult goats jump across the mountains in splendid isolation. IN mating season, which in the Alps lasts from December to January, males arrange mating fights, and the winner gets the entire herd, so the battles flare up in earnest.
The winning male lives in the herd all winter and leaves it only in the spring.
And females give birth to one, sometimes two, cubs in May or June. The cub lives in a herd and feeds on its mother's milk for about a year.
Ibex can live about 20 years.
Beloved, almost permanent places The habitat of mountain goats is rocky highlands, where artiodactyls feel safe. Mountain goats rush swiftly along the rocky scree,
They easily jump over rock crevices, climb cliffs and steep cliffs. Constant and very fast movement is the lifestyle of these amazing animals.
Looking at them, you never cease to be amazed at how animals can stay on scree, sharp stones and steep cliffs? It turns out that ibis hoof pads are constantly soft and constantly growing. Therefore, with their hooves they seem to stick to slippery stones and walk along cliffs inaccessible to enemies.
Goats graze on alpine or steppe lawns, and climb glaciers and steep cliffs to rest.
Goats are not only fast climbers, but also quite intelligent and observant animals. They are characterized by extraordinary caution. Ibises have enough enemies in wildlife, but what saves them is their excellent vision, keen hearing and sense of smell.
When grazing or resting a herd, a guard goat, climbing to the top of a rock or a huge stone, warns the herd of the slightest danger. When in danger, ibises quickly hide in the rocks.
At the same time, Capricorns are very curious. There have been cases when a herd of goats watched ski competitions from the top of the mountain, without being afraid of the mass of people.
A herd of Alpine goats or Ibexes. At the 50-meter almost vertical Cingino Dam in the Italian Alps. Horned climbers are attracted here by the salt they lick from the rocks.
Mountain goats are a genus of artiodactyl animals from the bovid family. On the one hand, all types of mountain goats have many common features, on the other hand, they are very changeable. For this reason, scientists still cannot determine exactly how many species of these animals exist in nature: some believe that there are only 2-3 with many subspecies, others believe that there are 9-10 species of mountain goats. Mountain goats are closely related to mountain sheep, with which they have many similarities. Their more distant relatives are snow goats, chamois and gorals. 
Mountain goats are medium-sized ungulates, their body length is 120-180 cm, height at withers 80-100 cm, weight from 40-60 kg in females of small species to 155 kg in goats large species. They give the impression of slender and graceful animals, despite not very long legs and a strongly built torso. Home distinctive feature These animals have horns, which in females look like short conical daggers 15-18 cm long, and in males they look like sabers, reaching a length of 1 m or even more. In young animals, the horns are curved in a graceful arc, which becomes steeper with age, while in older males the horns are more reminiscent of a spiral. On the anterior surface of the horns there are transverse thickenings, which different types expressed to varying degrees.
By the way, the horns of mountain goats, like all bovids, are hollow inside and never change. The tail of these animals is short; on its lower surface there are glands that secrete a very strong specific odor. The hooves of mountain goats are narrow, with a very hard hoof horn, which allows these animals to jump over hard rocks and stay on the tiniest ledges without injury.
The hair of mountain goats is short, but with a thick, dense undercoat that protects well from the cold. Mountain goats have well-defined sexual dimorphism: males are always 1.5-2 times larger than females, have more powerful horns and a tuft long hair on the chin. In some species (for example, horned goat) there is also a dewlap of long hair on the underside of the neck. The color of all species is uniform - gray, black, yellow, in some species the belly is white.
Mountain goats live exclusively in the Northern Hemisphere and only in the Old World - in Europe, Asia and North Africa. Compared to mountain sheep, they prefer to settle at high altitudes (1500-4200 m), in areas with rocky outcrops, gorges and steep walls (sheep prefer flatter areas). Almost all species gravitate towards a sedentary lifestyle, although in harsh and hungry winters they can descend to the foothills and valleys. Mountain goats lead a herd lifestyle: in the summer, males and females stay separately, in groups of 3-5 individuals; by winter, the herds enlarge to 20-30 individuals. In the mountains, goats move extremely deftly: they storm the highest ledges in search of food, jump over cliffs several meters wide, manage to stand on almost vertical surfaces, and balance equally well both when walking slowly and when running. These animals are very careful; they communicate danger with a thin bleat. 
Mountain goats feed on a variety of plants. They prefer alpine grasses - fescue and bluegrass, but on occasion they can eat branches of trees and shrubs, mosses, and lichens. In general, mountain goats are extremely unpretentious and can even eat poisonous plants and dry grass. These animals have an urgent need for salt, so whenever possible they visit salt licks and walk 15-20 km to them.
Mountain goats give birth once a year. The rut occurs in November-December. During this period, males join groups of females with young animals, drive away young immature males, and old ones engage in fights with each other. Mating fights take place strict rules and rarely result in injury. Fighting goats stand opposite each other, rear up and hit each other top part horns Mountain goats never butt heads like rams, do not hit an opponent in unprotected parts of the body, and do not pursue a fleeing person for a long distance.
