Playful ibexes showing off their horns and fighting skills.
The Alpine Ibex has many adaptations. It has both behavioral and physical adaptations.
Physical Adaptations
A physical adaptation of the Alpine Ibex is the hair. In the winter, the Ibex has long and woolly hair. In the summer, it has short and fuzzy hair. This is because of the climate change that occurs in the habitat of the Ibex. Another physical adaptation is that the Ibex has is long, curly horns. These horns help the Ibex attract mates. It can also show the other Ibexes who is boss, as seen in the picture to the left. The bigger the horns are, the more strong the Ibex appears to the other Ibexes. When the Ibexes climb mountains to get their food, they reach high altitudes. The Ibex has adapted to this and they have a large lung capacity that helps them take big breaths. This is important because without their lung capacity being so high, they would not be able to stay in the high altitude mountains for long periods of time. The Ibexes have long and extremely strong legs. This helps the Ibex be agile and strong so that it can stand on its hind legs to reach the salt deposits at the top of mountains. The Ibex also has strong hooves. This helps them with their foot placement on the mountains so that they will not fall down. They also help the Ibex with standing on its hind legs so it doesn't slip.
Behavioral Adaptions
A behavioral adaption of the Alpine Ibex is the altitude difference between the male and female Ibexes. The male Ibex will usually stay in the lower altitudes of the grazing mountains in the winter. During the spring, they climb to the higher altitudes and graze there. However, the females graze at the higher altitudes year round. This is because of the food shortage in the colder seasons. Since the males are larger than the females, they graze at the lower slopes for more of a variety of food. Another adaptation of the Ibex is that they lick stones to get the minerals out of it. Their diet is usually moss, grass, and various other plants, but it also includes the salt deposits that are in the rocks. They need the rocks because their normal diet does not include enough minerals for the Ibex to be strong and healthy. Sometimes they will eat lichens off of rocks and other times, they will lick salt off of rocks. The Ibex cannot get salt from any other thing in its diet, and without salt specifically, the Ibexes would become extremely sick and their entire nervous system and muscle function would be affected.
