Critically Endangered
Walia ibex
Capra walie
Walia ibex is a mammal in the family Bovidae (order Artiodactyla) — Capra walie, recorded as Critically Endangered.
Appearance
The belly and insides of the legs are white, and black and white patterns stretch upon the legs of these animals.
The males weigh 80–125 kg (180–280 lb) and have very large horns that curve backwards, reaching lengths up to 110 cm (43 in).
Range and habitat
Their habitats are mountain forests, subalpine grasslands, and scrub. It is sometimes considered an endemic subspecies of the Alpine ibex. If the population were to increase, the surrounding mountain habitat would be sufficient to sustain only 2,000 ibex.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
In crisis
The adult Walia ibex's only known wild predators are the hyena and leopard. Even so, young ibex are often hunted by a variety of fox and cat species. In the late 1990s, the Walia ibex went from endangered to critically endangered due to the declining population.
Given the small distribution range of the Walia ibex in its restricted mountain ecosystem, the presence of many domestic goats may pose a serious threat that can directly affect the population's survival. Only 200–250 animals were surviving in 1994–1996, but recently the population has somewhat increased to about 500 individuals in 2004.
Walia ibex is Critically Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Walia ibex, Wikidata item Q257838. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
