Ibex

History

100.000 years ago, the ibex lived in all the rock areas of Central Europe. It is even source of inspiration for the men of the Neolithic era who paint it in many caves following the example that of Lascaux.

Until the middle of the 15th century, it was still widespread in all the alpine Arc but the development of the firearms very quickly signs the end of this proud living of the Alps The medicine of the time very impressed of superstitions, is then fatal for him. The horns crushed out of powder are then used as remedy against the impotence, its blood like remedy against urinary calculations. Finally the stomach is used to overcome the depressions. These beliefs persist until the beginning of the 19th century, date on which one counts nothing any more but one small individual hundred listed in the French and Italian alpine arc whereas it practically disappeared from Switzerland.

The species owes its survival with Italian monarchy.

Initially with the king Victor-Emmanuel II which makes protect as of 1856 the last individuals for his personal hunting in a private reserve close to Valsavaranche. This last does not hesitate to urge a body of gamekeepers in order to protect the last ibexes.

With the successors of Victor-Emmanuel II - the kings Humbert Ier and Victor-Emmanuel III - the purchases of ground and tenant farming continue in the Valley of Aoste and Piedmont, areas in which the ibexes then are strictly supervised, of beaten annual being organized under control of the royal guards.

The report of the disappearance of the species presented to the Royal Academy of Sciences in Turin led to the publication of the stop of famous “the patenti luogotenenziali” or “Governed Patenti” of September 21st, 1821 prohibiting the hunting of the ibexes on the royal grounds of the Great Paradise, then on the whole of the House of Savoy.

It is however a digression with these rules of prohibition which will allow the reintroduction of the ibex in Switzerland. In 1906, Joseph Bérard, descendant of a legendary dynasty poachers of the Valley of Aoste, is introduced into one of the royal reserves and captures there two young females and a male which are introduced in fraud in Switzerland, where they will be used for the constitution of a colony.

In 1922, the royal reserve of the Great Paradise becomes Italian national park. In France, it is necessary to wait the year 1963 to see the creation of the National park of Vanoise of which it becomes the emblem.

It is not however that in 1981 qu ' a law of protection of nature dated July 10th, 1976 comes to completely protect it on all the national territory. Today the French Alps shelter 10% of the European population of ibexes, that is to say approximately 3000 animals, and it is the National park of Vanoise which shelters the largest population estimated at approximately 2000 individuals.

Biological description

The male

Also called goat, it measures between 75 and 90 cm with the garrot for a length, muzzle with the tail, ranging between 1,40 and 1,60 meters. Its weight varies according to the seasons, being established between 65 and 100 kilograms

Squat, it has the short ones but solid legs, a broad neck and rather isolated eyes but the characteristic more striking in the male ibex reside in its horns.

Three months after its birth, it indeed obtains a pair of horns; which grow throughout the life, their growth slowing down however with the age. Bent backwards and more or less divergent according to the individuals, in the shape of scimitars, they relative of nodosities also called pads of parrure. At the adulthood, the horns of the male reach 70 to 100 cm and can weigh up to 6 kg the pair.

The female or étagne

The female ibex also called étagne is smaller and more fine that the male. It measures between 70 and 78 cm height to the garrot for a length ranging between 1,05 and 1,45 meters. Its weight varies between 35 and 50 kg. But the principal difference lies in the length of the horns. These last are indeed much shorter, measuring 20-25 cm (30 at the most) and weighing only 100 to 300 grams the pair. The horns of the females are in addition deprived of pads

The small one of the ibex, CABRI

In the small ibexes, the recognition of the sexes is impossible before 5-6 month and remains very difficult up to 1 year; one speaks then about kids.

Beyond one year, it becomes possible to differentiate the sexes from the individuals to the observation by the diameter of the horns. That of the éterlous, i.e. young males is more important: the horns are done thicker at the base because of appearance of the first nodosities. At the éterles, young females, they thinner and are deprived of pads.

The horns thus constitute a motive fluid in the determination of the sexes, but also in the determination of the age of an individual.

Elements of anatomy

Horns

Contrary to the generally accepted ideas, nodosities of the horns of the male ibexes do not make it possible to calculate their age. It is in fact the scratches of growth of encornure forming a succession of encased cases that it is necessary to hope to determine the age of an adult male.

