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Ibex - CAPRA IBEX
Class: Animals with Milk Glands (Mammalia)
The Name "Ibex": "Ibex" is from the Latin word for the animal.
Location: Mountains of Europe, central Asia, and north Africa.
Habitat: Terrestrial. Montane pastures, at an altitude of 7500 to 11,500 feet.
Description: The coat is short but not shaggy, and males have a beard at the chin. The ram has long, scimitar-shaped horns with knotty protuberances on the front. The horns may reach 36 inches long! The ewe's horns are thinner and curve slightly backward, reaching a maximum length of 15 inches. The ibex can grow to five feet long, three and a half feet high at the shoulder, and it can weigh 270 pounds, females smaller.
Behavior: The diurnal ibex lives in separate groups, males in one, females and young in another. In the mating season (December and January) there are bitter combats between males for supremacy of the flock.
Reproduction: After a gestation period of 150 to180 days, a single young is born.
Note: The ibex was formerly subjected to intensive hunting because of the medicinal properties attributed to various parts of its body. Its number has diminished in most of the range, but over 3000 now live in the Gran Paradiso National Park, established in the Italian Alps in 1922 for its protection. About 5000 others live in other parts of the Alps as well.
Go to the Artiodactyla Page to learn more about all the even-toed hoofed animals.
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