Alpine Ibex

• Every ibex in the Alps today descends from a relict core of about 100 animals.
• It can leap and follow its mother from its first day of life.
• It is markedly sexually dimorphic: males can weigh more than three times as much as females.
• comportamientoIt can climb the near-vertical walls of hydroelectric dams to lick mineral salts off the concrete, a behaviour documented and widely shared in photographs.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (mammal)

Habitat & environment

Steep rocky and high-mountain terrain of the European Alps

Birth weight

2.85 - 5 kg

Size at birth

Precocial: able to hop and follow its mother from its first day

Sexual maturity

Female: 1-3 years (physiologically early, with a first birth usually at 2-3 years) | Male: physiologically mature at 18 months to 2 years, but unable to breed effectively until 8-11 years because of social competition

Gestation / incubation

167-180 days (~5.5-6 months)

Litter / clutch size

1 young (twins in roughly 20% of births)

Lifespan in captivity

Documented record of 21 years and 3 months in captivity

Sources consulted: JungleDragon; AnAge (genomics.senescence.info); Ultimate Ungulate; Animal Diversity Web; Animal Kingdom; A-Z Animals; Animalia.bio; AllSpecies Fandom

Best time: From June to September in the high Alps; in December and January, during the rut, the males stage head-butting contests.