Northern Chamois
Rupicapra rupicapra
The chamois's hooves have a hard outer edge and a soft, suction-like inner pad that provides incredible grip on sheer, slippery rock faces.
- Scientific name
- Rupicapra rupicapra
- Taxonomy
- Animalia › Chordata › Mammalia › Artiodactyla › Bovidae › Rupicapra
- IUCN Red List status
- Least Concern
- Population trend
- stable
- Biome
- tundra
- Habitat
- Alpine meadows, rocky mountain slopes, and subalpine forests.
- Diet
- Herbivorous; primarily grasses, herbs, lichens, moss, and young tree shoots.
- Range
- Alps, Pyrenees, Carpathians, Caucasus, Balkan Mountains
- Size
- 70-80 cm tall at the shoulder; 25-60 kg in weight.
- Lifespan
- 15-22 years
- Active
- diurnal
- Threats
- Habitat fragmentation, climate change affecting alpine vegetation, and regulated hunting.
- Safe to approach?
- Harmless and generally shy. Maintain a distance of at least 50 meters to avoid stressing the animal. If the chamois whistles or stomps its feet, you are too close. Never attempt to corner a chamois on a ledge, as they may charge or leap in panic. No medical risk to humans unless physically provoked.
The chamois ( Rupicapra rupicapra ) is a species of goat-antelope native to mountains in Europe, from west to east, including the Cantabrian mountains, the Pyrenees, the Alps and the Apennines, the Dinarides, the Tatra and the Carpathian Mountains, the Balkan Mountains, the Rila - Rhodope massif, Pindus, the northeastern mountains of Turkey, and the Caucasus. The chamois has also been introduced to the South Island of New Zealand. Some subspecies of chamois are strictly protected in the...
Photo: Giles Laurent, CC-BY-SA, via iNaturalist
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