Source: GBIF
Back from the brink
Fewer than 200 walia ibex survived in the 1990s. Strict protection in Simien Mountains National Park has lifted the count back above 500.
Walia Ibex
~500 individuals · Simien Mountains only
Species Details
A powerful mountain goat with huge, backward-curving ridged horns (up to 1 m in males) and a chocolate-brown coat. Sure-footed on near-vertical rock.
Behaviour
Grazes the cliff ledges at dawn and dusk, resting through the heat of the day. Males spar by clashing horns for access to females.
Diet
Browses and grazes bushes, herbs, lichens and grasses clinging to the steep Simien escarpment.
Range
Found only on the northern cliffs of the Simien Mountains, one of the most restricted ranges of any large mammal on Earth.
Threats
Confined to a single massif, the whole species is one fire or disease outbreak from collapse; historic hunting nearly erased it.
Sheer cliffs and ledges of the Simien massif, 2,500 to 4,500 m. The walia lives nowhere else on Earth.