Recovery of alpine ibex from near extinction: the result of effective protection, captive breeding, and reintroductions

Abstract

Beginning in the 1500s, over-exploitation and poaching led to a steady decline of ibex ( Capra ibex ibex) numbers in the European Alps. The use of ibex products in many folk remedies guaranteed high financial returns for the hunter and resulted in the relentless pursuit of this species. By the early 1800s, <100 animals survived in a single population in the Italian Gran Paradiso mountain massif. The recovery to more than 20 000 animals today is the result of a four-stage conservation effort which returned alpine ibex to almost their entire original range of distribution: (1) effective protection of the last remaining population, (2) captive breeding of animals caught in the recovered last population, (3) reintroduction of captive-bred animals into protected original habitat, (4) translocation of animals from successfully established “reservoir” populations to uninhabited sites. Alpine ibex management faces two challenges today: (1) habitat destruction in areas of high population densities, and (2) low genetic variability possibly a result of inbreeding during a succession of four potential population bottleneck situations.