The winner gathers around himself a harem of 5-10 females. Pregnancy in different species lasts from 150 to 180 days, so females always give birth in the spring, in the most favorable weather. Typically, a female gives birth to 1-2 kids, which can stand on their legs within a couple of hours after birth. However, the little goats are very vulnerable, so for the first week they rest in a secluded place. The female comes to feed them, and then the babies begin to accompany her. At the age of 1-2 months, kids are very active and playful; during this period of life they do not stand still for a minute; it seems as if there is a secret spring hidden in them that makes them jump, run, and climb onto their mother’s back. Kids become fully independent at 1-1.5 years, and goats reach sexual maturity at two years, and female goats at 3-4 years. They live in nature for up to 5-10 years, and in captivity for up to 12-15.
Since mountain goats are the predominant ungulate species in mountain systems Alps, Pyrenees, Caucasus, Pamir, Altai, Tibet, Sayan, Tien Shan, they form the basis of the diet of many predators - snow leopards, wolves, lynxes, golden eagles. In North Africa they are hunted by leopards. In addition to predators, mountain goats often die from lack of food and snow avalanches, but high fertility allows them to quickly restore their numbers. However, some species of mountain goats (for example, the Iberian ibex) are on the verge of extinction due to the reduction of natural habitats under human pressure.
People have hunted mountain goats since ancient times. The horns of a large male have always been considered a valuable trophy, because it is not easy to detect and kill a cautious and dexterous animal. But people also derived quite practical benefits from mountain goats: the skins were used to make shoes and clothing, the meat was a very tasty and easily digestible product, fat was also used in cooking, and pellets of undigested wool from the stomach of mountain goats - bezoars - were considered healing. Such valuable qualities of mountain goats led to their domestication, and now in the world there are many different breeds of domestic goats (dairy, meat, down). Nowadays, mountain goats can be found in any zoo, as they are very easily tamed, tolerate captivity well and reproduce easily. Despite the fact that the goat is a symbol of an unclean, even devilish animal (as opposed to the image of a meek sheep), in reality these animals are very smart and easy to train (but mountain sheep or sheep are just not smart at all). Important role mountain goats in the life of the peoples of Asia and the Mediterranean is reflected in the name of one of the zodiac constellations - the constellation Capricorn.
Ibexes are a mountain breed of climbing goats who climb rocks so masterfully that they give even climbers a head start. This breed of goat lives in remote Alpine mountain regions at an altitude of up to 3500 meters above sea level.
The history of the existence of Ibexes is very interesting and instructive. At the beginning of the 19th century, this amazing creation of nature almost disappeared from the face of the Earth: the number of Ibexes in the entire Alpine region barely exceeded 100 individuals. And these “climbers” survived in the Italian Gran Paradiso. In 1854, King Victor Emmanuel II took the Ibex under his personal protection.
Switzerland began to ask the king to sell her ibex, but the proud Emmanuel II did not allow the export of national property. But what about Swiss resorts without Capricorns? Therefore, the animals were smuggled into Switzerland, but only in 1906.
Why did the Ibexes disappear so quickly? In the Middle Ages, ibex was credited with the miraculous power of healing from all diseases, as a result of which all its commonly used attributes - from blood and hair to excrement - were used in medicine. All this led to the disappearance of Ibex in Europe.
Today their population is quite large, ranging from 30 to 40 thousand animals. Since 1977, even controlled shooting of ibex has been allowed.
But after these animals almost disappeared from the face of the earth, their miraculously restored populations were brought to other areas of Italy, to the mountains of Switzerland, France, Austria, as well as Germany and Slovenia. The settlement of new areas by Ibex meets with approval from local residents, since the presence of virtuoso animals is beneficial for the prosperity of Alpine resorts and attracts crowds of tourists.
Ibex (Capra ibex), also known as Alpine goat, also known as mountain goat, also known as ibex, is a cloven-hoofed animal from the genus of mountain goats.
The length of an adult Ibes reaches 150 cm and height at the withers is 90 cm. Females weigh approximately 40 kg, and males can weigh up to 100 kg. Both females and males have a beard. Only the heads of males are decorated with magnificent horns about 1 meter long; females have only small horns.
Female Ibexes live in herds of 10-20 females and cubs. Young males also form herds. But adult goats jump across the mountains in splendid isolation. During the mating season, which in the Alps lasts from December to January, males arrange mating fights, and the winner gets the entire herd, so the battles get serious. The winning male lives in the herd all winter and leaves it only in the spring. And females give birth to one, sometimes two, cubs in May or June. The cub lives in a herd and feeds on its mother's milk for about a year.
Ibex can live about 20 years.
The favorite, almost permanent habitats of mountain goats are rocky highlands, where the artiodactyls feel safe. Mountain goats rush swiftly along the rocky scree,
They easily jump over rock crevices, climb cliffs and steep cliffs. Constant and very fast movement is the lifestyle of these amazing animals.
Looking at them, you never cease to be amazed at how animals can stay on scree, sharp stones and steep cliffs? It turns out that ibis hoof pads are constantly soft and constantly growing. Therefore, with their hooves they seem to stick to slippery stones and walk along cliffs inaccessible to enemies.