At the nonadult individuals, kids, éterles and éterlous, they are the size and the diameter of the horns which it is advisable to take into account. In on this side 15 centimetres, one speaks about CABRI and it is then impossible to determine the sex of the individual then old of less than one year

Beyond fifteen centimetres, at the individuals male, the age can be evaluated so that:

Two years of age: 20 centimetres
Three years of age: 40 centimetres
Four years of age: 50 centimetres
Five years of age and more: horns equal or higher than 60 centimetres

At the young females or éterles

Two years of age: horns not exceeding the 20 centimetres
Beyond that, it becomes very difficult to appreciate the age of the female

Illustration on the size of the horns of a male ibex (the box of matches gives the scale)

Peeling

The coloring of the dress of the ibex varies in the course of the years. In summer period, the hair is short, and beige, brown clearly. To the autumn, it falls slowly and is replaced by a fur with longer and thick hairs, of color brown dark, almost black

A thick fur which will protect it from the mountain cold, of darker color which will absorb the rays of the sun.

A moult takes place with leaving the winter in May - June. The ibexes get rid of their winter fur while rubbing on the rocks and the trees. It is not rare at this period to find bits of fur fixed on the stone and the shrubs.

This moult is also at the origin of itchings which the male ibexes try to calm using their long horns. The peeling of summer of the goat is of color gray iron except the belly which is sometimes white, the maroon top of the tail brown, the members rather brown dark even noirâtres and a median band on the back of almost black color (this one can however be lacking). As of November, the peeling of the males darkens and becomes maroon dark.

The peeling of the female is of a yellowish beige or châtain clearly, except for the belly rather blanchâtre and of the members who are brown dark. It darkens slightly in winter. At all events, summer or winter, the dress of the étagne is clearer than that of the goat.

The peeling of the young ibexes is beige deer with the birth, more clearly than that of the étagnes, and thus remains until the two years age.

The shoe

Animal of a great agility on the rock faces, the ibex has a broad shoe reinflated on the level of the heel, with a soft part called the plate. Its two fingers are not interdependent. The bearing surface on the ground compared to the weight of the animal is weak, which returns its displacements in snow very difficult, contrary to the chamois. On the steep slopes, with the back of its heels, pins make covered and increase the area of adhesion to the rock.

The ibex generally moves with the step, even if it is known able to gallop with points bordering 70 km/h. The mark of its shoes is broader and longer than in the chamois: the grips are slightly bent forwards. The mark measures from 6 to 9 cm length for 5 to 6 cm broad.

Habitat

Food

The ibex is a primarily diurnal animal, activating itself before the rising of the sun and the first hours of the day, and the evening before fallen the night. The remainder of time, it prélasse itself on grassy terraces exposed well to the sun.

Herbivore, the ibex can eat up to 20 kilograms per day of graminaceous, leguminous but still of branches of genévrier, rhododendrons or foams and lichens however difficult to digest. It is not rare to meet it in mountain with the accesses of the stones with salt intended for the herds, salt which its organization needs and which it also finds in the schists.

The ibex drinks very little, being often satisfied with the dew of the morning.

In spring, it nourishes shrubs, the such hazel tree or the green alder, appreciating their tender and green growths, their buds and kittens which it reaches while being drawn up on its posterior legs.

The winter, it nourishes rare accessible vegetation made up of lichens and foams.

Reproduction

The ibex is a polygamous animal.

The period of rut starts at the beginning of December to finish mid-January. The male and female ibexes gather.

Within these herds creates for itself a hierarchy. There is generally a Mâle dominating by group - often among oldest, which is essential after a combat of horns, engagements seldom violent ones who spread out throughout the year and which one can hear the shock very characteristic up to one kilometer of distance. Dominating reserves the right to cover the female of its choice, so that the younger males have less chance to reproduce, whereas they are shown much more excited…

The sexual maturity of the males is reached around 18 months, 2 years for the étagnes. For the females, the best productivity ranges between 3 and 13 years with a maximum at the neighborhoods of 8 or 9 years. The males can them reproduce to the age of 16-17 years and the females until towards 14-15 years.

The eager male with the tail folded back on the spine thus letting burst the whiteness of its gluteus. The female, it, proclamation its desire while frétillant of the tail. Several coituses are carried out in a few hours and the couplings generally proceed with fallen the day or the night.

After the winter coupling, the low setting generally takes place around mid-June, after 170 days of gestation, in an inaccessible place. It is born small at the same time which is held upright as of the first hours, so that the females take again their seasonal migration at the end of one week even if the CABRI is actually separated only mid-September, the lasting breast feeding from two to three months.

Social life

Gallery of photographs

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