In 1776 Peter Pallas described the ibex, habited in the Siberian mountains as Caprasibiricus. Few years later in 1794 Meyer has changed the species name in accordance with the existed norms and now it’s called Caprasibirica. Some changes have happened from that time. Taxonomists determined several subspecies and four from them are considered to be generally accepted such as: Altai (Siberian) Ibex (Caprasibiricasibirica), Gobi Ibex (Caprasibiricahagenbecki- was described by Novak in 1903 and called in honor of German- founder of the biggest international company for selling wild animals), Central-Asian or Mid-Asian, Tian Shan or Pamir Ibex Caprasibiricaalaiana), and Himalayan Ibex (Caprasibiricasakeen).
The Club of Mountain Hunters distinguishes four populations of Caprasibiricasibirica ( which habitat in Altai in Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan and in the Sayan mountains) and three more subspecies of Caprasibiricaalaiana (from Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan). The animals from the last population are called not Mid-Asian ibexes but the Pamir ibexes.
The non-specialists don’t see any differences between those animals but the expert will distinguish easily all specific differences in the body sizes, the wool color ( from black to light gray, in horns’ form and size).
We are going to talk about two kinds of ibexes, dwelling in the mountains of TianShan and Pamir - Central-Asian and Altai ibexes.
The typical habitat of the Siberian ibexes is near the rocks and screes. The altitude is not the determining factor because you can meet them on the low heights to 500 masl or up to 4K meters above sea level. Ibexes are deprived of the ability to run fast and can only reckon on their skills to move by steep, vertical rocks in the danger situations. That is the reason why these animals prefer to stay there. When there is no danger, they move slowly one after another, the strongest old males usually go in front. Jogging trot is not fast but is clumsy. A dog overtakes easily a running goat. V. N. Shnitnikov wrote about the goat' ability to climb in 1936: “They can easily move by the steepest rocks. You could hardly believe it if didn’t see personally. The goats not only walk but run at a gait there if somebody chase them. Their jumps from the height are also amazing”. It's one of the reasons why they don't go for a long distance from that area even for feeding.
The determination factor where they stay is the snow depth. Can they get forage from under snow or not? The deep snow also prevents to move fast. In other words, the animals try to avoid places with deep snow cover.
The base of ibex’ food is cereals and herbs - green in summertime and dried in cold, winter period. In the late fall or winter, you can meet them on the slopes, covered by remains of grass or in the places where they can find tree and branch feed.
The senses which are well developed are: hearing, vision, and smell. If suspect danger, the ibex can gaze to the suspicious object not less than half of an hour.
They make sounds rarely but if they do you can hear the alarming whistle. Females and baby goats bleat like their domestic relatives but hoarse a little bit.
Females and males get the puberty on the second year. These animals are polygamists. The adult males gather harems from several females. The rut time on Altai starts in the mid of November and lasts about three weeks. But the rut season in Pamir begins in the second part of December till the beginning of January.
The animals grow till 8-9 years old. Horns grow especially long.
The lifespan of the Siberian Ibex in the wild nature rarely exceeds 10 years but we know about the female ibex from the London zoo which has lived 22 years and has been killed, hasn’t die of natural causes.
The natural enemies of the ibex in Nature are snow leopards and wolves. The snow leopard hunts for the ibexes all year around. Its prey are all goats of both genders from new born goats to the old ones. It waits for them near the places where they have rest or where they cross the ridges then overtakes it in a few huge jumps. The wolves chase ibexes in winters when the snow depth is high.
Capra sibirica sibirica is considered to be the smallest one among the south Asian ibexes. Their body length, according to Alexander Asinovsky observation, can reach 171cm and up to 110cm in shoulder height. The average weight - 80-100 kg (max 140 kg). Females are shorter by one third and in two times lighter. The trophy size from 110 to 14,3 cm and with the horns’ base girth 25,4cm is a good one. The horns of Siberian Ibex are shorter than the horns of other Asian ibexes. Ibexes have back-curving horns. The most part of horn have clear three-side shape. The wide and flat front face of the horn makes the pronounced edges together with the external and internal sides. The cross section of the horn has a triangle shape, the base of the triangle is the front face and the vertex is directed backwards and is rounded There are high transverse ridges on the front face. These ridges come up to their tips. The exact shape of the horns varies considerably between individuals.
