Pyrenean Ibex



The Pyrenean ibex, Spanish common name bucardo, was one of the four subspecies of the Spanish ibex or Iberian wild goat, a species endemic to the Iberian Peninsula. Pyrenean ibex were most common in the Cantabrian Mountains, Southern France, and the northern Pyrenees. This species was common during the Holocene and Upper Pleistocene, during which their morphology, primarily some skulls, of the Pyrenean ibex was found to be larger than other Capra subspecies in southwestern Europe from the same time.



 In January 2000, the Pyrenean ibex became extinct, but scientists have attempted to clone them using DNA from one of the last females; one such clone died seven minutes after being born. Other subspecies survived: the western Spanish or gredos ibex and the southeastern Spanish or beceite ibex, while the Portuguese ibex had already become extinct. Since the last of the Pyrenean ibex went extinct before scientists could adequately analyze them, the taxonomy of this particular subspecies is controversial.