Capra pyrenaica lusitanica

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Kingdom Animalia

Image: Portuguese Ibex by A. Cabrera (1914). This image is in the public domain because its copyright has expired. This applies to the European Union, Canada, the United States and those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 70 years.

Phylum Chordata 
Class Mammalia 
Order Artiodactyla
Family Bovidae
Authority Schlegel, 1872
 
English Name Portuguese Ibex
Dutch Name Portugese Steenbok
French Name Bouquetin du Gerez
German Name Portugiesische Steinbock, Nordwestiberischer Steinbock
Portuguese Name Cabra Montez de Portugal, Cabra do Gerez
Spanish Name Cabra Montés Portuguesa, Mueyu
 
Synonyms Capra lusitanica França, 1908
 
Taxonomy In recent years some zoologists has claimed that this was a distinct species, like the Portuguese zoologist Carlos França claimed in 1908.
 
Characteristics In size and colouration it was much like the Spanish animals, though inclining towards brown rather than black markings. The Portuguese Ibex was a subspecies of the same size of the true C. p. pyrenaica, but of the colour and reduced black markings of C. p. hispanica. General colour of the summer coat is similar to that of C. p. hispanica, which is brown tinged blonde, with the black markings not much spread, specially on flanks and tights. In winter, the dorsal line tend to widen on the withers to form a rounded patch there. Females are of the same colour of males, but without black markings. (Cabrera, 1914)

Its horns were strikingly different from any of the other Iberian subspecies. They were only half the length of the Pyrenean Ibex. (Day, 1981) The horns are small in relation to the size of the animal and to the size in other subspecies, and generally not much opened side wards. (Cabrera, 1914)

The type specimen is of a sub-adult male. Its length (head and body) is 142 cm and it shoulder height is 73 cm. The length of the horns along the curve is 36 cm. An older male from the Coimbra Museum measures a shoulder height of 76 cm and its horns measure along the curve 48 cm. The horns of a female in the same museum measures only 18 cm. (Cabrera, 1914)
 
Range & Habitat This mountain goat that inhabited the north mountainous zones of Portugal, Galicia, Asturias and western Cantabria.
 
History & Population In Portugal it was called Cabro by the locals in Portugal and Mueyu in Spain. Until 1800 the Portuguese Ibex was widespread in its range, but thereafter its decline was rapid as hunting pressure increased. Local hunters did not respect the closed hunting seasons and shot Portuguese ibexes when the herds came down to lower altitudes in May. Local people hunted it for its meat and for the bezoar stones in its stomach which were regarded as potent medicine and antidotes for poisons of all kind. The skins were used as coverlets and the horns both as ornaments and as trumpets of alpine horns to call across the narrow valleys of the north-western mountains. By 1870 this ibex was a rare animal. The last herd of about a dozen animals was recorded in 1886. An old female was captured alive in September 1889, but only survived for three days. Two more females were found dead next year, victims of a Galician avalanche. The last known Portuguese ibex in Spain died in 1890, and the very last known sighting was a female near Lombade Pan in the Serra do Gerês in Portugal in 1892. Nowadays another subspecies, the Gredos ibex Capra pyrenaica victoriae Cabrera, 1911, has been introduced in the former range of the Portuguese ibex. (Day, 1981)
 
Extinction Causes Hunting pressure from humans may be the cause of extinction. Some scientists have pointed to other factors than human interference as reason for the decline of the Portuguese Ibex. Grey wolves and golden eagles could be another reason why the population declined so fast, disease from domestic herds and a disproportionate number of males. The last point seems especially dubious, the bucks were naturally the most hunted and recorded. Beside that, the last recorded sightings were all females. But there is little doubt that the only significant enemies were humans. (Day, 1981)
 
Museum Specimens Specimens in Iberian museums. Two males and five females are preserved in the Lisbon Museum, Coimbra Museum and in the Lisbon Polytechnic School. (Cabrera, 1914) Do you know which museum has remains of the Portuguese Ibex in its collection? Please contact this website.
 
Relatives The Portuguese Ibex was one of the four subspecies of the Spanish or Iberian Ibex (Capra pyrenaica Schinz, 1838). Two subspecies can still be found on the Iberian peninsula, namely the Western Spanish Ibex or Gredos Ibex (Capra pyrenaica victoriae Cabrera, 1911) and the South-eastern Spanish Ibex or Beceite Ibex (Capra pyrenaica hispanica Schimper, 1848). The Pyrenean Ibex (Capra pyrenaica pyrenaica Schinz, 1838) became extinct on January 6th, 2000. Image below: based on drawings from Cabrera (1914).

A: C. p. pyrenaica, B: C. p. victoriae, C: C. p. hispanica, D: C. p. lusitanica

 

Image: the four subspecies of the Iberian Ibex (Capra pyrenaica). This image is based on images made by A. Cabrera (1914) and created by Peter Maas for The Extinction Website. This image has been released under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5 Licence.

 
Links

Extinction: Portuguese Ibex UWSP GEOG358 [Heywood]

 

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Articles

Almaça, C. 1992. Notes on Capra pyrenaica lusitanica Schlegel, 1872, Mammalia, Paris, 56: 121-124.

 

Cabrera, A. (1914): Fauna Ibérica. Mamiferos. Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales. Madrid. p 323.

 

Choffat, P. 1920. Le Bouquetin du Gerez et le Bouquetin de Monte Junto. Bulletin de la Société Portugaise des Sciences Naturelles, Lisbonne, VIII (2) : 151-156. Cabra do Gerês. Capra lusitanica. Geologia. Paleontologia. Ossos de Capra hispanica, não de C. lusitanica.

 

Day, D., 1981, The Doomsday Book of Animals, Ebury Press, London.

 

França, C. 1908. Descrição da nova espécie, Capra lusitanica França, 1908, in: Le Professeur Barbosa du Bocage - 1823-1907. Bulletin de la Société Portugaise de Sciences Naturelles, II (1-2), pág. 144. 

França, C. 1917. Le bouquetin du Gerez : Capra Lusitanica ; notes sur une espèce éteinte / Carlos França IN: Arquivos da Universidade de Lisboa: Lisboa , vol. 4, 1917, p. 19-53.  Fauna - Serra do Gerez (Portugal) / Cabra Lusitana .

 

Perez, J.M., Granados, J.E., Soriguer, R.C., Fandos, P., Marquez, F.J., and Crampe, J.P. 2002. Distribution, status and conservation problems of the Spanish ibex, Capra pyrenaica (Mammalia: Artiodactyla). Mammal Rev. 32(1):26-39. Link: Full text PDF-file.

Last updated: 3rd April 2006.

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