In winter time the goat’s wool has yellow- white colors with the reddish shade. A broad brown stripe runs along the back. In winter, the color becomes more contrasting. A beard and a tail are black and brown. The males have long beard which takes almost all lower part of their head except for the chin. In summer the wool colors are darker and uniform.
This subspecies habitat in the mountains of Mongolia, Afghanistan, the NorthWest of China and in India. In Russia it dwells in the Tian Shan, Altai and the Sayan mountains.
The SCI record belongs to Lois De Merce, who has got the Siberian Ibex in Mongolia in 1987. Its characteristics are: the length of the left horn - 134,3 cm (52 7/8 inches), the length of the right horn – 133 cm (52 3/8 inches), the circumference of the base of the left horn – 25 cm (9 7/8 inches), the circumference of the base of the right horn– 24,8 cm (9 6/8 inches). The number of points - 124 7/8.
169 trophies are registered in the SCI record book, and 6 of them are found.
Another subspecies is Carpa sibirica alaiana. It's the biggest among the Asian ibexes, have strong massive legs, the longest and sharp-shaped beard and strong back-curving horns. The horns curve to three-quarters in a circle and ended by sharp tips. The front surface of the horns are flat enough but have the pronounced circular rings. But the transverse ridges are weakly pronounced. The average trophy size is about 110-155 cm in length and up to 30cm in the circumference of the base of the horns. The female's horns are relatively small. The height in shoulders is about 95-190 cm. The males weight to 130kg. The coloration is also variable but less contrast than the Altai ibex. These animals are common in the mountains of Pamir, Tian Shan, Altai and on the Zaalai range in Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and China. In other words, the natural habitats of both subspecies coincide in some regions.
The SCI record belongs to Hossein Golabchi, who has got his trophy of ibex in 2013, in Tajikistan. Its characteristics are: the length of the left horn - 60 5/8 inches (153,99 cm), the length of the right horn – 60 inches (152,4 cm), the circumference of the base of the left horn – 12 inches (30,48 cm),, the circumference of the base of the right horn– 11 5/8 inches (29,53 cm). The number of points - 144 2/8.
There were 223 trophies, registered in the SCI Record Book (2015). The first twenty trophies, among the TOP -thirty, were hunted in Kyrgyzstan, the next thirteen in Kazakhstan and the last two in Tajikistan.
«Gold» - from 114 7/8", «Silver» - from 103 2/8", «Bronze» - from 95".
The following Russian hunters registered their trophies in the SCI Record Book:
A.Kuznetsov – 137 1/8";
S. Lipivsky– 124 1/8;
S.Lyapuntsov – 123 4/8";
К. Popov – 117 6/8; 97 7/8;
A. Egorov – 117 3/8";
V. Dmitrienko – 115 1/8;
G. Rogozin– 115";
E. Kurgin – 114 4/8";
V.Vinogradov – 111 7/8";
S. Yastrezhembsky – 110", 99 2/8"; 96 2/8";
I. Mochaev– 109";
O. Andreev– 105 7/8",
L.Ogorodnikov – 105 4/8", 103 3/8".
K. Noskov - 99 5/8”
The colouration difference allowed to several researchers to allocate several more subspecies. The most part of the zoologists don’t consider them to be the separate subspecies but they can exist in the population frames. In 1906 Lorentz described the ibex, he hunted in the Kulji region, as Carpa sibirica almasyi. Lydekker had also noted those animals in 1913 and described them as the subspecies of Carpa sibirica lydekkeri. Leisewitz (1906) had found the population of Carpa sibirica merzbacheri, which habitated in the Central Tian Shain, in the Bolshoy Naryn region. One more the unacknowledged subspecies Carpa sibirica transalaiana was described in 1906 by Lorentz. It lives partly in Mongolia and Kyrgyzstan (near the border with Tajikistan) and in the Pamir mountains along the main road Osh-Murgab.
