Ibex wild goats’ reintroduction in French Pyrenees a success story so far, with 70 newborns counted this year
- The ibex population on the French side of the mountains that border Spain now stands at some 400 animals
- Some 110 years after the species was wiped out in France, new introductions are planned this autumn in the Aspe Valley closer to the Atlantic Ocean
With a bumper litter of new kids, the recently introduced ibex population in the French Pyrenees is thriving more than a century after the native species of wild goats was wiped out in France.
Officials have counted 70 newborn ibex this year at the Pyrenees National Park (PNP) and nearby Ariège Regional Park, in the craggy mountains that separate France and Spain.
The French population now stands at some 400 animals, though they are not the original Pyrenean ibex, the last two of which in France were shot and killed in 1910. The Pyrenean ibex became totally extinct in 2000, when the last known female was found dead on the Spanish side.
The new goats are Western Spanish ibex, another subspecies of the Iberian ibex that began to be brought over from a Spanish reserve in 2014. Recognisable by their long, curving horns, the ibex can easily scamper up cliffs in search of grass, leaves and moss.
“In relation to the initial goal of establishing a viable core population, for now we can say the operation has been a success,” Jerome Lafitte, head of fauna operations at the PNP, said.