Overview
This particular chamois is somewhat larger than the Alpine chamois, with longer horns. 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
Balkan chamois live in the mountains by the sea, at the altitude of 500-1800 meters above sea level. Distribution- Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, and various parts of the former Yugoslavia including Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Serbia, Voivodina, Montenegro, Kosovo, and Macedonia (but not in Slovenia, which has only Alpine chamois). Indigenous populations of balcanica are found in the central region of Bosnia & Herzegovina, and in southwestern Kosovo near the border with Albania. There have also been introductions of balcanica in parts of Bosnia & Herzegovina, and in parts of Croatia and Serbia where chamois had not previously occurred.
Diet
Chamois both graze and browse. During summer months, chamois feed on herbs and flowers, while during winter they turn to lichens, mosses and young pines.
Behavior
Primarily diurnal in activity, they often rest around mid-day and may actively forage during moonlit nights. Female chamois and their young live in herds of up to 100 individuals; adult males tend to live solitary for most of the year. During the rut (late November/early December in Europe, May in New Zealand), males engage in fierce battles for the attention of unmated females. The kid is weaned at six months of age and is fully grown by one year of age. However, the kids do not reach sexual maturity until they are three to four years old, although some females may mate at as early two years old. At sexual maturity, young males are forced out of their mother's herds by dominant males (who sometimes kill them), and then wander somewhat nomadically until they can establish themselves as mature breeding specimens at eight to nine years of age.
Hunting
Recently, the third biggest chamois trophy in the world was taken in Croatia. It is best to hunt chamois from above, as their natural instinct is to scan for danger from below.
Conservation Status
Numbers estimated at 29,000 (1981). Scarce in Greece, where it is heavily poached and subject to predation by feral dogs.