The Return of the Ibex | Back from the Brink

The alpine ibex is a master of climbing, able to scale impossible-looking rock walls. These mountain goats are used to overcoming fierce odds. Once, they roamed Central Europe in their thousands, before humans hunted them almost to extinction. Helped by a royal hunting reserve, they made a remarkable recovery. But could the ibex be on the verge of disaster again? The ibex is a wild mountain goat found in Europe, parts of Asia, and northeastern Africa. With a thick coat and powerful hind legs, it's uniquely adapted to live in harsh terrain. These iconic horns can scare off predators like wolves, lynx, and foxes. In a male, they can be between 70 and 140 centimeters long, not to be messed with. Ibex can jump about 1.8 meters into the air without a running start. But what really sets them apart is their hooves. The concave shape with sharp edges works like a suction cup to give them purchase on steep cliffs and jagged rocks. Being able to scale high mountains used to protect ibex from predators who simply couldn't follow them. Until they encountered a fearsome hunter who wouldn't give up. Humans. Thanks to us, the world's five species of ibex have had a tough time. The Siberian ibex is classed as near-threatened. The Nubian ibex as vulnerable. While in Ethiopia, there are only around 500 Walia ibex left. The Pyrenean ibex, a subspecies of the Iberian wild goat, holds the rare distinction of becoming extinct twice. In January 2000, the last member of the species was killed by a falling tree in northern Spain. Then, in 2003, scientists successfully delivered a clone, but the newborn ibex only survived a few minutes. Only one species of ibex has managed to thrive against the odds and come back from the brink of extinction. The Alpine ibex. A hundred thousand years ago, ibex roamed widely across Europe's rocky mountain regions. They can be found in cave paintings dating back to the Upper Paleolithic period. Thanks in part to their extraordinary climbing skills, they were believed to have mystical properties and were also very hard to capture. A pair of ibex horns was regarded as the ultimate trophy. Poaching became a widespread problem. Gradually, the numbers of alpine ibex dwindled. During the 17th century, it became extinct in Germany and Switzerland. The last members of the Austrian herds died around 1800, leaving only 50 to 100 individuals in the mountains of northern Italy and France. The devastation was overwhelming. Some estimates suggest that only around 0.1% of the original population was left. The alpine ibex really was on the edge of extinction. Becoming aware of what was happening, the government of Piedmont banned ibex hunting, but poaching continued. And so, in a last-ditch attempt, Italy's king Vittorio Emanuele II created a royal hunting reserve in 1856. It was for the sole use of the king, who was a passionate ibex hunter. Well-known local poachers were hired to patrol the reserve and guard the animals. It was an extreme tactic, but incredibly, it worked. Over the course of the next 60 years, the alpine ibex population swelled to around 3,000 animals. In 1919, King Vittorio Emanuele III offered to donate the royal hunting reserve to the Italian state, and in 1922 it was officially renamed Gran Paradiso National Park. This move was instrumental in preventing the extinction of the alpine ibex and made Gran Paradiso Italy's first national park. In the early 1900s, small numbers of ibex were also reintroduced to the Swiss Alps. Today, this majestic animal can be found in Switzerland, Italy, Austria, France, Germany, Slovenia, and even Bulgaria. There are now about 50,000 ibex living in the Alps, all of which descended from that last colony protected in Gran Paradiso. The IUCN Red List now classifies the species as least concern. It's been an amazing turnaround for an animal that could easily have disappeared from our mountains for good. But the story doesn't end there. Humans may have almost destroyed and then saved the alpine ibex, but now it's facing another man-made threat. The Alps are experiencing climate change at an astonishing rate. While the average global temperature has risen by 1.4°C over the course of the 20th century, it has risen by 2°C in the Alps. Over the past 50 years, spring has arrived between two to five days earlier every decade, which can have a major effect on animals like the ibex. Scientists have observed a higher mortality rate among young alpine ibex. They believe it has to do with the shifting onset of spring, which causes plants to flourish sooner. Ibex kids are typically born in June, six months after the fall mating season. But with peak vegetation coming earlier, by the time they're weaned and ready to graze, there sometimes isn't enough food left. The animals are also suffering from an upsurge in parasites, which thrive in warmer temperatures. Disease carriers such as worms and ticks have been found at increasingly high altitudes, even up to 1,700 meters. All these changes are threatening the alpine ibex. This is why protected areas like Gran Paradiso National Park, which is listed by the IUCN as a best practice area for conservation, are more important than ever. For the ibex, it was a long, hard climb back to the verge of extinction. But this hardy mountain dweller succeeded, even against formidable odds. Now it's up to us humans to ensure its rocky future is saved. Hi friends! I'm so thankful for areas like Gran Paradiso National Park, where ibex and many more species can roam freely and flourish. If you want to know more about their conservation work, please just check the links below. And we do have another video where a species came back from the brink of extinction. You can watch it right here.