Eye to eye with an ibex

The ibex and chamois on the Niederhorn are not exactly shy. Animal lovers get especially close to the Alpine dwellers when they follow wildlife specialist Urs Grossniklaus – armed only with binoculars and cameras.

The Niederhorn ridge is spectacular in many ways: Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau to the right, the steep cliff leading down to the Justistal Valley to the left. It is precisely this cliff where the animals like to retreat.

As a passionate nature photographer from the region he is very familiar with Alpine animals and knows where to find them – and who is seen with whom. “Males and females live separately”, explains Urs when the group stops to take a breather on Burgfeldstand. “The females live together with their young. At two to three years, the males are mature and then live in loose bachelor groups. Many of the older males prefer to be alone.”

Ibex are easily recognised by their impressive horns. Urs brought a variety of horns along and shows them to his guests: “The females tend to have short horns, barely curved, while the males have curved horns and they can be as much as a metre long. They need these especially when they fight for the hierarchy within the herd.”

Ibex can clamber up to giddy heights of 3,500 m – and down again. And up again. In summer, they like to graze on Alpine meadows, heading up to the mountains before nightfall to sleep.
 

• Habitat: above the treeline in the Alps
• Size: head-body length 115 – 170 cm
• Weight: 35 – 150 kg
• Life expectancy: > 20 years

But this wasn’t always the case. At the beginning of the 19th century there were no ibex left in Switzerland. The animals were hunted to extinction because of their meat and their healing powers.