Overview
The short summer coat is reddish or pale brown. The winter coat of long guard hairs over thick underfur is a dark shade of brown. The underparts are pale, the rump is white. Throat, lower jaw, front of face and inside of ears are white, and there is a dark mask from ear to muzzle. Both sexes grow short, slim black horns that are round in cross section and hook sharply backward near the tips. The female's horns can be longer than the male's, but are slimmer and sometimes lack the hooks.
Taxonomy
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Mammal
- Order
- Artiodactyla
- Family
- Bovidae
- Genus
- Rupicapra
- Species
- Rupicapra rupicapra
Habitat
Prefers high-altitude areas with continuous cover. Summer range consists of open tussock grassland near precipitous, rocky country. Descends to subalpine forest and scrub in winter. Distribution- Indigenous Alpine chamois (R. r. rupicapra) are found in the Alps of southeastern France, northern Italy, Switzerland, southwestern Germany, western Austria and Slovenia. They have also been introduced in a number of places in France, Italy, Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Slovenia.
Diet
Both a grazer and a browser. During summer months, chamois feed on herbs and flowers, while during winter they turn to lichens, mosses and young pines.
Behavior
This is a graceful and agile mountain animal. Chamois usually use speed to escape predators and can run at 50 kilometers per hour (31 mph) and jump 2 m (6.6 ft) vertically into the air or over a distance of 6 m (20 ft). They are gregarious, living in herds of up to 20-30 animals. Older males are usually solitary except during the rut in May-June when they join the females. Chamois are diurnal, feeding early and late, with the middle part of the day spent resting. A sentinel (usually a female) is posted to watch for danger, and will warn the others with shrill whistles.
Hunting
This is the most hunted subspecies of chamois. It is best to hunt chamois from above, as their natural instinct is to scan for danger from below.
Conservation Status
Numbers of this subspecies are estimated at around 400,000, stable and increasing. The Polish population of Tatra chamois, which is totally protected, is found only in Tatra National Park on the border with Slovakia, where its numbers have dropped to fewer than 200 because of habitat loss, poaching and disturbance from tourists. Tatra chamois number fewer than 1,000 in Slovakia, where they are native to the area within Tatra National Park adjacent to Poland, and were introduced in Low Tatra National Park to the south, where their genetic purity is threatened by interbreeding with introduced Alpine chamois.