From the book of R. Potapov “Unknown Pamir”
... The real Lord of the rocks is the Siberian Ibex. The locals call it a goat. Unlike the wild sheep the ibexes live mostly on the rocks. They descend to green meadows of the mountain circuses and to the Alpine valleys for feeding only and then go up to have rest or for a night. They also run up to their native rocks at the slightest danger. They easily move by the steep walls and overcome the incredible obstacles.
I'd never forget the scene; I saw in the valley on the Nayzatash ridge. I worked with the archaeologists at that time. Our group, consisted of three people, hiked along the stone blockage, blocked the picturesque gorge. I was walking in 100 ahead of my colleagues who were looking for the stone tools of the Neolithic and moved very slow. I crossed the heap and saw how the bed of the stream meandered by the surface. The valley was covered by thick grass and looked like a green carpet in the room. The high steep rocks from both sides were like walls. The herd of 15 ibexes fed there. They started to run away when I came out and disappeared behind the edge of the rock. I crossed the glade, turned the same rock and saw them in a few minutes. The group was running up by the steep white rock, which looked made of marble in the blinding midday sun. They were climbing, in chain, the smooth rock where even the beetle can’t keep. It was fantastic. In a minute they disappeared behind the ridge.
There are many ibexes in the rocks of Aktash, Rangkul, Nayzatash and other small mountain chains. Hunting for these careful animals is difficult. People don't feel themselves so comfortable among the rocks as the ibexes feel. It’ll help to save the animals population for a long time. Hunting for ibexes in Tajikistan is legal only in fall and only for males. But people hunt them all year around and hunting is very effective in winter when goats go down to valleys. The locals have learned to shoot from small-caliber rifles using the powerful cartridges. They try to approach the animals up to 150 meters. They often take dogs trained to chase goats. They need just to wound the animal and the dogs will finish it.
The ibex is the most ancient hunting object in the mountains of Central and Mid Asia. The ancient pictures of mountains goats painted on the rocks in different places confirm it. How did our ancestors hunt for these careful animals with their primitive bows? But we mustn’t forget that there were many more animals at that time and they were not so careful as nowadays. The animals change their behavior after getting the first acquaintance with the weapon. Their carelessness is replaced by extreme caution. They can estimate the distance from where the man can hurt them. We also need to take into account the mastery of ancient hunters. And not only theirs! There are local hunters from the kishlaks of Badakhshan who hunt the goats with the smooth barrel rifles and who have to approach them 30-40 meters to make the shot.
Sometimes when people hunt actively the ibexes leave the place and move to another one in dozens of km. They prefer to lead a quiet and relatively sedentary lifestyle when nobody bother them. The herd spend all days feeding and having rest on the Alpine meadows or on the slopes. They live in peace and harmony with the birds: Ulars are walking among the animals while the other bids seat on their backs peaking for parasites. In winter they even help Ulars to feed when digging snow to get grass for themselves and birds also used those holes. There is lack of snow in the Pamir mountains and it helps goats to feed there all year around.
But there is one more serious danger which threaten them in a winter. Once during the wintering on the Pamir, the well-known biologist L. Arutonov got several ibexes for research and discovered that most of them had tuberculosis! I think he was right when has assumed the reason of that disease can be frostbite of the lungs. It’s easy to frostbite lungs when the animals run in the condition of low temperatures. But running is the only way to escape from the enemy's pursuit such as a snow leopard, wolves or a man.
They spend harsh winter nights in the caves. I spent nights in places like that one, where the floor was covered by a thick layer of goat droppings. I guess they also stay there during winter storms. The goats always use the places with rock ledges from both sides not to be blocked by predators if they attack.
Wolves bother goats but don’t do them much harm. The livestock and sheep suffer more from them. The snow leopard is their main enemy. It habitats only where the ibexes live because they are his main food. Each day it stalks the herd, laid for hours without any movement, snuggling up to stones to then it jumps and fall on the prey. I guess that each big herd has its own personal snow leopard who follows and graze them.
