Alpine ibex

Description

An alpine ibex has an average head length of 150 cm and a shoulder height of 90 cm. Does weight about 40 kg, whereas bucks can weigh over 100 kg. The buck has imposing, curved horns (up to 1 m long), while the doe has only short, barely curved horns. The bucks have a goatee. Bucks have a dark brown coat in summer; the females' coat is more reddish or golden brown. In winter, the fur of both sexes turns greyish.

In the Alps, the ibex lives at the altitude between the forest and ice line. It climbs up to altitudes of 3500 m. In winter, however, it stays at lower altitudes than in summer, and even in summer it often descends to alpine meadows to feed, while it goes to the high altitudes to spend the night.

The text is a translation of an excerpt from Wikipedia (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpensteinbock). On wikipedia the text is available under a „Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike“ licence. Status: 19 October 2021