Goats graze on alpine or steppe lawns, and climb glaciers and steep cliffs to rest.
Goats are not only fast climbers, but also quite intelligent and observant animals. They are characterized by extraordinary caution. Ibises have a lot of enemies in the wild, but their excellent vision, keen hearing and sense of smell save them.
When grazing or resting a herd, a guard goat, climbing to the top of a rock or a huge stone, warns the herd of the slightest danger. When in danger, ibises quickly hide in the rocks.
At the same time, Capricorns are very curious. There have been cases when a herd of goats watched ski competitions from the top of the mountain, without being afraid of the mass of people.
Mountain goats, spending their entire lives in the mountains, achieve heights of virtuosity in moving through them; in the skill of rock climbing, they surpass many animals that at first glance seem more adapted for these purposes. A herd of Ibexes or Alpine ibexes at the nearly vertical Cingino Dam in the Alps. These horned climbers were attracted here by the salt, which they love to lick off the rocks.
Alpine goats live at an altitude of about 4600 m above sea level. This is due, first of all, to the need for protection from predators. The Alps are the homeland of European mountain goats, or, as they are also called, Ibex. In 1892, the Ibex disappeared from Portugal, and now its only habitat is mountainous Spain.
Ibex remains the ruler of the mountain peaks to this day. Disputes about the number of species and subspecies of this animal have not subsided to this day. Hunters have their own gradation of mountain goats; they divide them into four subspecies according to their habitat. Ibexes are distinguished by weight, shape of horns and color of skins.
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Ibexes are a species of artiodactyls from the genus of mountain goats.
On average, the Ibex reaches a length of up to 150 cm and a height at the withers of about 90 cm. Females weigh approximately 40 kg, and males can weigh up to 100 kg. Males have impressive curved horns up to 1 m long, while females have only short, barely curved horns. Both sexes have a goatee.
In summer, males have a dark brown coat color, while females have a slightly reddish or golden tint. IN winter time The coat of both sexes is grey. They live in the Alps at altitudes between the boundaries of forest and ice. They can rise up to 3500 m above sea level. In winter, it lives, as a rule, in lower areas than in summer, however, even in summer it can descend to alpine meadows in search of food. Usually spends the night high in the mountains.
The history of the existence of Ibexes is very interesting and instructive. At the beginning of the 19th century, this amazing creation of nature almost disappeared from the face of the Earth: the number of Ibexes in the entire Alpine region barely exceeded 100 individuals. And these “climbers” survived in the Italian Gran Paradiso. In 1854, King Victor Emmanuel II took the Ibex under his personal protection.
Switzerland began to ask the king to sell her ibex, but the proud Emmanuel II did not allow the export of national property. But what about Swiss resorts without Capricorns? Therefore, the animals were smuggled into Switzerland, but only in 1906.
Why did the Ibexes disappear so quickly? In the Middle Ages, ibex was credited with the miraculous power of healing from all diseases, as a result of which all its commonly used attributes - from blood and hair to excrement - were used in medicine. All this led to the disappearance of Ibex in Europe.
Today their population is quite large, ranging from 30 to 40 thousand animals. Since 1977, even controlled shooting of ibex has been allowed.
The favorite, almost permanent habitats of mountain goats are rocky highlands, where the artiodactyls feel safe. Mountain goats rush swiftly along the rocky scree,
They easily jump over rock crevices, climb cliffs and steep cliffs.
Constant and very fast movement is the lifestyle of these amazing animals.
Looking at them, you never cease to be amazed at how animals can stay on scree, sharp stones and steep cliffs?
It turns out that ibis hoof pads are constantly soft and constantly growing. Therefore, with their hooves they seem to stick to slippery stones and walk along cliffs inaccessible to enemies.
Goats are not only fast climbers, but also quite intelligent and observant animals. They are characterized by extraordinary caution. Ibises have a lot of enemies in the wild, but their excellent vision, keen hearing and sense of smell save them.
When grazing or resting a herd, a guard goat, climbing to the top of a rock or a huge stone, warns the herd of the slightest danger.
When in danger, ibises quickly hide in the rocks.
Female Ibexes live in herds of 10-20 females and cubs. Young males also form herds. But adult goats jump across the mountains in splendid isolation.
During the mating season, which in the Alps lasts from December to January, males arrange mating fights, and the winner gets the entire herd, so the battles get serious.
The winning male lives in the herd all winter and leaves it only in the spring.
And females give birth to one, sometimes two, cubs in May or June. The cub lives in a herd and feeds on its mother's milk for about a year.
Ibex can live about 20 years.
Most recently, these brave animals were captured conquering a 50-meter dam in the Italian Alps, which is an almost vertical wall. They climbed it to lick salt from the stones of the dam. This is in Once again proved that these goats have incredible dexterity.
On this video poor quality images, but nevertheless you can see the incredible jumps of these amazing animals
And here is a video shot by Dmitry Bekhterev in the mountains of the Eastern Sayan
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