IBEX.—Capra, Ibex. 
would instantly kill any animal not so defended. This statement is, however, but little 
credited. 
To hunt the Ibex successfully is as hard a matter as hunting the chamois, for the Ibex 
is to the full as wary and active an animal, and is sometimes apt to turn the tables on its 
pursuer, and assume an offensive deportment. Should the hunter approach too near the 
Ibex, the animal will, as if suddenly urged by the reckless courage of despair, dash boldly 
forward at its foe, and strike him from the precipitous rock over which he is forced to 
pass. The difficulty of the chase is further increased by the fact, that the Ibex is a 
remarkably endurant animal, and is capable of abstaining from food or water for a 
considerable time. 
It lives in little bands of five or ten in number, each troop being under the command 
of an old male, and preserving admirable order among themselves. Their sentinel is ever 
on the watch, and at the slightest suspicious sound, scent, or object, the warning whistle 
is blown, and the whole troop make instantly for the highest attainable point. Their 
instinct always leads them upwards, an inborn “excelsior” being woven into their very 
natures, and as soon as they perceive danger, they invariably begin to mount towards the 
line of perpetual snow. The young of this animal are produced in April, and in a few 
hours after their birth they are strong enough to follow their parent. 
The colour of the Ibex is a reddish-brown in summer, and grey-brown in winter; a 
dark stripe passes along the spine and over the face, and the abdomen and interior faces 
of the limbs are washed with whitish grey. The horns are covered from base to point 
with strongly marked transverse ridges, the number of which is variable, and is thought 
by some persons to denote the age of the animal. In the female the horns are not nearly 
so large nor so heavily ridged as in the male. The Ibex is also known under the name of 
BouguErin. 
