The name "Iberian Ibex" has a far better ring to it than "Wild Goat," so I’ll stick with the Spanish name for this impressive animal. The Iberian Ibex is a powerful and agile climber, built for life on rugged terrain. Its short, sturdy legs and large, flexible hooves provide exceptional grip and stability, giving it a low center of gravity—perfect for navigating the steep rocky slopes it calls home. Once, there were four subspecies of the Iberian Ibex, but due to hunting and habitat loss caused by humans, only two remain. Their diet consists mainly of grasses, but they have an impressive adaptation to survive harsh winters: the ability to store fat in their kidneys, allowing them to endure times when food is scarce.
The largest males can grow up to 120 kg in weight and stand a meter tall at the shoulder, their massive, curled horns adding to their majestic presence. In contrast, females are significantly smaller, with shorter and straighter horns. These rugged mountain dwellers live in two distinct social groups: males form their own herds, while females stay with juveniles—except during the mating season in November and December. During this time, the most dominant males engage in dramatic head-butting battles to win the right to mate. The young, born in May, remain with their mothers for a few years until the males mature and join bachelor groups.
With the simultaneous extermination of wolves—the Iberian Ibex’s only natural predator—the ibex population rebounded, leading to the resumption of hunting, albeit on a very limited scale via permits. During the Franco regime, the reserve was used almost exclusively by the dictator and his guests as his private hunting grounds. Fortunately, in 1972, control of the reserve was transferred to the Spanish Ministry of Environment and designated a National Hunting Reserve. Later, in 1987, its status was changed to Regional Park.
In mid-November 2024, I decided to visit El Sierra de Gredos in the Spanish province of Ávila with one primary goal in mind - to capture a shot of two males butting heads. After doing ample research, I learned that this is the time when they are 'in rut' or rutting season which is when the males challenge each other for to establish mating dominance. Below, you can see a group of males, lead by the darker alpha male, courting a female. I was giggling to myself a lot during this trip because of the almost total lack of interest displayed by the females on every approach from the males reminding me of my days as a bachelor in New York City.
On the rare occasion that a male found an interested female - in other words one that didn't walk away - he would then go in for a huge lung-filling sniff of female hormones and then flares his lips with an ibex shriek as you can see in the the images below.
Unfortunately for this male, his efforts went in vain as the female eventually stood up and left. The magic happened the next day during an afternoon shoot. Two younger males began rutting and butting, and I was in the perfect position to capture the action. Equipped with a 400mm lens and a shutter speed of 1/2000 of a second, I managed to capture the images below from a distance of 50 meters.
This image below is one of my favorites from the trip. It shows the brute force of the impact during the rutting and butting. If you look carefully in the center of the image, you can see the ibex hair jarred loose and suspended in mid air.
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One of the most exciting challenges for me was trying to predict where the ibex would move next. At one point, I decided to position myself on top of a rock between two groups, hoping they might pass by and give me the perfect shot. As I sat there, camera ready, I spotted this little guy hopping along to my left. With my 200mm lens, I managed to capture the moment. When it comes to wildlife photography, positioning is everything. A photographer dramatically increases the chances of a great shot by anticipating movement, choosing the right vantage point, and patiently waiting. And patience is key—waiting, sometimes for hours, is just part of the process. The average person sees a stunning image and assumes the photographer stepped out of the car, took a quick snap, and went off to lunch. But that’s far from reality!
