612 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



Some years ago this Ibex appeared to be in better status than 

 any of the other Spanish subspecies. Now, like the form of central 

 Spain, it is said to be in danger of disappearing (Director General 

 de Montes, Pesca y Gaza, in litt., 1933) . 



It is smaller than C. p. victoriae, with the black markings still 

 more reduced; summer pelage more rufous and horns less curved 

 and more widely spreading; dorsal stripe not broadened anywhere; 

 black of the forelimbs reaching at most the lower shoulder and 

 chest, and on the haunches narrowed to a mere band. Height at 

 shoulder, 655 mm. Length of horn on outside curve, up to 850 mm. 

 (Cabrera, 1911, pp. 967-974, and 1914, pp. 321-322.) 



This Ibex once inhabited all the large mountains parallel to the 

 Mediterranean littoral of the Iberian Peninsula, from the Strait of 

 Gibraltar to the mouth of the Ebro, including the Sierra Morena. 

 At present this distributional area seems reduced to seven isolated 

 colonies, viz.: one in Sierra Morena, about Fuencaliente ; one in 

 the Sierras of Ronda and Bermeja, from their connection with that 

 of Tolox; one in the Sierra Nevada, whence it extends, by way of 

 the Alpuj arras, as far as the Sierras of Frigiliana and Alhama; a 

 fourth in the Sierra of Cazorla (where the author believed, in 1911, 

 it had become extinct, but a specimen was taken later and sent to 

 the Madrid Museum) ; a fifth in the Sierra Martes, in Valencia ; 

 a sixth in the Sierra de Cardo and the Mountains of Tivisa; and a 

 seventh on the other side of the Ebro, on Monte Caro. (Cabrera, 

 1914, p. 322.) 



Schimper (1848, p. 318) believed the Ibex did not exist in the 

 Sierra Morena, but this was evidently an error. 



According to Rosenhauer (1856, p. 4), it is rare in the Sierra de 

 Ronda, but somewhat common in the Sierra Nevada. In the course 

 of four weeks 15 of the animals were brought to Granada for sale. 



Chapman and Buck (1910, p. 152) state: 



The "defences" of the ibex in the Sierra Quintana [a range in the Sierra 

 Morena] lie among some fairly big crags forming the eastern and southern 

 faces of the range. The shooting at that time [1901] was free; hence the 

 goats were never left in peace by the mountaineers, who all carried guns, 

 and used them whenever a chance presented itself. The result was that the 

 few surviving goats had become severely nocturnal in habit .... 



At this period (1901) the surviving ibex had fallen to a mere handful. 

 Fortunately here, as elsewhere in Spain, there was aroused, within the next 

 five years, the tardy interest of Spanish landowners to save them. 



These authors also (p. 153) quote the Marquis del Merito to 

 the effect that the Ibex kids "have a terrible enemy in the golden 

 eagles, since their birth coincides with the period when these rapa- 

 cious birds have their own broods to feed, and when they become 

 more savage than ever." 



