Nature lovers have a lot to enjoy in Spain. The Spanish mainland offers an enormous diversity: coastal areas rich in animal and plant life, large forests in the highlands in the north, desert-like stretches in the south and snow-capped mountain landscapes in several places. It is in the mountains, especially in eastern Spain, that we find the Iberian ibex – a shy climbing specialist which was long threatened with extinction. The wild goat is an impressive sight – with horns that are suitable for both deterrence and attraction. It likes to live in rough terrain where it has few natural enemies. If you want to meet the Iberian ibex face to face, Find Your Spain has contacted an experienced mountain guide and biologist who arranges trips – for a couple or a few people – in mountain areas where the stately Iberian wild goat lives. And the cost of a three-day safari isn’t too bad.
The Iberian ibex, or Capra pyrenaica in Latin, is a climbing specialist with large hooves and short legs – created to get around in rough, mountainous terrain. We are dealing with well-trained muscles and skills here: Capricorns jump easily from cliff to cliff in Spain’s demanding mountain landscape, despite the fact that the largest males weigh up to 120 kg and can grow up to one meter tall. The females are admittedly considerably smaller in stature.
Both males and females are equipped with horns for defense and to impress the opposite sex. The horns of the males are larger than those of the females and over time they often develop a great curved shape. The females’ horns remain more upright and relatively short. But the horns of both sexes tend to be both larger and more impressive with age. And it fits well, because these are animals that value age and experience.
The Iberian ibex lives in groups that most of the year consist of either females with its young or males. The “boss” in these groups is an experienced individual. You can see this if the herd feels threatened. Capricorns flee as a united group, and the whole thing is coordinated and led by an aged and dominant individual.
It is thus an efficient and well-organized retreat. However, one may wonder if the loud, sharp sound the animals emit when they sense danger, is always the best strategy: The sound easily reaches both predators and anything/anyone else is in the area alike.
Wolves, other threats and an attempt at cloning
The wolf is the ibex’s only natural enemy. And although the Spanish authorities have protected the Iberian wolf so that the wolf population has multiplied in recent decades and is now estimated at less than 2,500 individuals, the wolf does not pose a major threat to the ibex.
But in modern times, Capricorns have not always had good living conditions. Hunting, expansion of pastures and land used for agriculture have all led to the number of ibex falling – partly dramatically – at times. Biologists have identified four subspecies of the Iberian ibex. Two of them are already extinct, the last of them disappeared as late as the year 2000.
Spanish researchers have taken rather drastic measures in a recent attempt to save this subspecies. After years of trial and error, in 2009 they finally succeeded in cloning an individual. However, this first individual, who was to make the “extinct” alive again, died a few minutes after birth due to a malformation in the lungs.
The two subspecies that still live on the Iberian Peninsula still seem to have relatively good conditions. The number of individuals is increasing, partly so strongly that it is being hunted again. It is estimated that there are now about 50,000 Iberian mountain goats. Nevertheless, the population remains vulnerable. The World Conservation Union, IUCN, which monitors the status of the world’s animal species, continues to monitor the Iberian mountain goat. But the ibex is now listed as “Least Concern” which means: “A least-concern species is a species that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as evaluated as not being a focus of species conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wild. They do not qualify as threatened, near threatened, or conservation dependent.”
Experience the Iberian ibex up close
If you want to admire this mountain terrain specialist up close and get a great hiking experience and exciting photos at the same time, there are companies that offer trips to the core areas of the Iberian mountain goat. Find Your Spain has been in touch with biologist, photographer and guide Juan Carlos Poveda Vera who leads photo tours to the Sierra Nevada from his base in Guadix, a city in the province of Granada.
Juan, who speaks English, takes small groups – from a couple to a handful of people, on his trips to observe Iberian mountain goats. The trips usually last three days, and every day you stay in a new terrain – you have to go all the way up to 2,500 meters above sea level in the Sierra Nevada.
He says that during the winter, the tour participants will encounter wild goats with a lot of thick “winter fur”, because the goats are specialists in surviving in harsh conditions. They can also store fat in the kidneys during the summer season when the supply of food is good, and then eat it when the snow covers the ground for long periods.
For around 300 euros (the price varies a little bit with the cost of gas/petrol), the participants get in addition to a guided tour with a professional, all meals and accommodation at the cave hotel, Las Cuevas del Tio Tobas.
You can find Juan Carlos Poveda Vera and his tour offer here: http://www.natureda.com/en/.
And just for the record: Find Your Spain have no business ties to Juan Carlos Poveda Vera or his company.
Featured image: The male is stately with his long, curved horns. (Source: Youtube, Mr Fred’s Wildlife Channel, and channel owner Frederico Morais).
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